CSE429: Algorithms for Modern Computing Systems

Syllabus:

• Students enrolled in this class are responsible for reading and comprehending the contents of this syllabus.
• Students enrolled in this class accept responsibility for the material presented in this syllabus.
  • Consider the material presented in this syllabus as a contract between student and instructor.
• If you have any questions concerning this syllabus or how it applies to you, please ask me.

Teaching Environment:

• Class will meet via Zoom.
• Lectures will be recorded and recordings will be made available to the students.
  • Historically, students who rely on the recordings, rather than attending and remaining focused during lectures, do poorly in this course.
  • Students who do well in this course typically attend and participate in lectures, reviewing the recordings as needed.
• All exams will be held on campus, in person. No exceptions.
• If this format is of concern, please consider taking another course.
  • Feel free to contact me or an appropriate academic advisor for options about potential alternative courses.

History of CSE4/529: I have been teaching this course for 35+ years. It was originally labeled CS4/531, then CSE4/529, and currently, CSE429 and CSE529, separately.

After significant perseverance, CSE429 and CSE529 were separated as of the 2023-2024 academic year. The intent was to teach CSE529 only to graduate students during Fall semesters and CSE429 only to (an unlimited number of) undergraduate students during Spring semesters. However, undergraduate students have been very vocal about their lack of comfort with the Spring 2024 version of CSE429 on a wide variety of fronts. As such, we are making modifications to the course for Spring 2025. Modifications include limiting the number of students, changing the grading policy, removing access to optional reading materials, and the like, based on student feedback.

Prerequisites: Calculus I, Calculus II, Discrete Structures, and an upper level course in Data Structures and their Algorithms. In particular, CSE250 (Data Structures) is required and CSE331 (Introducation to Algorithms) is highly recommended.

Students are responsible for the material in chapters 1-13 of Introduction to Algorithms, by Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest, and Stein. This includes, for example, asymptotic notation, recurrence equations, and quicksort. In addition, students are also responsible for pointers, lists, stacks, queues, binary trees, and balanced trees (e.g., AVL, Red/Black, B-trees).

• Note that many students struggle in this course because they are unprepared in terms of the prerequisite material.
• There will not be any significant review of the prerequisite material in class.
• It is your responsibility to have an excellent command of this prerequisite material, including the mathematics, data structures, algorithms, and methodologies discussed.

Academic Integrity:Plagairism in any way, shape, or form, will earn you an F in the course with a notation on your transcript that the F was a result of Lack of Academic Integrity. In addition, other sanctions will likely be sought, including, but not limited to, being dismissed from the university.

• Any work that is handed in for a grade must be done completely and exlusively by you. No exceptions. No second chances.
• It is your responsibility to read and observe the departmental policy and university policy on plagiarism and academic integrity.
• Lectures will be presented remotely. The Zoom links will be provided in your Learning Management System (LMS), i.e., UBLearns (currently Bightspace). Zoom lectures will be recorded, and you will have access to those recordings via the LMS. These recordings are made available to the students in this class for the sole purpose of reviewing material for this class. Such recordings may not be distributed in any way, shape, or form, as discussed below. A violation of this policy will have significant consequences, as outlined below.
• Students may not record lectures or any presentations associated with this class in any way, shape, or form. This includes, but is not limited to, video and audio recordings, still images via screen shots, and the like.

  All materials utilized in this course are for the educational benefits of the students in this course, period. As such, students may not take pictures or take screen shots, record, reproduce, transmit, distribute, upload, or provide such course material to any person, site, organization, or system without my permission. Violations of this policy will result in academic and legal penalties, including those available through University policy, New York State laws, and Federal (United States) laws. At a minimum, it is likely that you will receive an F in the course with a notation on your transcript that it was due to lack of Academic Integrity.
  
  Such course materials include, but are not limited to, textbook(s), PowerPoint slides, exams, quizzes, drawings/annotations on "whiteboards," slides, or any other material provided for this class, as well as, lectures, lecture notes, review (Q&A) sessions, and so forth, all regardless of format (e.g., PPT, Word, PDF, CSV, and on and on).