CSCI 570 Analysis of Algorithms
Spring   2016



Lecture& Discussion Instructor: Dr. Shawn Shamsian
Instr. Phone: 213-740-5972 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            213-740-5972      end_of_the_skype_highlighting Office Hours:
 Wednesday         2:00pm-6:30pm

Thursday         2:00pm-6:30pm
Email: sshamsia@usc.edu
Instr. Office: SAL 318



Discussion Instructor: Dr. Jeffrey Miller
Instr. Phone: To be announced begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            To be announced      end_of_the_skype_highlighting Office Hours:
 Every other Friday 1:00-2:00pm starting from week 2
Email: jeffrey.miller@usc.edu
Instr. Office: To be announced


Class Meeting Time & Location
Section Day Time Location Instructor
30101D  Wednesday 06:40pm-09:20pm SGM 123 Shawn Shamsian
30102D  Thursday 06:50pm-09:30pm SGM 123 Shawn Shamsian
30099D  Thursday 06:50pm-09:30pm DEN@Viterbi Shawn Shamsian


TA : Hao Feng TA Office: SAL Lab (SAL 109)
Email: haofeng@usc.edu
Office Hours: Friday 10:30am-2:30pm
  
TA : Kiran Matam TA Office: SAL 125
Email: kmatam@usc.edu
Office Hours: Friday 1:30pm-5:30pm
  
TA : Hsing-Hau Chen TA Office: SAL LAB (SAL 109)
Email: hsinghau.chen@usc.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday 12:00pm-2:00pm
Thursday 12:00pm-2:00pm
  
TA : Amirhossein Mohajerin Ariaei TA Office: EEB 533
Email: mohajera@usc.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday 3:00pm-5:00pm
  
TA : Shay Deutsch TA Office: PHE 222
Email: shaydeut@usc.edu
Office Hours: Thursday 10:00am-2:00pm
  
TA : Palash Goyal TA Office: EEB 242
Email: palashgo@usc.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday 10:00am-12:00pm
  
TA : Danyong Zhao TA Office: SAL Lab (SAL 109)
Email: danyongz@usc.edu
Office Hours: Monday 2:00pm-6:00pm
  
TA : Mohammad Asghari TA Office: RTH 323
Email: masghari@usc.edu
Office Hours: Wednesday 10:00am-12:00pm
  
TA : Yuan Shi TA Office: SAL 311
Email: yuanshi@usc.edu
Office Hours: Monday 11:00am-1:00pm
Thursday 2:00pm-4:00pm
  
TA : Lian Liu TA Office: SAL 246
Email: lianliu@usc.edu
Office Hours: Wednesday 1:00pm-5:00pm
  


Course Information

Students in the class are expected to have a reasonable degree of mathematical sophistication, and to be familiar with the basic notions of algorithms and data structures, discrete mathematics, and probability. Undergraduate classes in these subjects should be sufficient. If you have doubts about meeting these prerequisites, please contact the instructor.

Discussion sessions (50 mins on Fridays) are led by instructors and are designed to give students hands on experience in applying concepts covered in lecture that week to solving new problems. Students get an opportunity to solve problems individually and then discuss their solutions as a group.

Class Structure

Syllabus

This syllabus is meant as an outline. Depending on progress, material may be added or removed. Also, there will often be interesting tangents to follow.

Topics/Daily Activities Readings and Homework Homework Due Date
Week 1 intro, stable matching Reading: chapter 1
Home assignment 1 		Week 2
Week 2 Asymptotic notation, BFS, DFS, greedy algorithms Reading: chapters 2, 3, 4
Home assignment 2 		Week 3
Week 3 Greedy algorithms Reading: chapter 4,
supplemental text chapters 6,19
Home assignment 3 		Week 4
Week 4 heaps, MST, shortest path Reading: chapter 4, 5
Home assignment 4 		Week 5
Week 5 divide and conquer Reading: chapter 5
Home assignment 5 		Week 6
Week 6 Exam I
Week 7 dynamic programming Reading: chapter 6
Home assignment 6 		Week 8
Week 8 dynamic programming Reading: chapter 6
Home assignment 7 		Week 9
Week 9 network flow - max flow Reading: chapter 7
Home assignment 8 		Week 10
Week 10 Spring Break
Week 11 network flow - circulation Reading: chapter 7
Home assignment 9 		Week 12
Week 12 Exam II
Week 13 NP-completeness Reading: chapter 8
Home assignment 10 		Week 14
Week 14 NP-completeness Reading: chapter 8,
supplemental text chapter 34
Home assignment 11 		Week 15
Week 15 approximation algorithms Reading: chapter 11,
supplemental text chapter 35
Home assignment 12 		Week 16
Week 16 Exam III

Exam Schedule

  • Wednesday Section:
    Exam Date Location & Time & Student Allocation Covered Materials Weight
    Exam I Feb. 19th 8:00pm-10:00pm
    location & student allocation     		Lecture Covered from Week 1 to Week 5 30%
    Exam II April. 1st 8:00pm-10:00pm
    location & student allocation     		Lecture Covered from Week 7 to Week 10 30%
    Exam III April. 29th 8:00pm-10:00pm
    location & student allocation     		Comprehensive from Week 1 to Week 15 40%
  • Thursday Section:
    Exam Date Location & Time & Student Allocation Covered Materials Weight
    Exam I Feb. 19th 8:00pm-10:00pm
    location & student allocation     		Lecture Covered from Week 1 to Week 5 30%
    Exam II April. 1st 8:00pm-10:00pm
    location & student allocation     		Lecture Covered from Week 7 to Week 10 30%
    Exam III April. 29th 8:00pm-10:00pm
    location & student allocation     		Comprehensive from Week 1 to Week 15 40%

    Grading

    There will be three exams in this course. Exam I and exam II worth 30% and exam III 40%. There will be homework assigned from the textbook roughly every 1-2 weeks. The homework will be collected and graded but Will NOT be accounted in your grade; Solutions to the homework will become available shortly after the deadline.

    Assignment Submission Policy

    Homework assignments are assigned on a weekly basis. Homework assignments are collected, graded and returned to students but homework grades do not count towards final grades as indicated in the grading breakdown. Students are highly encouraged to submit homework assignments for grading since this provides them an opportunity to receive feedback on their work before exams. Also, homework assignments contain questions from previous exams and help familiarize students with the types of questions they can expect on exams.

    Additional Policies

    • Academic Integrity Policies of the University will be strictly enforced. You are encouraged to review these policies, for example in SCampus.
    • Please visit course homepage and check Announcements regularly.
    • No late homework will be accepted unless approval is granted from the instructor in advance.

    Academic Integrity

    All homeworks must be solved and written independently, or you will be penalized for cheating. The USC Student Conduct Code prohibits plagiarism. All USC students are responsible for reading and following the Student Conduct Code, which appears on SCampus.

    In this course we encourage students to study together. This includes discussing general strategies to be used on individual assignments. However, all work submitted for the class is to be done individually.

    Some examples of what is not allowed by the conduct code: copying all or part of someone else's work (by hand or by looking at others' files, either secretly or if shown), and submitting it as your own; giving another student in the class a copy of your assignment solution; consulting with another student during an exam. If you have questions about what is allowed, please discuss it with the instructor.

    Students who violate University standards of academic integrity are subject to disciplinary sanctions, including failure in the course and suspension from the University. Since dishonesty in any form harms the individual, other students, and the University, policies on academic integrity will be strictly enforced. We expect you to familiarize yourself with the Academic Integrity guidelines found in the current SCampus.

    Violations of the Student Conduct Code will be filed with the Office of Student Conduct, and appropriate sanctions will be given.