ICS 311 Spring 2025 Schedule

Week 1: Introduction and Basic Concepts (Mostly review of ICS 211, 141 and 241)

• Mon 01/13: #1 & #4 - Introduction to Course, Review of Basic Data Structures

  • Reading: CLRS Chapters 1 & 10

  • Lecture Notes: Topic 01, Topic 04

  • Screencasts: 01A-C (in Laulima Wiki), 04A, 04B

• Wed 01/15: #3 Growth of Functions and Asymptotic Concepts

  • Reading: CLRS Chapter 3

  • Lecture Notes: Topic 03

  • Screencasts: 03A, 03B, 03C, 03D

  • (Additional Screencasts): MIT Lecture 02 (beginning-16:50).

• Fri 01/17:

  • Due: Problem Set #1 (Topics 1, 3, & 4) at 4pm outside POST 309

Week 2: Algorithm Correctness and Analysis

• Mon 01/20: HOLIDAY

• Wed 01/22: #2 - Proving Correctness, Analyzing Algorithms

  • Reading: CLRS Chapters 2.1-2.2

  • Lecture Notes: Topic 02

  • Screencasts: 02A, 02B, 02C

  • (Additional Screencasts): MIT Lecture 01 (17:00-1:03:30).

• Fri 01/24:

  • Due: Problem Set #2 (Topic 2) at 4pm outside POST 309

Week 3: Divide & Conquer and Analysis of Recurrences, Heaps and Priority Queues

• Mon 01/27:#7 - Divide & Conquer and Analysis of Recurrences:

  • Reading: CLRS Sections 2.3, 4.1 & 4.3-4.5

  • Lecture Notes: Topic 07

  • Screencasts: 02D (in Laulima), 02E (in Laulima), 07A, 07B, 07C, 07D

  • (Additional Screencasts): MIT Lecture 02 (16:51-end), MIT Lecture 03 (through about 13:07  —  we don't cover Strassen or Fibonacci numbers).

• Wed 01/29: #9 - Heap, Heapsort and Priority Queues:

  • Reading: CLRS Chapter 6

  • Lecture Notes: Topic 09

  • Screencasts: 09A, 09B, 09C, 09D

• Fri 01/31:

  • Due: Problem Set #3 (Topics 7 & 9) at 4pm outside POST 309

Week 4: Binary Search Trees

• Mon 02/03: #8 - Binary Search Trees:

  • Reading: CLRS Chapter 12

  • Lecture Notes: Topic 08

  • Screencasts: 08A, 08B, 08C, 08D

• Wed 02/05: #11 - 2-3-4 Trees and Red-Black Trees:

  • Reading: Sedgewick Chapter 15 (in Laulima) & CLRS Chapter 13

  • Lecture Notes: Topic 11

  • Screencasts: 11A, 11B, 11C, 11D

  • (Additional Screencasts): MIT Lecture 10 (Read Sedgewick first to understand the 2-4 tree and how a RBT is a representation of a 2-4 tree.)

  • Allow extra time for this material!

• Fri 02/07:

  • Due: Problem Set #4 (Topics 8 & 11) at 4pm outside POST 309

Week 5: Probabilistic Analysis and Randomized Algorithms

• Mon 02/10: #5A - Probabilistic Analysis:

  • Reading: CLRS Chapter 5.1-5.3

  • Lecture Notes: Topic 05A

  • Screencasts: 05A, 05B

• Wed 02/12: #5B - Randomized Algorithms, Quicksort:

  • Reading: CLRS Chapter 7 (all)

  • Lecture Notes: Topic 05B

  • Screencasts: 10A, 10B

• Fri 02/14:

  • Due: Problem Set #5 (Topics 5a & 5b) at 4pm outside POST 309

Week 6: HashTables

• Mon 02/17: *HOLIDAY

• Wed 02/19: #6 - Hash Tables:

  • Reading: CLRS Sections 11.1-11.4

  • Lecture Notes: Topic 06

  • Screencasts: 06A, 06B, 06C, 06D

  • (Additional Screencasts): MIT Lecture 07 and MIT Lecture 08 (through 11:02).

• Fri 02/21:

  • Due: Problem Set #6 (Topics 6) at 4pm outside POST 309

Week 7: Selection, Order Statistics, Sorting Lower Bound and Linear Sorting*

• Mon 02/24: #10a - Selection and Order Statistics:

  • Reading: CLRS Chapter 9 (all)

  • Lecture Notes: None

  • Screencast: MIT Lecture 06

• Wed 02/26: #10b - Theoretical Limits, and O(n) Sorts:

  • Reading: CLRS Chapter 8

  • Lecture Notes: Topic 10

  • Screencasts: 10C

  • (Additional Screencasts): MIT Lecture 05.

• Fri 02/28:

  • Due: Problem Set #7 (Topic 10A & 10B) at 4pm outside POST 309

Week 8: Midterm 1 and Backtracking

• Mon 03/03: Midterm 1:

  • Topics 1-11

• Wed 03/05: #12A - Backtracking (Recursive algorithms review):

  • Reading: Chapter 2 (sections 2.1, 2.3-2.4, 2.6, 2.8) of Jeff Erickson's online textbook (the remaining sections provide additional examples, that you may read if you want to see more examples). If you are shaky on recursive algorithms, review Chapter 1 of Jeff Erickson's online textbook.

  • Lecture Notes: None

  • Screencasts: None

• Fri 03/07:

  • Due: Problem Set #8 (Topic 12A) at 4pm outside POST 309

Week 9: Dynamic Programming and Greedy Algorithms

• Mon 03/10: #12A - Dynamic Programming:

  • Reading: CLRS Chapter 14.1-14.5 and Chapter 3 of Jeff Erickson's online textbook (through Section 3.5)

  • Lecture Notes: Topic 12A

  • Screencasts: 12A, 12B, 12C, 12D

  • (Additional Screencasts): MIT Lecture 15

• Wed 03/12:#13 - Greedy Algorithms & Huffman Codes:

  • Reading: CLRS Sections 15.1-15.3

  • Lecture Notes: Topic 13

  • Screencasts: 13A, 13B, 13C

• Fri 03/14:

  • Due: Problem Set #9 (Topics 12B & 13) at 4pm outside POST 309

Week 10: Basic Graph Algorithms

• Mon 03/24: #14A - Graph Representations, Breadth-First Search, Depth-First Search:

  • Reading: CLRS Sections 20.1-20.3; Chapter 5 of Jeff Erickson's lecture notes; Goodrich & Tamassia section on Graph Representations (in Laulima)

  • Lecture Notes: Topic 14A

  • Screencasts: 14A, 14B, 14C, 14D, 14E

  • (Additional Screencasts): MIT Lecture 16 (till minute 23:26, the rest focuses on MST  —  next week's topic).

• Wed 03/26: HOLIDAY

• Fri 03/28:

  • Due: Problem Set #10 (Topics 14A) at 4pm outside POST 309

Week 11: Topological Sort, SCC, Union-Find, MST

• Mon 03/31: #14B - Topological Sort, and Strongly Connected Components:

  • Reading: CLRS Sections 20.4-20.5

  • Lecture Notes: Topic 14B

  • Screencasts: 14F

• Wed 04/02: #16 & #17 - Disjoint Sets, Union-Find & Minimum Spanning Trees:

  • Reading: CLRS Chapters 19.1, 19.3, and 21. Also see Lemma 19.11, 19.12, 19.13 and Theorem 19.14

  • Lecture Notes: Topic 16 (skip Linked List representation: Forest is much better), Topic 17 Notes

  • Screencasts: 17A, 17B, 17C

  • (Additional Screencasts): MIT Lecture 16 (from minute 23:26).

• Fri 04/04:

  • Due: Problem Set #11 (Topics 14B, 16 & 17) at 4pm outside POST 309

Week 12: Finding Shortest Paths in Graphs

• Mon 04/07: #18 - Single-Source Shortest Paths:

  • Reading: CLRS Sections 22.1-22.3

  • Lecture Notes: Topic 18

  • Screencasts: 18A, 18B, 18C

  • (Additional Screencasts): MIT Lecture 17, MIT Lecture 18 (until minute 36:20)

• Wed 04/09: #19 - All-Pairs Shortest Paths:

  • Reading: CLRS Chapter 23

  • Lecture Notes: Topic 19

  • Screencasts: 19A, 19B, 19C

  • (Additional Screencasts): MIT Lecture 19 (00:00-9:00 and 53:00-end)

• Fri 04/11:

  • Due: Problem Set #12 (Topics 18 & 19) at 4pm outside POST 309

Week 13: Midterm 2

• Mon 04/14: Additional practice with Dynamic Programming

• Wed 04/16: Midterm 2:

  • Topics 12-14, 16-19

Week 14: Maximum Flow in Graphs

• Mon 04/21: #20 - Maximum Flow:

  • Reading: CLRS Sections 24.1-24.3

  • Lecture Notes: Topic 20

  • Screencasts: 20A, 20B, 20C

• Wed 04/23: #20 - Maximum Flow (continued):

  • Reading: CLRS Sections 24.1-24.3

  • Lecture Notes: Topic 20

  • Screencasts: 20A, 20B, 20C

• Fri 04/25:

  • Due: Problem Set #13 (Topic 20) at 4pm outside POST 309

Week 15: NP-Completeness and Approximation Algorithms

• Mon 04/28: #24 - Complexity Theory & NP-Completeness:

  • Reading: CLRS Chapter 34

  • Lecture Notes: Topic 24

  • Screencasts: 24A, 24B, 24C

• Wed 04/30: #25 - Approximation Algorithms:

  • Reading: CLRS Chapter 35

  • Lecture Notes: Topic 25

  • Screencasts: 25A, 25B

• Fri 05/02:

  • Due: Problem Set #14 (Topic 24 & 25) at 4pm outside POST 309

Week 16: Multithreading

• Mon 05/05: #22 - Parallel Algorithms:

  • Reading: CLRS Chapter 26

  • Lecture Notes: Topic 22

  • Screencasts: None

• Wed 05/07: Course Review

Finals Week:

• Final Exam: Cumulative on all topics (1-14, 16-20, 22, 24, & 25)

  • Section 1 (MW 12-1:40pm): Friday 12-2pm

  • Section 2 (MW 2-3:40pm): Friday 2:15-4:15pm