CS 2223, D Term 2000
Algorithms

This was the homepage for CS2223 in D Term 2000. Many links on this page are no longer functional.

Note: The course syllabus may be modified slightly during the term.
Updates will be made only on the course web page, located at
http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~alvarez/CS2223/.

Contact | References | Grading | Objective | Schedule&Materials

Welcome to the CS2223 homepage. Here you'll find general information about the course, useful links, and downloadable materials that, when combined with participation in the lectures and labs, will help you benefit as much as possible from taking CS2223. Use the menu options above to find your way around.

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Whom, where, and when

• Professor: Sergio A. Alvarez
  alvarez@cs.wpi.edu
  Office: FL 145, ext. 5118
  Office hours: M 10-11 am, Tu 10-11 am, F 10-11 am

  TA's (note that all TA office hours are held in FLA20 (Fuller basement)):

  Nastaran Baradaran

  nastaran@cs

  Office: FL140, ext. 5004

  Office hours (held in FLA20): Tu 1-3, Th 1-3

  Yan Huang

  hy@cs

  Office: FL316, ext. 6136

  Office hours (held in FLA20): M 2-4, W 3-5

  Lectures

  MTRF / 9:00-9:50   in AK233

  Mailing lists

  If you have registered for CS 2223 then you will automatically placed on the cs2223 mailing list. You should check your e-mail frequently for possible class announcements.

  E-mail sent to cs2223_ta@cs.wpi.edu will reach the professor and the TA's only. You should normally send course-related questions to this list.

  E-mail sent to cs2223@cs.wpi.edu will go to the entire class. This list should be used for course-related discussions only.

  Course web page

  The web page for CS 2223 is located at http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~alvarez/CS2223/. You should check this page regularly for updates.

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  Textbook

  (required, available at the WPI bookstore:)

  • G. Brassard, P. Bratley
    Fundamentals of Algorithmics,
    Prentice Hall, 1996

  Additional references

  • T.H. Cormen, C.E. Leiserson, R.L. Rivest.
    Introduction to Algorithms,
    MIT Press, 1991

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  Grading

  The course grade will be based on homework and exams.

  • Homework will be due weekly and will contribute 50% of the course grade.
  • Two exams will be given. The average of the two exam scores will contribute the other 50%.

  Academic Honesty

  You are encouraged to discuss assigned problems with other people but you must individually design and write your own solutions for all assignments. Furthermore, you should explicitly acknowledge any sources of ideas used that are not your own; this includes other people, books, web pages, etc. Submitting modified versions of other people's work as your own is considered cheating.

  Exams will be individual. No sharing of any materials will be allowed. This includes pens and other writing utensils, so be sure to bring an ample supply of these.

  Cheating will not be tolerated. Violators will receive an NR for the course and will be reported to the WPI Judicial Board. See the WPI Academic Honesty Policy.

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  What this course is about

  This course provides an introduction to the design and analysis of algorithms. Design topics discussed include greedy algorithms, divide and conquer, and dynamic programming. Analysis topics include asymptotic notation, worst-case and average-case analysis, and recurrence equations. Specific algorithms from several areas including sorting and graph theory will be covered.

  The WPI undergraduate catalog course description is available at http://www.wpi.edu/Pubs/Catalogs/Ugrad/Current/cscourses.html#cs2223.

  Recommended background

  You should have experience with programming techniques and basic data structures (preferably in in C/C++ or Java) at the level of CS 2005, as well as basic knowledge of discrete mathematics at the level of CS2022 / MA2201.

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  Approximate Schedule of Topics

  Notes:
  Some deviations from this schedule may occur.
  Updates will be made during the term, and will appear only at http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~alvarez/CS2223/.

  Week	Reading/Homework	Topics
  Mar. 16-17	1.1-1.3, 2.1-2.7	Overview Course Objectives Algorithms Problems, instances Efficiency Examples sorting
  Mar. 20-24	3.1-3.3, 4.1-4.5, 4.7.1-4.7.3 5.1-5.5 (review) also see 1.6.4 HW1 (due March 24) plus solutions	Analysis Asymptotic notation Euclid's gcd algorithm timing program results Recurrence equations Data structures
  Mar. 27 - 31	5.7, 5.9, 6.1-6.4 HW2 (due March 31 by 9 am) plus solutions	Heaps Heapsort Greedy algorithms Minimum spanning trees Single-source shortest paths
  Apr. 3-7 Test 1, Apr. 7	6.4, 7.1-7.2 Practice problems for Exam 1 (updated Apr. 4 @ 3 pm) plus solutions Solutions to Exam 1	Greedy algorithms Huffman coding
  Apr. 10-14	7.1-7.5, 7.7 HW3 (due April 14 by 4 pm) plus solutions	Divide and conquer Mergesort Quicksort Median Exponentiation
  Apr. 17-21 No class Th. Apr. 20	8.1-8.5 HW4 (due April 21 by 9 am) plus solutions	Dynamic programming Knapsack problem All-pairs shortest paths
  Apr. 24-28	9.3-9.6, 10.1-10.5 HW5 (due April 28 by 9 am) plus solutions	Graph searching Depth-first Breadth-first Backtracking Intro to probabilistic algorithms Monte Carlo simulation n-D volumes example (see /cs/cs2223/ndvol.cxx)
  May 1-4 Test 2, May 2 Term ends Th. May 4	Extra Credit Problem (due May 1 by 9 am) HTML PDF Practice problems for Exam 2 (updated Apr. 29) plus solutions Solutions to Exam 2	Additional topics if time allows