Course Description
This course presents the fundamental techniques for designing efficient computer algorithms, proving their correctness, and analyzing their running times. We will discuss a number of topics, including graph algorithms, greedy methods, dynamic programming, network flow, NP completeness and computational intractability, and approximation algorithms.
Course Format
The course format will differ significantly from previous semesters. Please feel free to talk with me if you have any questions or concerns with the following.
- Lectures will be in person (see class time below). Attendance in lectures is not mandatory, but it is strongly encouraged. All lectures will be recorded and posted, but much of the content will be presented on the white board, and the recording infrastructure provided in our classroom may not render the board with good fidelity.
- I will assign weekly practice problem sets at the start of each week, covering that week's material. I strongly recommend that all students do these, but they will not be collected or graded. Solutions will be posted at the end of the week.
- There will be 5 in-class quizzes throughout the semester (see the Syllabus for dates). You can expect to see problems that are similar to the weekly practice (and perhaps even the same problems) on these quizzes. Quizzes will be closed-book and closed-notes. You may drop the lowest quiz score.
- There will be a comprehensive final exam (see the Syllabus for the date and time). The final exam will be closed-book and closed-notes, but you will be allowed two sheets of notes (front and back) for the final exam.
- Attendance is required for the quizzes and the final exam. (See the Syllabus for dates and the excused-absence policy.)
- Quizzes and the final exam will be processed electronically through Gradescope.
- We will use Piazza for discussions and important announcements. Click here to sign up.
- Office hours will be conducted both in-person and through Zoom. The schedule is given below. When there is a need to move from in-person to Zoom, we will post an announcement Piazza.
Class Time
Tue, Thu 11:00am-12:15pm, in CSI 2117.
Course Staff
| Name | Role | Contact |
|---|---|---|
| Dave Mount | Instructor | mount@umd.edu |
| Adi Acharya | Graduate TA | adach@umd.edu |
| Jeff Giliberti | Graduate TA | jeffgili@umd.edu |
Office Hours
Office hours will be split between in-person and in Zoom. In-person office hours will take place in AVW 4160. Dave Mount's will be in IRB 4246. If you cannot make the scheduled office hours, please feel free to contact any of us by email to set up an alternative time. We all allocate one hour per week for unscheduled office hours.
| Day | Time | Who | Coordinates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mon | 1:00-2:00pm | Dave | IRB 4246 |
| Mon | 4:00-5:00pm | Adi | AVW 4160 |
| Tue | 4:00-5:00pm | Jeff | AVW 4160 |
| Wed | 2:00-3:00pm | Dave | IRB 4246 |
| Wed | 4:00-5:00pm | Adi | Zoom (Meeting link) |
| Thu | 4:00-5:00pm | Jeff | Zoom (Meeting link) |