High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Algorithm engineering is a combination of theoretical algorithm design with real-world data. By taking an algorithm and combining it with a hardware device connected to the real world, you are able to more accurately verify and validate the algorithm results and behavior. The real-world device may be a simple data acquisition or stimulus device or you may take the algorithm and implement it on some embedded platform such as an FPGA or microprocessor that may be similar to the final system design.