TIN093/DIT602, Period 1, 2017: Algorithms

Instructor

Additional Lecturer

Assistants

Email: add "(at)chalmers.se", unless said otherwise.

Announcements

Link to Period 4 and Previous Exams (Period 1)

Lecture Notes

Numbers indicate the related book sections. (Note: Chapters have different numbers in some editions of the book. But it should be easy to recognize this and find the correct chapters by their titles.)

Exercises

Do not confuse them with the assignments. Some of these exercises are discussed in the sessions. The exercises (except set 1) are taken from the textbook.

Assignments

Times and Places

Lectures:
Monday 8:00-9:45, room HA4
Wednessday 10:00-11:45, room HB3

Exercise sessions:
Monday 10:00-11:45, room EC
Wedneday 13:15-15:00, room EC
Wedneday 15:15-17:00, room EC

Literature

The course material consists of parts of the textbook
Jon Kleinberg, Eva Tardos: Algorithm Design. Pearson/Addison-Wesley 2006, ISBN 0-321-29535-8.
It should be available at Cremona.

Brief Course Description

(See also the syllabus.)

The course provide basic knowledge and methods for the design and analysis of fast and well-founded (correct) algorithms that solve new problems with the use of computers. The intuitive notion of time complexity is applied in a strict sense. After completion of this course, you should be able to:

This is not a course in programming! The main focus is on the analytical work that has to be done before writing any line of code, if one wants to solve a new problem with the help of computers.

Grades are based on the points in the written exam. Point limits for grades 3, 4, 5 and G, VG will be announced.

Oral Exercises and Written Assignments

"Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Let me do and I understand." (attributed to Confucius)

Computational problems in practice rarely occur in nice textbook form. We must be able to apply techniques to new problem, or adapt and adjust known algorithms to new variants of known problems. Therefore this course is problem-oriented. Also the exam will require problem solving.

Moreover, one cannot learn these skills just by listening and reading. It is important to invest own work and actively solve problems. The course offers possibilities for that:

Exercises and assignments:
They are voluntary, but it is strongly recommended to work on these problems as much as you can. Then you will be in a much better position in the exam. But we also hope that you work on them because you find them interesting as such.

Exercise sessions:
They are used to discuss and solve problems, e.g., from the textbook. This is also a place to ask questions about the course contents and the assignments. We have three identical sessions per week, so you should choose one of them.

Written solutions to assignments:
Most importantly, train your ability to explain solutions in written form. Comprehensible writing is not trivial, and in the exam you must do it - and you want the graders to understand your solutions. We advise you to submit written solutions to the assignments. The deadline is always Sunday 23:59. (That is, the system will close at that time. Of course, you may submit earlier.) All assignments shall be done individually. Discussion is encouraged, but what you submit must be written in your own words and reflect your own understanding. Submission details: see below.

Seeking more help:
Feel free to send any questions or to book consultations by mail. You may also drop by our offices, but we may be busy or away, therefore it is advisable to make appointments by mail.

Submission Details

The link to the Fire submission system is here.

First create an account in the Fire system. You do this only once.

As all assignments are individual, you don't have to create a group in Fire.

To create an account: Go to the submission system. Use only the link on the course homepage. Bookmark it (you will need it again), click on "Click here to register as a student" and fill in your email address, preferably the Chalmers address. You will get a mail with a web address. Click the address, it leads you to a page where you can fill in your data: name, personal security number, and a password. Spell your name correctly as "Firstname Surname" (only the most commonly used first name is needed, with big initial letters) and write your personal number as yymmdd-xxxx with the dash, i.e., the minus sign. Log on using the account you just created.

To submit a solution: Log on to Fire again. Upload the file(s) that make up your solution. Finally (easy to forget), press the "submit" button. Fire will close exactly at the given deadlines, therefore, do not wait until the last minute.

Solutions should be submitted as PDF files, created with a word processor or latex or by scanning handwritten sheets - provided that they are readable. Your file must contain your names. Send one separate file for each problem.

From the grader you will receive a mail with comments. You can also download the comments from Fire.