| Instructor |
Greg Plaxton,
471-9751, GDC 4.512, office hours M 2:30-3:30, W 3:30-4:30. |
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| TA |
Onur Domanic, office hours TTh 10-11, GDC 1.302.
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| Class Time |
TTh 2-3:30 |
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| Class Location |
BUR 136 |
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| Required Textbook |
T. H. Cormen, C. E. Leiserson, R. L. Rivest, C. Stein,
Introduction to Algorithms, MIT Press, 3rd edition,
2009. |
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| Course Outline |
This is a graduate course in the design and analysis of
algorithms. Some of the course material revisits topics that are
covered in a typical undergraduate algorithms course such as CS 357;
in such cases, we emphasize more advanced aspects. See
the schedule for a more detailed lecture
plan. |
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| Prerequisites |
Graduate standing and either CS 357 (or an equivalent course) or
consent of instructor.
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| Recommended Exercises |
Six sets of recommended exercises will be handed out during the
semester. The tentative dates for these handouts are indicated on the
class schedule. Sample solutions will also be handed out. It is
suggested that students attempt to solve the recommended exercises
(either alone or in a group) before reading the sample solutions.
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| Quizzes |
Most of the lectures will begin with a short quiz based on
material covered in the previous lecture. Each quiz will be graded
out of 20. Attendance is worth 50%, i.e., anyone who turns in a quiz
will get a score of at least 10 out of 20. The quizzes are open
book/notes. Electronic devices may be used during the quizzes, but
only for the following two purposes: (1) to access an electronic
version of the class textbook; (2) to access an electronic version of
your personal class notes. As explained in the section below entitled
"Overall Raw Score", all of your low quiz scores will be dropped in
the computation of your course grade. If you miss a quiz for any
reason (legitimate or otherwise), your score for that quiz will be a
zero, so it will be dropped. |
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| Tests |
There will be three in-class tests, on February
14, March 28, and
May 2 (all test dates are Thursdays). The tests are closed
book/notes, except that you are allowed to bring one page of notes
(both sides may be used).
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| Make-Up Tests |
Please note that no make-up tests will be given in this course. If a
student has a legitimate and properly documented excuse for missing
one of the tests, the missing test score will be estimated based on
the other test scores. More complicated scenarios, e.g., where a
student misses multiple tests for legitimate reasons, will be treated
on a case-by-case basis. In the event of a non-excused absence, a
score of zero will be assigned. |
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| Overall Raw Score |
Each student's overall raw score out of 100 will be determined from
the quiz and test scores as follows. First, the test average is
computed (as a percentage), call it X. Then, each individual quiz
score lower than X is replaced by X. Let Y denote the resulting quiz
average. Then the overall raw score is 0.4 X + 0.6 Y.
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| Letter Grades |
The mapping from overall raw scores to letter grades is not based on a
fixed formula; it will depend to some extent on the overall
performance of the class. Typically about half of the students who
complete the class receive a grade an A (or A-), and about half
receive a B (or B-, B+).
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| Feedback |
Throughout the semester, please feel free to provide feedback to the
instructor regarding any aspect of the course. |
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| Academic Honesty |
See the following departmental
document.
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