Instructor
Course Description
Required Text
Class Schedule and Assignments
Course Requirements
Grading
Important Dates
Electronic Submission Guidelines
Short LaTeX Tutorial
The following is a MINIMUM list of topics. Not all topics will be covered in FULL detail. In order to reach some of the more advanced (and interesting) material, a speed slightly faster than indicated below will have to be maintained.
This course assumes you have already completed Calculus I, II & III, Discrete Mathematics I & II and Probability and Statistics for Scientists and Engineers.
Most of the material in the first six chapters of the text has been already covered in one of the previous courses. Not all the material will be covered in detail in class. The actual amount of material that you will need to be able to use from your previous courses is not very large, but you will be expected to understand it.
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T. H. Corman, C. E. Leiserson, and
R. L. Rivest. Introduction to Algorithms. McGraw-Hill Book
Co. and the MIT Press, 1993 Third Printing. ISBN 0-07-013143-0.
The tentative topics and exams schedule is:
| Weeks 1-3 (Sep. 4, 11, 18) | Mathematical Foundations, Chapters
1-6, unstarred sections |
|---|---|
| Weeks 4-6 (Sep. 25, Oct. 2, 9) | Sorting, Chapters 7-10 |
| Weeks 7-9 (Oct. 16, 23, 30) | Searching, Chapters 11-14 First exam (end of Week 9; Chapters 1-10) |
| Weeks 10-11 (Nov. 6, 13) | Other advanced techniques, Chapters 16-17 Second exam (end of Week 10; through Chapter 14) |
| Week 12 (Nov. 20) | B-trees and Disjoint Sets, Chapters 19, 22 |
| Week 13-14 (Nov. 27, Dec. 4) | Graph Algorithms, Chapters 23-27 |
The timing presented is fairly rough and will partially depend on the background of the class.
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Homework:
Assigned on a more or less regular basis. Will be collected and
graded. The grades will be used towards your final grade.
Projects:
Two:
Projects will be graded for presentation, documentation, testing, etc. Non-running projects will NOT be accepted. LITERATE projects are expected, both in their documentation and in any supporting documents and discussions.
Each project will be expected to contain documented code, data, and a report written in the usual format of a term paper. The use of appropriate editing and formatting tools is encouraged. Correct grammar and correct spelling is expected, along with a coherent presentation of the ideas involved.
A student meeting all project specifications can expect a grade of 90/100. Grades above 90 are reserved for those projects that exceed stated requirements.
Under normal circumstances late submissions will NOT be
accepted!
You must turn in whatever you have by the beginning of class on the due date.
If you run into problems, do not wait until the
last moment, come to talk about it as soon as you encounter
the problem.
If you have a compelling reason for a late submission (it has to be
compelling) you should (1) submit whatever you have by the original
due date; (2) see me to request a late submission.
Exams:
At least two in-class exams (1 hr. each). Final (3 hrs).
Incompletes:
No incompletes in this course, except for extremely severe
circumstances (e.g., death, accident, etc.).
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| 1st exam | 12.5% |
|---|---|
| 2nd exam | 12.5% |
| Final | 25% |
| Projects | 25% |
| Homework | 25% |
No student will pass the course without a passing grade on at least one project.
Observe that PERFECT exams plus one project can get you a maximum of 62.5/100. Some curving of grades can be expected, but minimum standards will be maintained regardless of the curve.
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