Algorithms

Instructor:   Ivona Bezakova,   email:   here.
Class meets:   Tu/Th   4-5:40pm,   room 70-1620 (Tu), 70-1610 (Th)
Office hours:   Tu   1-3pm,   Th   10am-12pm,   part-time students also by appointment,   office 70-3645
Tutoring center:   about 20 hours of tutoring per week (follow this link to see the schedule and more information - the schedule for the Spring quarter is available)


0. Homework and Reading Assigments

For information about topics covered in the class, reading and homework assignments, follow this link.


1. Text

Algorithm Design by Jon Kleinberg and Eva Tardos.
This webpage: http://www.cs.rit.edu/~ib/Classes/Algo_Spring06-07/index.html


2. Course description and intended learning outcomes.

This course provides an introduction to the design and analysis of algorithms. It covers a large number of classical algorithms and their complexity and will equip students with the intellectual tools to design, analyze, implement, and evaluate their own algorithms.

Intended learning outcomes:

• Students should demonstrate an understanding of basic concepts related to the design and analysis of algorithm.
• Students should demonstrate knowledge of classical algorithms and their complexity.
• Students should be able to design and analyze their own algorithms.
• Students should implement, experiment with, compare, and report on various algorithmic solutions to the same problem.

• Final, 25%.
• Midterm, 25%. The tentative date for the midterm is Tuesday, April 17, 2007, in class. This date will be finalized in the first week of the quarter.
  If your score on the final is better than your score on the midterm, your final will contribute 30% toward your final grade and your midterm will contribute 20%.
• Quizzes, 10%. There will be seven weekly quizzes, every week except for the first week, the week of the midterm, and the week of the project testing. The quizzes will take place on Tuesdays, 4-4:10pm, in class. Each quiz will ask about material from the previous week (including the homework due the previous Thursday). The two lowest quiz grades will be dropped and the remaining five grades contribute evenly towards your final grade.
• Homeworks, 30%. There will be eight weekly homeworks, due Thursday 4pm (every week except for the first week and the week of the midterm). Homework assignments will be posted on the webpage a week before they are due. The two lowest homework grades will be dropped and the remaining six grades contribute evenly towards your final grade. You may choose to do the homeworks individually or in pairs.
• Project, 10%. There will be a programming project which will be specified by the end of the 3rd week. You will be asked to implement several algorithms, compare their performance, and summarize the comparison in a report. The testing of the programs will take place, tentatively, on Tuesday, April 24, 2007, during class time (I will book a lab for this). The final reports are due May 12, 2007, 11:59pm, to be uploaded on MyCourses.

• Asymptotic analysis
• Greedy algorithms
• Dynamic programming
Graph algorithms
• Traversals
• Minimum spanning trees
• Single source shortest path
• All pairs shortest path
• Network flow
• Overview of heuristics and approximation
• Other topics such as linear programming and randomized algorithms.
  Please e-mail me any other topics you would like to see discussed in class.

• You are free to discuss the current homeworks and the project with only your partner and the instructor. Discussions with anybody else, including the tutors, are not permitted.
  You are encouraged to discuss any class material and homeworks that have been already handed in with your peers, in the tutoring center, with the instructor, or anybody whom you make listen :)
• All homeworks are due on Thursdays, 4pm. No late submissions will be tolerated. I will stop answering homework related e-mails on Thursdays, 12pm. You will have a week to complete each homework and the assignments will be posted on the webpage on Thursdays.
• Exams are closed book, closed notes. You may prepare one letter-size hand-written "summary sheet" (no photocopies).
• Homework or exam grade can be disputed within one week after the graded work is handed back. Dispute the grade with the instructor, not the grader. Your grades will be posted on MyCourses.
• The midterm and the final cannot be made up unless a true emergency arises (a proper documentation is required in such cases).
• Hopefully there is no need to link to the departmental policy on academic dishonesty. In the unfortunate event when cheating earns a 0 score on a homework, the two lowest non-cheating scores will be dropped.