CISC 621 Algorithm Design and Analysis
Syllabus, Spring, 2016
General Information
Course meeting time: TR 8:00-9:15am.
place: 104 Gore Hall
Lecture: B.D. Saunders, Office hours in 414 Smith Hall: 10:30 AM on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and by arrangement:
saunders@cis.udel.edu.
TA: Fanchao Meng, Office hours in 201 Smith Hall:
Thursdays, 5:00-7:00 PM.
fcmeng@udel.edu.
Introduction to Algorithms, Third Edition, by
Corman, Leiserson, Rivest, and Stein, MIT Press.
Coverage and pace, tentative
- Chapter I, Introduction: 0.5 weeks.
- Section I, Mathematical Foundations: 0.5 weeks
- Section III, Data Structures: 2 weeks.
- Section IV, Design and Analysis Techniques: 1 week.
- Section V, Advanced Data structures: 2 weeks.
- Section VI, Graph algorithms: 2 weeks.
- Section VII, Selected topics:
- Chapter 31, 32, 33, Methods for mathematical problems: 2 weeks.
- chapter 34, 35: 1 week.
- Chapter 36, 37, NP-Completeness: 1 week.
Homework
There will be about 18 homework problems, organized in 5 or 6 problems sets.
There will be two types of problems: individual and group.
About two thirds of the problems will be individual problems and one thirds group problems.
-
Individual problems are to be solved by you. This means that things such as
working with other people, asking students who have taken the class
previously, etc are considered cheating and dealt with accordingly.
- Group problems will be solved by your assigned group. In this case, you can
only talk with members of your group about the problems.
For both individual and group problems the following are considered cheating and
will be dealt with accordingly: looking the solution up in any outside source
such as locating a paper or book in the literature; looking in
any way at solutions from prior years or from other courses; posting the problem on
the Internet, seeking a solution; etc. You may ask others for clarifications of the
problem statement. If in doubt, ask the instructor.
A separate handout provides specifics on what is to be handed in; how the groups
will work; etc.
There will not be group problems on the first homework set. This homework sheet describes the operation of groups, which will be assigned a few weeks into the course.
Homeworks may be done in longhand or online. In any case, submission
must be by hardcopy rather than email,
with each problem answer started on a separate page.
Exams
There will be a midterm exam in class on Thursday, March 24.
There will be a final exam on a date to be specified
This exam will cover the entire course, and will be 85% "facts" oriented,
and 15% problem oriented.
Grading
- Homeworks - 50% more or less
- Midterm Exam - 15%
- Final Exam - 35%
- Class participation - this is the more or less
Course homepage:
http://www.cis.udel.edu/~saunders/courses/621/16s
Send corrections, suggestions and comments to
saunders@udel.edu