Academic Integrity

For more details, please see the department policy on academic integrity .

COVID-19

Instructor Information

Nasrin Akhter

• : nasrinak "at" buffalo "dot" edu
• : Davis 303
• : 716-645-4740
• : M W 4:30-5:30pm

It is preferable to set up an appointment (by email) if you want to talk to me outside of my office hours.

TA Information

Here are your wonderful CSE 331 TAs! If you have a question specific to a language make sure you go talk with a TA who has that language listed for them. (An (i) indicates an in-person off hour and a (v) indicates a virtual-only office hour. Virtual office hours will be on zoom.

Contacting Course Staff

You should first try and post your question on Piazza . If you need to send an email, please send it to cse-331-staff "at" buffalo.edu: this will send email to the TAs and me. The TAs have been instructed to not respond to individual email except in the case of re-grading requests. (The individual email of the TA who graded a particular HW question can be found on Autolab.)

Lectures

The lecture will be videotaped and then uploaded to UBLearns (to access them, go to the CSE 331 page on UBLearns and then select Classroom Recordings from the course menu and then Classroom Recordings Powered by Panopto to open the portal).

Recitations

You should have signed up for one of these six recitation sections:

1. Mondays, 4:00-4:50pm (Talbert 106)
2. Mondays, 10:00-10:50am (Bell 337)
3. Mondays, 6:00-6:50pm (Bell 138)
4. Tuesdays, 12:30-1:20pm (Clemen 19)
5. Tuesdays, 9:30-10:20am (Baldy 110)
6. Wednesdays, 5:00-5:50pm (Capen 260)

Attending the recitations is very important, as it will go over a high level idea on how to solve (part) of homework problems and/or cover material that could not be covered well in the lecture due to time constraints. Also the recitations will provide an opportunity to ask your questions in a smaller gathering.

Course Description

(From the course catalog )

Introduces paradigms for designing algorithms and fundamental limitations to what algorithms can do. Covers basic algorithm design paradigms of greedy algorithms, divide and conquer algorithms and dynamic programming, as well as a selection of advanced algorithmic topics, such as randomized algorithms, algorithms for distributed systems and basic algorithms for machine learning. Topics related to limitations of algorithms include NP-completeness and undecidability. Coverage includes analyzing algorithms via proofs and programming assignments to implement algorithms.

Ethical considerations of algorithms

Algorithms are increasingly pervasive in our daily lives. They are increasingly used in all aspects of society, from benign applications of recommending movies to more impactful application of determining sentencing in criminal justice systems. While most of us are in CSE because we like to build technology, given the pervasive nature to CSE, it is imperative for you to understand the societal and ethical implications of the algorithms and technology that you build. This is not to say that you necessarily have to be an activist looking out for societal implications of algorithms but you should be aware that the algorithms you design will have real life implications and that saying "you just designed the algorithm and cannot be responsible for how it is used" is a weak excuse. When developing algorithms (and the corresponding system) you will have to choose between many options. Being aware of the downstream ethical and societal implications would help you make better choices when designing your technology.

Thus, in this course, in addition to learning the technical fundamentals of algorithms (which are of course still very important), you will also look into societal implications in general and ethical implications of algorithms in real life. In particular, we will focus on how uses of algorithms affects real life. So e.g., we will be more interested in situations where algorithmic prediction of recidivism in criminal justice is biased and not e.g. ethical issues involved in stealing of algorithms and intellectual property rights.

You will work on ethical and societal implications of algorithms primarily in your Project.

Pre-requisites and Credits

Data Structures (CSE 250 ), [Discrete Math (CSE 191 ) OR Intro to Higher Math (MTH 311 )] and College Calculus II (MTH 142 ). Ideally, you should have a grade of $C^-$ or above in these courses. If you do not satisfy this requirement, please come and see me.

This is a $4$ credit course.

(ABET ) Learning Outcomes

This course is required of all computer science students and after the completion of the course, students should demonstrate mastery of the concepts/skills/knowledge expressed in the following learning outcomes for computer science:

• (4) recognize professional responsibilities and make informed judgments in computing practice based on legal and ethical principles.
• (5) Function effectively as a member or leader of a team engaged in activities appropriate to the program’s discipline.
• (6) Apply computer science theory and software development fundamentals to produce computing-based solutions. [CS]

Course Learning Outcome	Program Outcomes / Competencies	Instructional Method(s)	Assessment Method(s)
Be able to design algorithms to solve given problems	ABET (6)	Lectures	Homeworks, Exams
Be able to prove correctness of designed algorithms	ABET (6)	Lectures	Homeworks, Exams
Be able to identify ethical and societal implications of algorithms	ABET (4)	Lectures	Project
Be able to effectively work in a team	ABET (5)	Lectures	Project

The Student Outcomes from the Computing Accreditation Commission (CAC) of ABET have been adopted .

Program Outcome Support (Computer Science ABET Outcomes):

Program Outcome	1	2	3	4	5	6
Support Level	No coverage	No coverage	No coverage	Demonstrate mastery of skill/concept	Demonstrate mastery of skill/concept	Demonstrate mastery of skill/concept

References

We will be using the following textbook:

Occasionally, we might study topics that are not covered in the textbook. In such cases, supplementary material will be provided.

The following textbooks could be useful references:

• Thomas S. Cormen, Charles E. Leiserson, Ronald Rivest, and Clifford Stein, "Introduction to Algorithms (2nd Ed) ." MIT Press, 2001.
• Sanjoy Dasgupta, Christos H. Papadimitriou and Umesh Vazirani, "Algorithms ." McGraw Hill, 2007.
• Donald Knuth, "The Art of Computer Programming Volumes 1, 2, 3, 4 ." Addison Wesley.
• Alfred V. Aho John E. Hopcroft and Jeffrey Ullman, "Data Structures and Algorithms ." Addison Wesley, 1983.
• Richard E. Neapolitan, "Foundations of Algorithms (5e) ." Jones and Bartlett, 2015.
• Daniel J. Velleman, "How to Prove It: A Structured Approach (2nd Ed) ." Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Schedule

Here is a tentative list of topics that we will cover (KT refers to the textbook):

1. Introduction [KT, Chap 1] (2 weeks).
2. Graph Basics [KT, Chap 3] (1.5 weeks).
3. Greedy Algorithms [KT, Chap 4] (2.5 weeks).
4. Divide and Conquer Algorithms [KT, Chap 5] (2 weeks).
5. Dynamic Programming [KT, Chap 6] (2.5 weeks).
6. NP-completeness [KT, Chap 8] and undecidability (2.5 weeks).

A more detailed schedule appears here.

Piazza

We will be using Piazza for all CSE 331 related announcements. If you are attending the course, you must check Piazza regularly. I would strongly urge you to enable email notifications on Piazza (it is on by default). These announcements will include the ones that inform if and when classes/office hours are re-scheduled etc.

We will be using Piazza for class discussion. The system is highly catered to getting you help fast and efficiently from classmates, the TAs, and myself. Rather than emailing questions to the teaching staff, I encourage you to post your questions on Piazza. If you have any problems or feedback for the developers, email team@piazza.com. To familiarize yourself with the system, look at their help page .

You will need to sign up for Piazza. To do so, go to the sign up page .

Few other points:

1. You can post anonymously but note that you will be anonymous to students only. Your identity will be known to me and the TAs.
2. Please make sure that you use your UB email to sign up-- this is to make sure that I can verify your identity if necessary.
3. You can write posts that are private to just the instructors but if we feel that the answer would be relevant to the class then we reserve the right to make the post public. (If you would like not to have your name in the public version of your private post, please post anonymously in the private post too. Note by the first point, we will still know your identity.)

Piazza Response policy

Please note the following rules regarding response time to student questions on piazza:

1. Any question posted between Friday at 5pm and Monday 9am might not get an answer from CSE 331 staff before Monday 9am.
2. On weekdays, we will aim to respond to student question within four hours unless the question is posted between 7pm and 9am, in which case we might only be able to respond after 9am.

Please note that the above does not means that we will never answer questions posted in the evening/night times as mentioned above-- it's just that we might not always be able to respond within four hours. Based on previous years, I do expect there to be reasonable response time in the evening times as well-- it's just that OUR response times might be more variable.

Grading Policy

Here is the split of grades:

Course Component	$\%$ of grade
Project	$10\%$
Homeworks	$30\%$
Quizzes	$3\%$
Exams	$57\%$

I reserve the right to adjust the points distribution and the cut-offs. See the next few sections for more details on each of the above components.

Project

The project page will be available soon.

Coding Component

As part of your project you will also work in group to complete a series of programming tasks. All of these tasks will be based on one real life case study. Unlike the programming questions on the homework, the coding mini project will have you solve problems for which there is no provable optimal solution and where you will have to balance multiple goals. More importantly you will have to deal with some ethical and societal issues (see reflection component of the project).

Reflection Component

As part of your project, in addition to completing a series of programming tasks, your group will reflect on ethical and societal considerations of your coding assignments (and more generally the project).

Survey Component

At the end of the project, you will rate your own and your other group member's contribution to the project.

The project will assess student outcomes (4) and (5).

Homeworks

In general, homeworks will be released on Fridays (with a few possible exceptions) on the CSE 331 web page and will be due via Autolab by 8:00pm next Friday. In addition, there will be a Homework $0$, which will be graded but will not count towards your final grade. Homework $0$ is just to give you feedback on your solutions so that you can avoid your mistakes in the homeworks that will count towards your grade (and also for us to test out Autolab). Submitting Homework $0$ is optional.

For more details (including on how not to get a letter grade reduction in the course), please see the homework policy document. The line between collaboration and cheating can be blurry - when in doubt, play safe. Not only is cheating bad in principle, in practice it is highly unlikely that you'll do well in the exams unless you have worked hard on the homeworks on your own. It is highly recommended that you do not try to test my claim out on yourself.

All homeworks assess student learning outcomes (6).

Quizzes

There will be two quizzes: both in class. The dates will be announced soon. The quizzes will consist of one or two true/false (with justification) questions. Such questions will be on the exams but are not on homeworks and hence, these quizzes will be an opportunity for you to try and solve such questions before the exams (and under some time pressure). You will also gain experience working on true/false questions with a weekly such question that will be posted on Piazza.

The quizzes will assess student learning outcomes (6).

Exams

No makeup exams will be given except in provably extreme circumstances. Please note the following additional policies/suggestions with respect to makeup exams:

• Notify your instructor 24 hours prior to the exam via e-mail if you are going to miss an exam. If it is medically impossible for you to give prior notice, please obtain a note from a physician detailing the period (and the reason) you were medically incapable of communicating with the instructor.
• If you miss an examination because of sickness or similar reasons, visit a physician and obtain a note detailing the period and the reason you were medically incapable of taking the exam.
• The exam dates are stated below. Please plan your travel and other activities accordingly.
• Exam times are stressful and one could forget about the exam time. Please make sure you arrange for multiple reminders so that you do not forget about the exam(s). This is another reason to religiously follow Piazza as there will be numerous reminders about the exam when it gets close to the actual exam date.

The exams will assess student learning outcomes (6).

Mid-term exam

The in-class mid-term exam will most likely be split across two lectures. Midterm dates will be announced soon. The exam will be closed book and notes. However, you can bring in a single 8.5x11 inch paper (you can use both sides). (The sheet can be typed as long as the sheet is readable.) The exam may be split over two lectures to give you an appropriate amount of time to finish the exam.

Final exam

The final exam will be held in Cooke 121 (the usual meeting place) on Wednesday, May 18 from 3:30-6:30pm. Again the exam will be closed book and notes but you can bring in two 8.5x11 inch sheets. (Again, the sheets can be typed as long as they are readable.)

Study Time

In this course, as in any course, you are expected to put in additional time beyond the scheduled class times. Professors generally expect that for each credit hour a typical student will put in 2 - 3 hours of time each week outside of class. Since this is a 4 credit course that translates into 8 - 12 hours of time outside of scheduled times, each week. During this time you should review your lecture notes, attend office hours as needed, and work on assignments. As a rough guide, you should expect to spend at least the following time working on this course, each week:

Lectures	3 hours
Recitation	1 hour
Individual/group study	2 hours
Assignments	6 hours

Miscellaneous Notes

Here are some other policies/suggestions to keep in mind:

1. Your grade

   Your grade will solely depend on your performance in this semester: you will not get any opportunity to do extra work to improve your grade. It is your responsibility to make sure you understand what is expected of you. This course will require a fair bit of work so if you are busy this semester, please plan accordingly.

2. If there is a genuine reason for re-grading, please contact the person who graded your homework/exam within a week of when the graded material is handed back.
3. See advice from CSE 331 TAs on how to do well in this course.
4. If you are not super comfortable with proofs then you will need to put in some extra work to do well in class. The important thing to remember in this case that you are not good at algorithms yet:
5. Feel free to make up a group of three students and stick with it for all your homeworks and the project. You can also use the group as your study group for the course. Piazza offers a mechanism to search for group-mates.

Accessibility Resources

If you have a diagnosed disability (physical, learning, or psychological) that will make it difficult for you to carry out the course work as outlined, or that requires accommodations such as recruiting note-takers, readers, or extended time on exams or assignments, you must consult with Accessibility Resources (: 60 Capen Hall, : 716-645-2608, TTY: 716-645-2616, : 716-645-3116).

You must advise your instructor during the first two weeks of the course so that we may review possible arrangements for reasonable accommodations.

Critical Campus Resources

Sexual Violence

UB is committed to providing a safe learning environment free of all forms of discrimination and sexual harassment, including sexual assault, domestic and dating violence and stalking. If you have experienced gender-based violence (intimate partner violence, attempted or completed sexual assault, harassment, coercion, stalking, etc.), UB has resources to help. This includes academic accommodations, health and counseling services, housing accommodations, helping with legal protective orders, and assistance with reporting the incident to police or other UB officials if you so choose. Please contact UB’s Title IX Coordinator at 716-645-2266 for more information. For confidential assistance, you may also contact a Crisis Services Campus Advocate at 716-796-4399.

Mental Health

As a student you may experience a range of issues that can cause barriers to learning or reduce your ability to participate in daily activities. These might include strained relationships, anxiety, high levels of stress, alcohol/drug problems, feeling down, health concerns, or unwanted sexual experiences. Counseling, Health Services, and Health Promotion are here to help with these or other issues you may experience. You can learn more about these programs and services by contacting:

Counseling Services

• 120 Richmond Quad (North Campus), 716-645-2720
• 202 Michael Hall (South Campus), 716-829-5800

Health Services

Michael Hall (South Campus), 716-829-3316

Health Promotion

114 Student Union (North Campus), 716-645-2837

Preferred Name

If you would like to be addressed by a name that is different from the one in UB records, please let us know and we will use your preferred name in our communications with you. Further, you will be able to use your preferred name in all of your exams and quizzes (the homeworks will be submitted online so this issue should not come up there).

Diversity

The UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences considers the diversity of its students, faculty, and staff to be a strength, critical to our success. We are committed to providing a safe space and a culture of mutual respect and inclusiveness for all. We believe a community of faculty, students, and staff who bring diverse life experiences and perspectives leads to a superior working environment, and we welcome differences in race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, language, intellectual and physical ability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic status, and veteran status.

Suggestions or Comments?

I would be happy to get feedback from you. You can either talk/send email to me, or use Piazza .