CSI 3334: Data structures, Fall 2004

Announcements

Tuesday, 12/14/2004
That's all, folks! The finals have been graded, and your raw scores have been entered on Blackboard. I am submitting the official grades today. Here is the breakdown of the final exam (for those who took the exam):
  • maximum points: 260
  • point average: 200.2
  • point standard deviation: 37.19

Good job to all who finished! Merry Christmas and have a restful break.

Thursday, 12/9/2004
Project 4 is now complete... relax! Just the final left. Your grades (not including the final, obviously) are now entered on Blackboard, for you to look at. If I had known earlier this semester that I could make your grades available there, I would have done so.

If you want, you can leave anonymous feedback on my teaching or this course here: ratemyprofessors.com. Or, you could just tell me if you have any feedback.

Please see also the older announcements.

Objectives

This is a course in data structures, which are at the heart of computer science. Data structures and the algorithms that operate on them are the keys to making efficient software. They are also very interesting. This course will allow you to practice your problem solving skills using the material learned in the class. These are the skills you will need to be a successful scientist or engineer.

This course covers:

This is a difficult course. Be prepared to invest the time necessary to understand the concepts, and to do the programming projects. My best advice is to attend the lectures, ask questions, and start projects early.

Practical information

Lectures are from 11:00 AM to 11:50 AM in Rogers 104 on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. For this course you can use the lab in Rogers 112, though there is no lab part of the course.

My office is in the Rogers Engineering and Computer Science building. My office hours are M-F, 1:30-3 PM, and by appointment. I am glad to talk to students during and outside of office hours. The TA for the course is Nina Yao.

Schedule

Here is a schedule of the material we will cover:

Week Dates New topics Chapters Monday Wednesday Friday
1 Aug 23-27 Overview, C++, ADTs 1 Notes Notes Notes, Project 1 assigned
2 Aug 30-Sep 3 Lists 3 Notes, Homework 1 assigned Notes Notes
3 Sep 6-10 Stacks, queues Notes, Homework 1 due, answer key Notes Notes, Project 1 due, feedback
4 Sep 13-17 Analysis 2 Notes, Homework 2 assigned Notes, Project 2 assigned Notes, Drop deadline
5 Sep 20-24 Trees 4 Notes Notes Notes, Homework 2 due, answer key
6 Sep 27-Oct 1 Trees Notes Notes Notes
7 Oct 4-8 Trees Notes Notes, Project 2 due Notes
8 Oct 11-15 Review, midterm Midterm review Midterm exam Fall break
9 Oct 18-22 Heaps 6 Notes Notes, Project 3 assigned Notes
10 Oct 25-29 Hashing 5 Notes Notes, Homework 3 assigned Notes
11 Nov 1-5 Sorting 7 Notes Notes, Homework 3 due, answer key Notes
12 Nov 8-12 Sorting Notes, Project 3 due Notes Notes, Project 4 assigned
13 Nov 15-19 Graphs 9 Notes, Homework 4 assigned Notes Notes
14 Nov 22-26 Graphs Notes, Homework 4 due, answer key Thanksgiving break Thanksgiving break
15 Nov 29-Dec 3 Special topics 8, 10, 12 Notes Notes Notes, Project 4 due
16 Dec 6-10 Review Notes, Last lecture Finals Finals

The final exam is on Tuesday, December 14, 2004 between 9-11 AM.

Textbooks & resources

Required text: we will be using Mark Weiss' textbook Data Structures and Algorithm Analysis in C++ (2nd Edition). You can purchase this book from the Baylor bookstore or amazon, among other places.

Optional text: I also highly recommend the book Introduction to algorithms, by Thomas Cormen, Charles Leiserson, Ronald Rivest, and Clifford Stein. This is in my opinion the best general-purpose book on algorithms, period. It is well worth buying and keeping. You can purchase it at many places, including amazon.

Further online resources:

Grading

Grades will be assigned based on this breakdown:

A: 90-100, B+: 88-89, B: 80-87, C+: 78-79, C: 70-77, D: 60-69, F: 0-59

Some homeworks and projects may be worth more than others. Exams are closed-book. The final will be comprehensive.

There will be several homework assignments. Homeworks are due at the beginning of class on the due dates for full credit. Homeworks turned in after I have collected them but before the end of class will receive a 20% penalty. No homeworks will be accepted after class on the due date.

Project grading

There will be several programming projects. Due dates are firm; no late submissions are permitted. Please see the project submission guidelines for specific information on how to submit your projects.

You will submit your solutions electronically, and you may submit them as many times as you like until the deadline. Only the last submission you make will be graded. When you submit your solution, the submission system will test it on my hidden test cases, to which you will not have access. You will receive a response about whether your program's output matched the output of my solution on the hidden inputs. If your program does not produce identical output to my solution on the test cases (character for character), you will receive no credit for the project.

If your program is submitted by the deadline, and it compiles and produces identical output to my solution, then your grade will be based on two things:

  1. Implementation: you must use data structures in an appropriate manner for the project. In addition, your program should not leak any memory. I will test your code for leaks using valgrind.
  2. Style: adhering to the code style guidelines.

Because the programming projects will be difficult, it is imperative that you start working on them as soon as they are assigned.

Policies

Academic honesty

I take academic honesty very seriously.

Many studies, including one by Sheilah Maramark and Mindi Barth Maline have suggested that "some students cheat because of ignorance, uncertainty, or confusion regarding what behaviors constitute dishonesty" (Maramark and Maline, Issues in Education: Academic Dishonesty Among College Students, U.S. Department of Education, Office of Research, August 1993, page 5). In an effort to reduce misunderstandings in this course, a minimal list of activities that will be considered cheating have been listed below.


Copyright © 2004 Greg Hamerly, with some content taken from a syllabus by Jeff Donahoo.
Computer Science Department
Baylor University

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