The following documents outline the notes for the course CS 165 Project in Algorithms and Data Structures.

Note: Some of the notes are in PDF format. Viewing these files requires the use of a PDF Reader.

Notes by Lecture Schedule

• Week 1: Introduction. Algorithm Analysis. Select Sorting Algorithms.
  • Algorithm Analysis (Powerpoint)
  • Wikipedia article on Big-Oh notation
  • Selected Sorting Algorithms (Powerpoint)
  • Obama's Answer to the Sorting Question
  • Wikipedia article on Merge-sort
  • Wikipedia article on Insertion sort
  • Wikipedia article on Shellsort
  • Microbenchmarking (PDF)
  • plotting.ipynb
  • Shell sort example (PDF)
  • Wikipedia article about log-log plots (focus especially on "Relation with monomials")
• Week 2: Random Numbers and Random Permutations.
• Preparing a Benchmark Driver
• Collecting Timing Data
• Processing Data with Python
• Plotting Your Data
• More about plotting data (PDF)
• C++ example, timing_main.cpp
• Random and Pseudo-Random Numbers (Powerpoint)
• Random Permutations (Powerpoint)
• Wikipedia article on Random number generators
• Wikipedia article on Hardware random number generators
• Wikipedia article on Pseudorandom number generators
• Wikipedia article on the Mersenne Twister PRNG
• Wikipedia article on Fisher-Yates random shuffle algorithm
• Week 3: NP-completeness and Approximation algorithms.
• NP-Completeness (Powerpoint)
• Approximation algorithms (Powerpoint)
• Sorting Analysis for Project 1 (PDF)
• Wikipedia article about NP-completeness
• Wikipedia article about approximation algorithms
• Wikipedia article about harmonic numbers
• Week 4: Bin packing. Binary search trees.
• Bin Packing (Powerpoint)
• Video of Bob Tarjan speaking about zip trees
• Required reading:
  • Paper about zip-zip trees (PDF)
  • Slides about zip-zip trees (PDF)
• Optional reading:
  • Paper about zip trees (PDF)
  • Wikipedia article on the bin-packing problem
  • Approximation Algorithms for Bin Packing
• Week 5: Algorithms and Architectures.
• Algorithms and Architectures (Powerpoint)
• Discussion slides on Floating Point (PDF)
• Relevant Wikipedia articles:
  • Turing machine
  • Alan Turing
  • ENIAC
  • von Neumann architecture
  • John von Neumann
  • Grace Hopper
  • Moore's law
  • Word RAM
  • External-memory algorithm
  • Parallel external memory
  • PRAM model
• Week 6: Network structure.
• Network Structure (Powerpoint)
• Kevin Bacon Visa commercial illustrating six degrees-of-separation
• Wikipedia article on degree distribution
• Wikipedia article on diameter
• Wikipedia article on clustering coefficient
• Week 7: Network algorithms.
• Network Algorithms (Powerpoint)
• Wikipedia article about semi-log plots, e.g., note how the log x function looks like a straight line in a lin-log plot.
• Wikipedia article on breadth-first search
• Wikipedia article on graph degeneracy
• Week 8: Network models.
• Network Models (Powerpoint)
• Wikipedia article on the Erdős–Rényi model
• Wikipedia article on the Barabási–Albert model.
• Efficient generation of large random networks, by Batagelj and Brandes.
• Week 9: Navigation and propagation in networks.
• Navigation and propagation in networks (Powerpoint)
• Wikipedia article on network hubs
• Wikipedia article on Kleinberg's model
• Wikipedia article on PageRank
• Wikipedia article on scale-free networks
• Week 10: Wrap-up on experimental algorithms.
• Principles for Experimental Algorithmics (Powerpoint)
• A Theoretician's Guide to the Experimental Analysis of Algorithms, by David Johnson
• Towards a Discipline of Experimental Algorithmics, by Bernard Moret

Previous Projects, from Spring, 2019