News and Announcements

Important announcements related to the course will be posted here.

Sun, May 11:
The Final Exam is this Friday, May 16, 8-10am in our usualy classroom. The exam is closed-book, closed-notes, but two sheets of notes (front and back) are allowed. Practice problems have been posted to the handouts page.
In addition to my usual office hours (Mon,Wed 3:30-4:40) I'll also have additional office hours Thu, 2-3.
Correction to HW 5: In problems 3 and 4 on Homework 5 I neglected to include the question! In each case, you are to show that the given problem is NP-complete.
Tue, May 6:
Tom will be holding office hours "on demand" for the rest of this week. If you plan to visit office hours, please contact him by email to let him know you will be coming.
Wed, Apr 30:
The course evaluation system is now up and running. To fill out the evaluation, visit www.CourseEvalUM.umd.edu. You log into the site using your directory ID.
Teaching is very important to me, and the evaluations that you fill out are a tremendous help to let me know what you think of the course, and how it can be improved. (Please also fill in written comments, since I find those most informative.) Note that the results are entirely anonymous, and I do not even see the evaluations until after the semester is over and grades have been files.
Wed, Apr 30:
Sorry for the late notice, but due to a meeting across campus, I'll need to miss office hours again. If you would like to meet with me, please send me email.
Tue, Apr 29:
Homework 5 has been handed out. It is dues Tue, May 13 at the start of class. It can be downloaded from the Handouts page.
Wed, Apr 16:
I will need to cancel office hours today (in addition to next Monday, see the next announcement). If you need to see me, please drop me an email.
Mon, Apr 14:
I will need to move my office hours next Monday (4/21) up by one hour to 2:30-3:30. If you cannot make that time and want to meet with me, please send me email.
Mon, Mar 24:
The Midterm Exam will be next Tue, Apr 1 in class. The exam will be closed-book, closed-notes, but you are allowed one "cheat-sheet", front and back. This Thursday's lecture will be a review.
Mon, Mar 3:
A student pointed out a typo in problem 2c. The last sentence should read "Give an algorithm which, given a directed acyclic graph (DAG), determines whether it is semi-connected." (Change "weakly" to "semi".)
Given the complications due to this error and the one noted below, I have decided to extend the deadline for HW2 to this Thurs, Mar 6, at the start of class. Pass the word around.
Sun, Mar 2:
I discovered a bug in my solution to Problem 3b on Homework 2. The problem seems to be harder than I had previously thought. For this reason, I am making problem 3b an optional (challenge) problem. Thus, there will be no penalty to your grade if you do not answer it.
Tue, Feb 26:
Sorry for the late notice, but Tom will not be able to make his office hour today. He is scheduling a make-up hour this Friday, 2/29, from 12-1.
Tue, Feb 19:
Due to a meeting across campus, I will have to cancel office hours on Wed, Feb 20 (at 3:30). I apologize for the inconvenience. If you would like to meet with me, please send me email.
Tue, Feb 12:
Office hours are now posted on the class home web page. Note that I will miss the first 30 minutes of my office hours this Wed, Feb 13 due to a prior commitment.
Thu, Feb 7:
Homework 1 was handed out in class. It is due Tue, Feb 19 at the start of class. It can be downloaded from the Handouts page.
Tue, Jan 29:
A couple of alert students found some typos in the syllabus. There was duplicated text in the section on adcademic dishonesty, and the proposed date for the midterm was wrong. Please visit the Handouts page for the latest version.
Sat, Jan 19:
If you are interested in getting into this class but not yet enrolled, please show up to class on the first day and check with me when class is over.