Date Class Period & Lecture Topic Reading Assignment
Aug 30 1. What is the class about and how will it work?
(Syllabus, policies, business, motivation)		     Read and understand the course website and get on Slack
Sep 01 2. Algorithm Essentials
(Big-O and basic arithmetic)		 Chapters 0, 1 pp. 1-15 Install Python and start playing around.
Sep 06 3. Algorithm Essentials
(Modular arithmetic and Primality)		 Chapter 1 pp. 16-30 HW1
Sep 08 4. Algorithm Essentials
(Cryptography and Euclid)		 pp. 30-38 HW2
Project1 Design Experience
Sep 13 5. Divide and Conquer
(Multiplication, Recurrence Relations, Merge Sort)		 Chapter 2 pp. 45-50 HW3
Project1: Primality Tester
Sep 15 6. Divide and Conquer
(Medians, Matrix Multiplication, Convex Hull)		   pp. 50-57 HW4
Sep 20 7. Graphs
(Depth-first Search)		 Chapter 3 pp. 80-87 HW5
Project2 Design Experience
Sep 22 8. Graphs
(Directed Graphs and Strong Connectedness)		   pp. 87-95 HW6
Sep 27 9. Graphs
(Shortest Paths)		 Chapter 4 pp. 104-113 HW7
Sep 29 10. Graphs
(Priority Queues and Variations on Shortest Path)		   pp. 113-120 HW8
Project2: Convex Hull
Oct 04 11. Greedy Algorithms
(Minimum Spanning Trees)		 Chapter 5 pp. 127-138 HW9
Oct 06 12. Greedy Algorithms
(Huffman Encoding)		   pp. 138-143 HW10
Project3 Design Experience
Oct 11 13. Greedy Algorithms
(Horn Formulas and Set Cover)		   pp. 144-147 HW11
  Midterm (October 12[8am]-14[9pm; late fee after 2pm] in the testing center) Study Guide
Oct 13 14. No lecture (Midterm)  
Oct 18 15. Dynamic Programming
(Longest Increasing Subsequence and Edit Distance)		 Chapter 6 pp. 156-164 HW12
Oct 19 Project3: Network Routing
Oct 20 16. Dynamic Programming
(Knapsack and Chain Matrix Multiplication)		   pp. 164-171 HW13
Oct 25 17. Dynamic Programming
(Shortest Paths and Independent Sets)		   pp. 171-177 HW14 (postponed)
Project4 Design Experience
Oct 27 18. Linear Programming
(Introduction)		 Chapter 7 pp. 188-198 HW14
HW15 CANCELED ☹
Nov 01 19. Linear Programming
(Duality and Zero-sum Games)		   pp. 206-213 HW16
Nov 03 20. Intelligent Search
(Backtracking and Branch & Bound)		 Chapter 9 pp. 271-276 + extra B&B TSP material HW17
Project4: Gene Sequencing
Nov 08 21. Intelligent Search
(More Branch & Bound)		 Chapter 9 pp. 271-276 + extra B&B TSP material no homework assignment
Nov 10 22. Intelligent Search
(NP-completeness)		 Chapter 8 pp. 232-247 + "Unsolvable Problems" box on page 263 HW18
Project5 Design Experience
Nov 15 23. Intelligent Search
(Approximation and Local Search)		 Chapter 9 pp. 276-293 HW19
Nov 17 24. Advanced Algorithms
(Randomized Algorithms)
Why Consider Grad School?		 Sec 2.4 Boxes on pp. 29, 56, 140 HW20
Nov 22 Friday Instruction
 
Nov 24 Thanksgiving
 
Nov 29 25. Advanced Algorithms
(Evolutionary Computation)		 Project5: TSP with Branch and Bound
Dec 01 26. Advanced Algorithms
(Neural Networks)		  
Dec 06 27. Advanced Algorithms
(Quantum Computation)		 Chapter 10 pp. 297-302
Dec 08 28. Group Project Presentations
   Project6: Group TSP
Dec 09 Reading Day      
Dec 12 Sec. 2 Final (7:00am–10:00am in class) Study Guide
Dec 12 Sec. 4 Final (2:30pm-5:30pm in class) Study Guide
Dec 15 Sec. 3 Final (3:00pm-6:00pm in class) Study Guide
Dec 16 Sec. 1 Final (7:00am–10:00am in class) Study Guide

TA Schedule

(TA "office" is 1156 TMCB or Zoom(z)) Connor, Jack, Jared, Robert, Brad

  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
  8:00 -   9:00
  9:00 - 10:00 Brenden Brenden
10:00 - 11:00 Brenden Brenden
11:00 - 12:00 Brenden, Brad(z) Brad(z) Brenden, Brad(z)
12:00 -   1:00 Brad(z), Connor Brad(z) Brad(z), Connor(z)
  1:00 -   2:00 Jared(z) Connor Brad(z), Jared(z) Connor(z) Jared(z)
  2:00 -   3:00 Jared(z) Connor Brad(z), Jared(z) Connor(z), Robert(2:30) Jared(z), Jack(z)
  3:00 -   4:00 Jared(z), Robert(3:30) Connor, Robert Jared(z), Robert(3:30) Connor(z), Robert Jack(z)
  4:00 -   5:00 Jack(z), Robert Robert Robert Robert Jack(z)
  5:00 -   6:00 Jack(z), Robert(till 5:30) Jack(z)
  6:00 -   7:00 Jack(z)
  7:00 -   8:00 Jack(z)