COT 5410. Complexity of Algorithms

Spring 2003

Instructor: Ashok Srinivasan Office hours: TF 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm, or by appointment. Location: 169, Love Building Phone: 644-0559, Email: asriniva@cs.fsu.edu Course web site: Access through blackboard http://campus.fsu.edu

Lecture hours: MW 5:15 pm - 6:30 pm, LOV 103

Prerequisites:

Note: COP 4531: Complexity and Analysis of Data Structures and Algorithms is strongly recommended. You are also expected to have the mathematical maturity to write formal proofs and algorithms.

Text books:

1. Required: Computers and Intractability: A Guide to the Theory of NP-Completeness, M.R. Garey and D.S. Johnson, W H Freeman & Co., 1979. This will be supplemented with handouts and journal articles.

2. Recommended: It will be helpful to obtain a book on algorithms, such as (i) Introduction to algorithms, T.H. Cormen, C.E. Leiserson, R.L. Rivest, C. Stein, second edition, MIT press, 2001, or (ii) Data Structures and Algorithm Analysis in C++, M.A. Weiss, second edition, Addison-Wesley, 1998, in case you need to review algorithm analysis.

Course rationale:

Course description:

Formal methods for the analysis of algorithm complexity, application to specific algorithms, lower bounds, NP completeness, and other classifications of ``hard" problems.

Course objectives:

Grading criteria:

Attendance and class participation	5
Group project	15
Three Homework assignments	25
Midterm	20
Final Exam	35

Your grade will be based on the scores obtained in the above categories, with weights as given above. Additionally, you need to obtain a certain minimum average score on your exam grades (midterm + finals). Examples are given below, later.

Course average	Minimum exams average (%)	Letter grade
90 - 100	85	A
87 - 90	80	A-
80-87	70	B
70-80	60	C
60 - 70	50	D
0 - 60	0	F

Examples

1. If you get 91% total and 93% on the exams, your grade will be A.
2. If you get 83% total and 68% on the exams, you will not get a 'B'. Your grade will be 'B-'.
3. If you get 81% total and 58% on the exams, you will get a 'C-'.

Attendance and class participation

You will be given a grade for class participation and attendance. In particular, I will ask questions during lectures, and you should perform well in these. I will also take into account positive contributions you make to the class, such as suggesting improvements to algorithms I present in class. Your attendance too will be considered. Attendance will be taken at the beginning of lectures. You will be marked absent if you are more than 5 minutes late. You may also lose points if you are regularly late by 0-5 minutes. You will also be marked absent if you leave before class ends! Missing three or fewer lectures will be considered good attendance.

Notes: (i) Your signature on the attendance sheet should match that on your FSU ID. (ii) You are responsible for making up for any materials missed due to absences, including announcements made in class. A missed exam can be made up only in extremely rare circumstances, and you should discuss it with me well ahead of time.

Course policies:

• Deadlines: If your assignment is late, you will get a 20% reduction in points for up to one day late (ignoring weekends and university holidays), and 30% more for each subsequent day. Please do not depend on our watches being exactly synchronized; do submit a few minutes early. A submission that is late by 1 minute will still get the entire 20% penalty! (In order to help you deal with emergencies, your first late submission will be excused from the 20% penalty, provided it is not late by more than one working day.)

• Cheating: You should not collaborate with anyone in any way while working on assignments (except with your team members, on the group project). Copying others' homework, replacing variable names in their code with different names, altering indentation, or making modifications to others' code, and submitting it as your own will all be considered forms of cheating. Students are expected to uphold the academic honor code published in "The Florida State University Bulletin" and the "Student Handbook". Please read the provisions of the Academic Honor Code: http://www.fsu.edu/Books/Student-Handbook/codes/honor.html. Also read the section on "Honor code" below.

• ADA: Students with disabilities needing academic accommodation should (1) register with and provide documentation to the Student Disability Center, and (2) bring a letter to the instructor indicating the need for accommodation and what type. This should be done during the first week of class. This syllabus and other class materials will be made available in alternative format upon request.

Honor code:

Plagiarism is "representing another's work or any part thereof, be it published or unpublished, as one's own. . . . For example, plagiarism includes failure to use quotation marks or other conventional markings around material quoted from any source" (Florida State University General Bulletin 1998-1999, p. 69). Failure to document material properly, that is, to indicate that the material came from another source, is also considered a form of plagiarism. Copying someone else's program, and turning it in as if it were your own work, is also considered plagiarism.

What I expect from the student:

• I am particularly strict about deadlines and following instructions. Please read instructions carefully, and schedule your activities so that you submit assignments well in time. You should check your garnet email account and the class web page regularly, and note other announcements, on-line and in class.

• You should participate in the class by asking questions, suggesting ideas, etc.

• In exams, I test knowledge, understanding, and creativity. When you learn some topic, you should not just try to understand the material, but also analyze what would happen if some things were different.

• You will need to write formal proofs and algorithms in this course.

Lecture plan: