Several of the contributions to this volume bring forward many mutually beneficial interactions and connections between the three domains of the title. Developing them was the main purpose of the NATO ASI summerschool held in Montreal in 2003. Although some connections, for example between semigroups and automata, were known for a long time, developing them and surveying them in one volume is novel and hopefully stimulating for the future. Another aspect is the emphasis on the structural theory of automata that studies ways to construct big automata from small ones. The volume also has contributions on top current research or surveys in the three domains. One contribution even links clones of universal algebra with the computational complexity of computer science. Three contributions introduce the reader to research in the former East block.
