PACE 2019 Call for Participation

We are happy to announce the fourth iteration of PACE, the Parameterized Algorithms and Computational Experiments Challenge. The goal of PACE is to investigate the applicability of algorithmic ideas studied and developed in the subfields of multivariate, fine-grained, parameterized, or fixed-parameter tractable algorithms. This year, the challenge consists of two separate tracks.

Track 1 (Vertex Cover)

a) Compute an optimal vertex cover. You have 30 minutes per instance. Contestants are ranked by number of instances solved and time required. Exact ranking method will be published online.

Detailed instructions: https://pacechallenge.org/2019/vc/

Track 2 (Hypertree Width)

a) Compute an optimal hypertree decomposition (hypertree decomposition of minimum hypertree width). You have 30 minutes per instance. Contestants are ranked by number of instances solved and time required. Exact ranking method will be published online.

b) Compute some hypertree decomposition of decent hypertree width. You have 30 minutes per instance. Contestants are ranked by quality of results and time required. Exact ranking method will be published online.

Detailed instructions and public instances: https://pacechallenge.org/2019/htd/

Prizes

Thanks to the generous sponsoring of the NETWORKS project and data-experts.de, a total of 4750 Euro of prize money and travel support is available for the winners of the competition.

Timeline

  • December 10th, 2018: Public Hypertree Width instances online
  • January 7th, 2019: Public Vertex Cover instances online
  • March 3rd, 2019: Submission of preliminary version for bugfixing and leaderboard
  • May 2nd, 2019: Submission of final version
  • July 1st, 2019: Announcement of the results
  • September 11-13, 2019: Award ceremony at the International Symposium on Parameterized and Exact Computation (IPEC 2019) in Munich

Program Committee

  • Johannes Fichte (TU Dresden, Germany)
  • Markus Hecher (TU Vienna, Austria)

Steering Committee

  • Édouard Bonnet (Middlesex University, London)
  • Holger Dell (Saarland Informatics Campus)
  • Bart M. P. Jansen (chair) (Eindhoven University of Technology)
  • Thore Husfeldt (ITU Copenhagen and Lund University)
  • Petteri Kaski (Aalto University)
  • Christian Komusiewicz (Philipps-Universität Marburg)
  • Frances A. Rosamond (University of Bergen)
  • Florian Sikora (LAMSADE, Université Paris Dauphine)