15-451 Course Information, Fall 2000


Instructors:

Teaching Assistants:

Course Secretary:

Lectures: Tues/Thurs 12:00-1:20. Wean Hall 7500

Recitations:

Rec A: Wed 12:30 (SH 220) - Nick Hopper/Mike Bowling
Rec B: Wed 1:30 (CFA A6) - Danny Sleator/Dan Tennant
Rec C: Wed 2:30 (PH 226A) - Dan Tennant/Danny Sleator
Rec D: Wed 3:30 (BH 255A) - Mike Bowling/Nick Hopper
Everyone is expected to go to one of the recitation sections. Recitations are a chance to engage in more discussion than is usually possible in a large lecture, with a focus on the process of solving algorithmic problems. Recitations will typically contain new material as well.

Course Home page: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/academic/class/15451-f00/www/
Check it frequently for announcements and updates, for copies of handouts, assignments, solutions, and other goodies. We will also post outlines of the lecture notes on the web page.

Bboards: The main electronic bulletin board for this course is the newsgroup cmu.cs.class.cs451. It will be used for announcements by the course staff on such subjects as reading assignments, topics of upcoming lectures, corrections to homework assignments, etc. Please read it frequently. You can also post on the bboard by sending email to: outnews+netnews.cmu.cs.class.cs451@ANDREW.CMU.EDU

Grading: Grading will be based on 7 problems sets (homeworks), two short in-class quizzes, an in-class midterm, and a final. The homeworks are worth 6% each (for a total of 42%), the quizzes 6% each, the midterm 16%, and the final 30%.

Important Dates: The first quiz (1/2 hour) will be on Sept 26. The midterm will be Oct 17. The 2nd quiz (1/2 hour) will be Nov 9. The date of the final is not yet known. A detailed course schedule is available from the course home page.

Homework: There will be a problem set every two weeks. These will alternate between ones that require written answers (hwks 1,3,5,7) and ones that require an oral presentation (hwks 2,4,6). Here are guidelines for each type of assignment.

Written homeworks:

Oral Homeworks:

Readings: The textbook is Introduction to Algorithms: a Creative Approach, by Udi Manber. Specific readings are listed on the course schedule. It is recommended that you skim the reading before lecture, with a more thorough read afterwards. We will also provide lecture notes and other handouts for material that is not covered by the textbook.

Other helpful material: Other useful material can be found in: Data Structures and Network Algorithms by R. E. Tarjan, Algorithmics: Theory and Practice by Brassard and Bratley, Randomized Algorithms by Motwani and Raghavan, Programming Pearls by J. Bentley, The Design and Analysis of Computer Algorithms by Aho, Hopcroft and Ullman, and Introduction to Algorithms by Cormen, Leiserson, and Rivest (known as CLR).