EECS336: Design and Analysis of Algorithms (Winter 2015)

Important announcements will be posted on Canvas. Check regularly.

Overview

Algorithm design and analysis is fundamental to all areas of computer science and gives a rigorous framework for the study of optimization. This course provides an introduction to algorithm design through a survey of the common algorithm design paradigms of greedy optimization, divide and conquer, dynamic programming, linear programming, network flows, reductions, and randomized and approximation algorithms. Important themes that will be developed in the course include the algorithmic abstraction-design-analysis process and computational tractability (e.g., NP-completeness).

Instructor

Shi Li

Email: [first name][dot][last name][at][northwestern][dot][edu]

Homepage: ttic.uchicago.edu/~shili/

Office hours: Thursdays, 1:00pm-3:00pm, Tech M128

Teaching Assistants

Name	Email	Type	Office Hours
Biao He	biaohe2014 at unw	Grader	2:00~3:00 Tuesdays
Min-Hsiu Hsieh	minhsiuhsieh2016 at unw	Grader	2:00~3:00 Wednesdays
Hao Wu	haowu1.2013 at unw	Peer Mentor	4:00~5:00 Wednesdays
Ruiqi Yang	ruiqiyang2014 at unw	Peer Mentor	12:30~1:30 Mondays
Mingzi Yi	mingziyi2014 at unw	Peer Mentor	1:00~2:00 Fridays

Required Textbook

T. H. Cormen, C. E. Leiserson, R. L. Rivest, and C. Stein.    Introduction to Algorithms.   3rd Edition, 2009, MIT Press.

Prerequisites

• EECS 212 (Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science)
• EECS 214 (Data Structures and Data Management)

Lectures

Thursdays and Fridays, 3:30pm - 4:50pm

Discussion Sections

Tuesdays from Week 3 to Week 10. There are two discussion sections on each Tuesday of these weeks: one from 4:00pm to 4:50pm and the other from 5:00pm to 5:50pm. You can go to one of these two sections. Attendance is required.

Grading

Your final grade will be computed as follows: 70% for the 7 weekly problem sets: 8% + 8% + 8% + 10% + 10% + 10% + 16%; 10% for in-class test 1 and 20% for in-class test 2. There will be no final exam.

• Some problems in the problem sets are "no-collaboration" problems; collaboration on these problems is not permitted. Collaboration on other problems is allowed. However, you must write down the solutions on your own, in your own words.
• No collaboration is allowed on the two in-class exams.
• Late policy: one late credit. If you use the credit, you can submit a problem set 3 days late.
• Late submissions can be accepted with a Dean's Excuse or a Doctor's Letter.

Tentative Schedule