This volume arises from the contributions presented at the MEGA 94 Con- ference (Metodos Efectivos en Geomctria Algebraica = Effective Methods in Algebraic Geometry), held at the University of Cantabria (Santander, Spain) April 59, 1994. Previous sessions of this biannual conference had taken place in Castiglioncello (Livorno, Italy, 1990) and in Nice (France, 1992) and the cor- responding proceedings have been published in the Birkhauser series Progress in Mathematics. volumes no. 94 and 109, respectively. The present collection consists of twenty articles involvillg miscellaneous topics concerning algorithms in algebra, algebraic geometry and related appli- cations. Fourteen of these papers correspond to the contents of the Conference's regular scientific program and have been selected, by the MEGA Committee, from the submitted contributions after a very rigorous refereeing procedure entailing an average of three independent reports per paper and two Program Committee panel discussions before and after the Conference. The remaining six papers (by S. Beck & M. Kreuzer, M. Bronstein, E. V. Flvnn. 1. Itenberg, J.-P. Merlet and 11. Seppala) correspond to invited talks and have also been subject to a post-conference refereeing procedure.
