In recent years there has been an extensive increase in research on both the design and analysis of algorithms for various combinatorial structures. Contributions have come from people in several fields such as mathematics, computing science, electrical engineering, and others. Since there is often a problem with dialogue between people working in different fields (manifesting itself in too much duplication) and since we were not aware of any previous conference that had devoted itself to looking at algorithms for combinatorial structures, we decided in the Fall of 1975 to organize a conference that would bring together leading experts in several areas to focus their attention on algorithms for combinatorial structures.
We decided to adopt the format that all presented papers would be by invitation only and would be one hour in length. We were concerned that the lack of a contributed paper session might reduce participation but we hoped that the prospect of 18 to 20 invited talks by eminent researchers would overcome the disadvantage.
We chose the beautiful Qualicum College Inn on the east coast of Vancouver Island as the site for the conference. Despite its isolation and the distance of British Columbia from many areas of the world, the response to the conference insured its success.
There are many individuals and groups to be thanked for the success of the conference. First, we wish to thank North-Holland Publishing Company for agreeing to publish the papers presented at the conference and for the smooth and efficient job they did in preparing this volume.
We wish to thank the manager of the Qualicum College Inn, Mr. Kerry Keilty, and the rest of the staff for the marvelous organization with which they took care of the participants. The conference organizers were able to expend almost 100% of their energy on attending the talks and mingling with the other participants. Several of the meals prepared by the hotel will be long remembered by those who attended the conference.