Home

Schedule
  & Notes

Syllabus

Class time: Tuesday 5:30-7:45pm

Instructor: Dr. Xiaolan Zhang (Email: xzhang at fordham.edu)
    Office hours: TBA

Course Description: This course is an introduction to algorithms, especially those that are essential to data science. This course covers algorithms for sorting and searching, as well as greedy algorithms, dynamic programming, and graph algorithms. In addition, this course will focus on time and space analysis of algorithms (including big-O time and space analysis), recurrences, loop invariants, lower bounds, hashing, and NP-completeness. Some advanced data structures—such as trees, stacks, and queues—will be reviewed.

Prerequisite: Profficiency in programming, and discrete structure/mathematics

Reference Textbook:

• T. Cormen, C.E. Leiserson, R. L. Rivest, Introduction to Algorithms (MIT Press)
• Dasgupta et al., Algorithms (McGraw-Hill, 2006).
• R. Sedgrewick, K. Waybe, Algorithms, 4th edition

Class website: http://storm.cis.fordham.edu/zhang/cs5835.  All assignments are posted on this site. Check out and use this site often!

Policy:

• Attendance: Attendance of lecture and lab section is mandatory. Please refer to Fordham's policy on class attendance. The total number of absence (excused or unexcused absences) cannot exceed four.

• Use of electrnoic device:You may not use laptops, tablets, or mobile phones during lectures.

• Expectation: Students are expected to spend three to five hours (not including the lecture and lab section) each week in the assigned reading, homework and lab projects. Students are expected to read the assigned chapter of the textbook before the class.

• Assignments: There will be around one assignment every 1-1.5 week, either programming assignments or written assignments. Assignments turned in late will be penalized, and no submission is accepted one week after its due date (you need to write to the instructor to ask for an extension of up to one week for reasons such as illness, heavy workload or other reasons). The maximum number of extensions per person is three. For written assignments, please turn in a hardcopy on the due date.

• Extra Credits: No extra credits opportunity will be given after final exam.

• Academic Integrity: You should only hand in your own work for assignments (written or programming). Copying solutions from others, or from the Web will be penalized as violation of academic integrity. Equally important, you should not let other students copy your solutions to assignments. Please refer to the University's policy on Academic Integrity at http://tinyurl.com/fordham-academic-integrity.

• Assignment (every 1-1.5 week): 45%
• Quizzes (4-5):5%
• Midterm: 25%
• Final Exam: 25%