International Conference on

Rewriting Techniques and Applications (RTA)

  • Presentation
  • Conference Topics
  • Upcoming RTAs
  • Previous RTAs, CTRS Workshops
  • Conference Bylaws
  • Steering Committee
  • Open Problems
  • IFIP WG 1.6

    The Rewriting Home Page


    Equational reasoning is an important component in symbolic algebra, automated deduction, high-level programming languages, program verification, and artificial intelligence. Reasoning with equations involves deriving consequences of given equations and finding values for variables that satisfy a given equation. Rewriting is a very powerful method for dealing with equations.

    Directed equations, called rewrite rules, are used to replace equals by equals, but only in the indicated direction. The theory of rewriting centers around the concept of normal form, an expression that cannot be rewritten any further. Computation consists of rewriting to a normal form; when the normal form is unique, it is taken as the value of the initial expression. When rewriting equal terms always leads to the same normal form, the set of rules is said to be convergent and rewriting can be used to check for equality.

    The International Conference on Rewriting Techniques and Applications (RTA) is the major conference in the domain of rewriting. Its creation has been decided after the Workshop on the Rewrite Rule Laboratory, held in Schenectady (NY) in September 1983. From 1985 to 1993, RTA has been a bi-annual conference. In 1995, RTA has been merged with the Workshop on Conditional (and Typed) Term Rewriting Systems (CTRS) and has become an annual conference.

    RTA has been classified as a class A conference by CORE, and is in the top 23% in the CiteSeer impact list!

    Conference Topics:

    The conference on Rewriting Techniques and Applications solicits oroginal papers on all aspects of rewriting, including (but not limited to): In addition to full research papers, systems descriptions and problem sets that provide realistic, interesting challenges in the field of rewriting techniques are also welcome. High quality papers on applications of rewriting techniques are particularly encouraged.
    The conference proceedings are published by Springer-Verlag as part of their Lecture Notes in Computer Science series.

    Upcoming RTAs:

    Previous RTAs:

    CTRS Workshops:

    Conference Bylaws:

    1. RTA is an annual meeting.
    2. There will be a general assembly (GA) to be help during each RTA meeting.
    3. There will be an steering committee (SC), whose composition and function are specified in the next sections.
    4. There will be a program committee (PC), which is solely responsible for the scientific contents of the program for each RTA.
    5. There will be a conference committee (CC) whose chairman is responsible for the local arrangements of the meeting and solely financially responsible of the conference it is organizing.
    6. There will be a publicity chair, who is responsible for advertising and other issues concerning publicity of the conference. The publicity chair will be selected by the SC from within.
    7. Nomination for the RTA local organization and site should be submitted to SC chair four weeks before the conference.
    8. The of the RTA to be held in the next two years, will all be nominated by the SC and approved (or disapproved) by a vote at the GA.
    9. Nomination of new SC members (with the consent of the nominees) should be submitted to SC chair four weeks before the conference.
    10. The GA will take up any other agenda suggested by the attendees. It will be ruled by Robert's Rules of Order.
    11. The PC Chair should not submit any paper.
    12. The composition of the PC is the responsibility of the PC chair.
    13. Any modification of the bylaws should be proposed to the SC chair four weeks before the conference and be ratified by a majority at the GA. By default, votes are public.

    Steering Committee:


    1. The Steering Committee consists of six elected members. The current committee is:
    2. The Steering Committee selects its own chair.
    3. Each Steering Committee member serves until the third subsequent conference (i.e. the SC is renewed by third at each general assembly).
    4. The General Assembly of each conference votes by secret ballot for new Steering Committee members to replace the outgoing members. The number of votes allowed to each attendee of the General Assembly equals the number of the positions.


    1. Provide support to the Program Committee and Conference Committee.
    2. Propose Program Committee chair, site and tentative date of conference to be held in two years.
    3. Choose a publicity chair from within.
    4. Act as liaison with other conferences and workshops.
    5. Call and organize the General Assembly.
    6. Organize the election of new Steering Committee members.
    7. Explore technical/organizational supports for non-local resources.
    8. Maintain an official mailing list and records of the previous meetings.

    Former members:

    Laurent Vigneron (last modified: 30-Jul-2014).