The theme of the conference is a type of number theory that has become very popular over the last decades, and that is influenced by the possibility of « experimentally » studying arithmetic objects with the help of a computer. Thanks to the wide availability of computer algebra systems, essentially any number theorist nowadays has this possibility at his fingertips. There are concrete objects that are not so easily determined « by hand », such as fundamental units in number fields of higher degree, or Mordell-Weil generators of point groups of elliptic curves, and a first impression of « what these typically look like » is often obtained by numerical experimentation.

Over the years, substantial datasets relating to number fields, elliptic curves and L-series have become available, enhancing our understanding of the arithmetic world somewhat beyond only the smallest examples, which may fail to show the true asymptotic behaviour.