The idea of the conference materialized in May of 1998. The meeting was conceived primarily as a local forum where researchers from the universities and research centers from Mississippi, Louisiana and neighboring states would present their work. It was also viewed as a gathering where scientists in all areas of computation could develop links between its various threads in an informal atmosphere. The conference was organized by

School of Mathematical Sciences of the University of Southern Mississippi
in cooperation with
Department of Mathematics and Statistics and
Department of Computer Science of the Mississippi State University
and
Department of Computer Science of the Louisiana State University

Four keynote addresses were delivered:

and four Minisymposia took place:

Almost 100 participants took part in the conference representing The Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Japan, Romania and USA.

We would like to express our gratitude to Dr. Donald Cotten, Vice-President for Research of the University of Southern Mississippi, and Dr. Steven Doblin, Dean of the College of Science and Technology of the University of Southern Mississippi, for their financial support of the meeting.

On behalf of the Organizing Committee,

Marcin Paprzycki and Joseph Kolibal