F04 15-451 Course Information

15-451 Course Information, Fall 2004

Instructors:

Avrim Blum, avrim+@cs, Wean 4130, x8-6452. Office hours: Mon 1:00-2:00.

Manuel Blum, mblum+@cs, Wean 4113, x8-3742. Office hours: Tues, Thurs 1:30-2:00.

Teaching Assistants:

Course Secretary:

Dorothy Zaborowski, daz@cs.cmu.edu, Wean 4116, x8-3779.

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

Recitations:

Rec A: Wed 12:30 (SH 222) - Jon Derryberry

Rec B: Wed 1:30 (SH 222) - Nina Balcan

Rec C: Wed 2:30 (SH 222) - Doru Balcan

Rec D: Wed 12:30 (SH 214) - Runting Shi

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 often contain new material as well.

Course Home page: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/academic/class/15451-f04/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: There are two bulletin boards for the course: academic.cs.15-451.discuss is for general discussion, and academic.cs.15-451 is for staff announcements. Please read them frequently.

Grading: Grading will be done as follows:

homeworks and minis: 45% (7 hwks at 5% each, 5 minis at 2% each)
quizzes: 10% (2 quizzes at 5% each)
midterm: 15%
final: 30%
class participation: adjust borderline scores

Important Dates: See the course schedule.

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:

Written homeworks are due at the start of class on their due date. You should do each problem on a separate page, with your name and recitation section at the top of each page. There will be separate boxes to hand in each problem.
You should do the homeworks by yourself. This is to be your own work.
Typed homework is not required, but we don't discourage it. It is your responsibility to make sure your handin is legible. Latex (see miktex for Windows machines) is a good typesetting system for documents with lots of math.
Lateness Policy: We have adopted the following lateness policy in order to allow us to post solutions soon after the due date.
- later in the same day: 10% off
- 1-2 days late: 25% off
- more than 48 hours late: 75% off

Oral Homeworks:

The oral-presentation homeworks will be done in groups of three. Each of these assignments will consist of three problems. The members of your group will work together to solve the problems and you will then present your solutions, as a group, to one of the instructors or TAs.
Presentations will be given in 1-hour time slots (there will be an electronic sign-up sheet reachable from the course home page). At the presentation, each member of the group will spend 15 minutes presenting one of the problems. The instructor (or TA) will decide who presents which problem, but when one member is presenting, other members are allowed to chime in too. In the end, the three presentations together will determine the grade for the group.
If you are nervous about your presentation, you may in addition hand in a written sketch of your solution as well. We will then take this writeup into consideration in determining your grade on the assignment.

Minis: Mini-homeworks will be made available on the course web page on Friday, and will be due via email to your TA by the upcoming Tuesday night . These will typically be practice-type problems or sometimes may consist of a single open-ended question to think about. Unlike the regular homeworks, these are intended to require at most one hour of work. If you are taking more time than that, please let one of us know.

Readings: The textbook is Introduction to Algorithms (Second Edition), by Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest, and Stein. 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 can be found in: Data Structures and Network Algorithms by R. E. Tarjan, Randomized Algorithms by Motwani and Raghavan, Programming Pearls by J. Bentley, Introduction to Algorithms: a Creative Approach by Manber, and the classic Aho-Hopcroft-Ullman book.