Scope

Approximation and online algorithms are fundamental tools to deal with computationally hard problems and problems in which the input is gradually disclosed over time. Both kinds of problems arise from a large number of applications in a variety of fields. The Workshop on Approximation and Online Algorithms (WAOA) focuses on the design and analysis of approximation and online algorithms. It also covers experimental methods used to design and analyze efficient approximation and online algorithms.

WAOA 2024 is co-located with ALGO 2024, which also hosts ESA, ALGOCLOUD, ALGOWIN, ATMOS, IPEC, and WABI. ALGO 2024 will take place at Royal Holloway, University of London in Egham, United Kingdom.

Important Dates

• Paper submission deadline: 3 July 2024, 23:59 AoE
• Notification: 31 July 2024
• Camera-ready version: 9 August 2024
• Conference: 5-6 September 2024

Topics

Papers are solicited in all research areas related to approximation and online algorithms, including, but not limited to:

• Algorithmic game theory
• Algorithmic trading
• Coloring and partitioning
• Competitive analysis
• Computational advertising
• Computational finance
• Cuts and connectivity
• FPT-approximation algorithms
• Geometric problems
• Graph algorithms
• Inapproximability results
• Mechanism design
• Network design
• Packing and covering
• Paradigms for the design and analysis of approximation and online algorithms
• Resource augmentation
• Scheduling problems

Submission Guidelines

Authors are invited to submit an extended abstract or full paper of at most 10 pages excluding the title page, references, and an optional appendix. The submission should be typeset using a 10-point or larger font in a single-column format with ample spacing throughout and 2cm margins all around on A4-size paper. Proofs omitted due to space constraints must be placed in an appendix. This appendix can even comprise an entire full version of the paper. The appendix will be read by the program committee members at their discretion. In particular, appendices of accepted papers are not going to be published in the proceedings. The main part of the submission should therefore contain a clear technical presentation of the merits of the paper, including a discussion of the paper’s importance within the context of prior work and a description of the key technical and conceptual ideas used to achieve its main claims.

Results previously published (or scheduled for publication) in another conference proceedings or journal will not be accepted at WAOA. Simultaneous submission to journals or other conferences with published proceedings is not permitted. By submitting a paper the authors acknowledge that in case of acceptance at least one of the authors must register at ALGO 2024, attend the conference onsite and present the paper. The program committee may award a Best Paper Award to one of the accepted papers.

The conference will employ a lightweight double-blind reviewing process. Submissions should not reveal the identity of the authors in any way. In particular, authors’ names, affiliations, and email addresses should not appear at the beginning or in the body of the submission. Authors should ensure that any references to their own related work is in the third person (e.g., not “We build on our previous work …” but rather “We build on the work of …”). The purpose of the double-blind reviewing is to help PC members and external reviewers come to an initial judgement about the paper without bias, not to make it impossible for them to discover the authors if they were to try. Nothing should be done in the name of anonymity that weakens the submission or makes the job of reviewing the paper more difficult. In particular, important references should not be omitted or anonymized. In addition, authors should feel free to disseminate their ideas or draft versions of their paper as they normally would. For example, authors may post drafts of their papers on the web, submit them to arXiv, and give talks on their research ideas.

When submitting a paper, authors will be asked to indicate Conflict of Interest (CoI) with PC members. A CoI is limited to the following categories:

• Family member or close friend.
• Ph.D. advisor or advisee (no time limit), or postdoc or undergraduate mentor or mentee within the past 5 years.
• Person with the same affiliation.
• Involved in an alleged incident of harassment. (It is not required that the incident be reported.)
• PC member owes author a favor (e.g., recently requested a reference letter).
• Frequent or recent collaborator (within last 5 years) who you believe cannot objectively review your work.

Submissions authored or co-authored by members of the program committee are allowed, but will be subject to a stricter review process.

Publication

The WAOA 2024 proceedings will be published by Springer in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS). Selected papers presented at WAOA 2024 will be invited to a special issue of Theory of Computing Systems.

Invited Speaker

• Rico Zenklusen, ETH Zürich

Committees

Program Committee

• Spyros Angelopoulos, CNRS and Sorbonne University, FR
• Antonios Antoniadis, University of Twente, NL
• Sujoy Bhore, IIT Bombay, IN
• Marcin Bieńkowski, University of Wrocław, PL (co-chair)
• Hans-Joachim Böckenhauer, ETH Zürich, CH
• Maike Buchin, Ruhr University Bochum, DE
• Panagiotis Charalampopoulos, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
• Marek Chrobak, University of California, Riverside, US
• Christian Coester, University of Oxford, UK
• Matthias Englert, University of Warwick, UK (co-chair)
• Naveen Garg, IIT Delhi, IN
• Meng He, Dalhousie University, CA
• Martin Hoefer, Goethe Universität, DE
• Jochen Koenemann, University of Waterloo, CA
• Shi Li, Nanjing University, CN
• Alantha Newman, Université Grenoble Alpes, FR
• Zeev Nutov, The Open University of Israel, IL
• Kevin Schewior, University of Southern Denmark, DK
• Chris Schwiegelshohn, Aarhus University, DK
• Hadas Shachnai, Technion, IL
• Joachim Spoerhase, University of Sheffield, UK
• David Wajc, Technion, IL
• Prudence Wong, University of Liverpool, UK
• Meirav Zehavi, Ben-Gurion University, IL

Steering Committee

• Evripidis Bampis, Sorbonne Université, FR
• Thomas Erlebach, Durham University, UK
• Christos Kaklamanis, University of Patras, GR
• Nicole Megow, Universität Bremen, DE
• Laura Sanità, Bocconi University, IL
• Martin Skutella, Technische Universität Berlin, DE
• Roberto Solis-Oba, University of Western Ontario, CA