George Mason University 

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

CS630 - Advanced Algorithms - Spring 2014

T 7:20-10:00, AB 2026

Prerequisites | Description | Readings | Syllabus | Grading | Late | Dates

TA and Instructions for Mailing List

This page last updated on 1/20/14. 

Professor Dana Richards 

703-993-1545 

richards@cs.gmu.edu (email should have "CS630" in the subject line)

Course office hours: TR, 11:00--12:00 or by appt.

Engineering Bldg 5320 

PREREQUISITES : 

CS583 (and therefore CS310, CS 330 and discrete mathematics). 

DESCRIPTION : 

Provides an overview of advanced algorithm design and analysis techniques. Topics include algorithms for hash tables, matrix operations, number theory, string matching, computational geometry, combinatorial optimization, and linear programming; also the areas of NP-completeness and approximation algorithms. 

This course covers those topics in the text not usually discussed in CS583, plus a few other topics.

READINGS: 

• Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest and Stein, Introduction to Algorithms, 2009, third edition.

SYLLABUS: 

The material will be drawn from. 

• Introductory material - Various problems from the review chapters
• Data structures - chapters 11, 18, 20 and splay trees.
• Design and analysis techniques - chapter  16  (starred sections)
• Graph algorithms - chapter 26.
• Selected topics - chapters 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 35

There are more chapters listed here than we will have time to cover.

GRADING : 

Exams -- 100%

The two exams, the midterm and the final, each cover about a half of the semester; i.e., the final is not cumulative. 

Of these exams the highest score will count 60% and the lowest 40%. 

Late work and missed exams will not be allowed without an official university excuse. 

The midterm date will be announced; it is tentatively scheduled for March 18. 

The final is scheduled for May 13. 

NO LAPTOPS, etc. (If you NEED a laptop for note-taking then speak to me.)