UMass Lowell Computer Science Analysis of Algorithms Prof. Karen Daniels Fall, 2000 Lecture 1 Introduction/Overview Wed. 9/6/00
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Nature of the Course ä Core course: required for all CS majors ä Advanced undergraduate level ä Graduate students take separate course ä No programming required ä “Pencil-and-paper” exercises ä Lectures supplemented by: ä Programs ä Real-world examples
What’s It All About? ä Algorithm: ä steps for the computer to follow to solve a problem ä Some of our goals: ä recognize structure of some common problems ä understand important characteristics of algorithms to solve common problems ä select appropriate algorithm to solve a problem ä tailor existing algorithms ä create new algorithms
Some Algorithm Application Areas Computer Graphics Geographic Information Systems Robotics Bioinformatics Astrophysics Medical Imaging Telecommunications Design Apply Analyze
Original Points Sample Problem: Nearest Neighbor Voronoi Diagram Bioinformatics Telecommunications New Point
Tools of the Trade ä Algorithm Design Patterns such as: ä binary search ä divide-and-conquer ä Data Structures such as: ä trees, linked lists, hash tables, graphs ä Theoretical Computer Science principles such as: ä NP-completeness, hardness Growth of Functions Summations Recurrences Sets Probability MATH Proofs
Tools of the Trade: (continued) Algorithm Animation
Prerequisites ä Computing I (91.101) ä Computing II (91.102) ä Discrete Math I & II (92.321, ) ä Statistics for Scientists and Engineers (92.386) ä Calculus I-III ( ) Growth of Functions Summations Recurrences Sets Probability MATH Proofs
Course Structure: 4 Parts ä Discrete Math Review ä Growth of Functions, Summations, Recurrences, Sets, Counting and Probability ä Sorting ä Heapsort, Priority Queues, Quicksort, Sorting in Linear Time, Medians and Order Statistics ä Data Structures ä Stacks and Queues, Linked Lists, Introduction to Trees, Hash Tables, Binary Search Trees, Balancing Trees: Red-Black Trees ä Advanced Techniques ä Dynamic Programming, Greedy Algorithms, Graph Algorithms, Computational Geometry
Textbook - - Required: ä Introduction to Algorithms ä by T.H. Corman, C.E. Leiserson, R.L. Rivest ä McGraw-Hill + MIT Press ä 1993 ä ISBN Available in UML bookstore
Syllabus
Syllabus (continued)
Important Dates ä QuizFriday, 9/22 ä Exam 1:Monday, 10/16 ä Exam 2:Friday, 11/10 ä Exam 3:TBA
Grading ä ä Homework40% ä ä Quiz10% (closed book) ä ä Exam 115% (open book, notes ) ä ä Exam 215% (open book, notes ) ä ä Exam 320% (open book, notes)
Homework 1 Wed, 9/6 Fri, 9/8 Read Ch 1 HW# Assigned Due Content