This research-level text is an application-oriented introduction to the growing and highly topical area of the development and analysis of efficient fixed-parameter algorithms for optimally solving computationally hard combinatorial problems.The book is divided into three parts: a broad introduction that provides the general philosophy and motivation; followed by coverage of algorithmic methods developed over the years in fixed-parameter algorithmics forming the core of the book; and a discussion of the essentials from parameterized hardness theory with a focus on W[1]-hardness which parallels NP-hardness, then stating some relations to polynomial-time approximation algorithms, and finishing up with a list of selected case studies to show the wide range of applicability of the presented methodology.Aimed at graduate and research mathematicians, programmers, algorithm designers, and computer scientists, the book introduces the basic techniques and results and provides a fresh view on this highly innovative field of algorithmic research.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Parameterized and Exact Computation, IWPEC 2008, held in Victoria, Canada, in May 2008 - co-located with the 40th ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, STOC 2008. The 17 revised full papers presented together with 3 invited lectures were carefully reviewed and selected from 32 submissions. The topics addressed cover research in all aspects of parameterized and exact computation and complexity, including but not limited to new techniques for the design and analysis of parameterized and exact algorithms, parameterized complexity theory, relationship between parameterized complexity and traditional complexity classifications, applications of parameterized computation, implementation and experiments, high-performance computing and fixed-parameter tractability.

This research-level text is an application-oriented introduction to the growing and highly topical area of the development and analysis of efficient fixed-parameter algorithms for optimally solving computationally hard combinatorial problems.The book is divided into three parts: a broad introduction that provides the general philosophy and motivation; followed by coverage of algorithmic methods developed over the years in fixed-parameter algorithmics forming the core of the book; and a discussion of the essentials from parameterized hardness theory with a focus on W[1]-hardness which parallels NP-hardness, then stating some relations to polynomial-time approximation algorithms, and finishing up with a list of selected case studies to show the wide range of applicability of the presented methodology.Aimed at graduate and research mathematicians, programmers, algorithm designers, and computer scientists, the book introduces the basic techniques and results and provides a fresh view on this highly innovative field of algorithmic research.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Parameterized and Exact Computation, IWPEC 2008, held in Victoria, Canada, in May 2008 - co-located with the 40th ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, STOC 2008. The 17 revised full papers presented together with 3 invited lectures were carefully reviewed and selected from 32 submissions. The topics addressed cover research in all aspects of parameterized and exact computation and complexity, including but not limited to new techniques for the design and analysis of parameterized and exact algorithms, parameterized complexity theory, relationship between parameterized complexity and traditional complexity classifications, applications of parameterized computation, implementation and experiments, high-performance computing and fixed-parameter tractability.