- Why study algorithms? The goal is to build a deep(er) understanding of fundamental algorithmic paradigms such as Divide and Conquer, Dynamic Programming, Greedy Approaches, and Approximation.
- How are we going to do that? We emphasize rigor in our proofs of correctness and runtime.
- Are there any prerequisites? The prerequisites are: ((CS16 or CS18) and CS22) (or equivalent). This is targeted to approximately junior undergraduates who have enjoyed basic data structures and algorithms and want to go beyond that, in particular the problem solving and rigorous analysis perspective.
Class Canceled on March 19, 2009
There will be a makeup class at the end of the semester. Defer to the schedule page.
Midterm!
Remember that the midterm is in the Lubrano classroom (CIT 4th floor) on Tuesday March 3rd. The test starts at 10:30am and continues after the end of class to 12:30pm. Allowed documents: none except for a single sheet of paper on which you can write whatever you wantThe idea is that as you review the class material, you can select what seems important enough (and too difficult to memorize exactly) that you want to record it on your "cheat sheet". That page should be the result of your own work, not simply borrowed from someone else. Meeting in a small group to study and make a cheat sheet together is fine; printing out a second copy of your cheat sheet e.g. for your friend who forgot his/hers is not. If you have any special testing considerations, please email the TAs to let us know. Here is the text of the first midterm from last year, in case you want to practice.
Problem Session Assignments!
Here are the assignments for problem sessions next week. Make sure to arrive to your problem session on time or else you will have to write up solutions to all four problem set problems and not just your own. If you must reschedule your problem session or you're missing from the schedule or something silly, email the tas!
Wednesday 4-6pm in the 3rd floor atrium
| Problem 1 | Problem 2 | Problem 3 | Problem 4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group 1 | gbressle | mingli | endobson | pjwhite |
| Group 2 | atuteur | pkalmaki | dlk | dsblack |
| Group 3 | ddufresn | jdenijs | cono | ktierney |
| Group 4 | waverill | bwsimon | rcochran |
Wednesday 8-10pm in room 219
| Problem 1 | Problem 2 | Problem 3 | Problem 4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group 1 | gkellerm | cjc | rzelen | apstewar |
| Group 2 | kdoo | bweng | sj10 | aloomis |
| Group 3 | rmustacc | eczech | pomccann | jds |
Thursday 4-6pm in room 367
| Problem 1 | Problem 2 | Problem 3 | Problem 4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group 1 | csaftoiu | sverch | mmallozz | |
| Group 2 | ro-to le | marek | brgould | |
| Group 3 | tkurtz | max | agayer |
Sign up for a Problem Session!
The problem session sign ups are now closed, if you haven't signed up already email the tas!
Welcome to CSCI 1570!
A single algorithmic improvement can have a greater impact on our ability to solve a problem than ten years of incremental improvements in CPU speed. In CS157, we study techniques for designing and analyzing algorithms. What is CS157 all about? We study algorithms and data structures for a wide variety of problems in Computer Science.New textbook! Algorithms by Sanjoy Dasgupta, Christos Papadimitriou and Umesh Vazirani, McGraw Hill 2008, ISBN 978-0-07-352340-8. Copies have been ordered at the Brown bookstore. (Alternatively, students may try the following website, created by a Brown student, that supposedly makes it easy to search Amazon, Half.com, and Abebooks.com to find the lowest prices for textbooks.)