about me jesse hartloff, phd hartloff@buffalo office: 203 davis (may change) office hours: tbd
TRANSCRIPT
About Me
Jesse Hartloff, PhDhartloff@buffalo
Office: 203 Davis (may change)
Office hours: TBD
Course Resources
• Piazza– https://piazza.com/buffalo/summer2015/cse331/
home
• Course website (Schedule)– http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~hartloff/CSE331-Su
mmer2015/index.html
• Syllabus available on Piazza and website
Pre-requisites
Required (officially)CSE 250, CSE 191 and MTH 142At least a C-
Required (for practical purposes)Comfort with proofsWillingness to work hard!
Academic Dishonesty
• All your submissions must be your own work• If I catch you cheating, you will get a 0 on the assignment
and possibly an F in the course• You’re responsible to know what is cheating, plagiarism
etc.– If you’re unsure, come talk to me
• Excuses like “I have a job,” “This was OK earlier/in my country,” etc. WON’T WORK
Disabilities
Information included in the syllabus
In short, let me know and consult with Office of Disability Services
Recitations
• Review homework and example• Cover unclear material• Will be casual
Exams
Mid termThursday, July 9 Norton 218 2-4pm
Final examThursday, August 13Norton 218 2-5pm
Grading
• Grading Policy • Here is the distribution of grades:
– Homeworks (40%) – Programming Assignments (40%) – Exams (20%)
• A 90% • A- 87% • B+ 84% • B 80% • B- 77% • C+ 74%• C 70% • C- 65% • D 60% • F 50%
TBA Office hours
• You decide
This course: how to solve problems!
http://xkcd.com/173/
Why should I care?
Why should I care?
From someone who got a job at Google
“You can let your algorithms class know that the phone interviews are essentially like a difficult algorithms test.
Lots of data structures, specifying the algorithm, analyzing the run time and space requirements... And all on the phone and you're supposed to talk through your thought process.”
Why care about algorithms?
Driving directions
Why care about algorithms?
Computing Bestsellers on the fly
Why care about algorithms?
Booking cheapest air tickets
Why care about algorithms?
Data compression
http://www.di.ens.fr/~cherniav/teaching.html
Why care about algorithms?
Error correction
http://www.switched.com/2010/02/11/fix-dvd-scratches-using-a-banana-and-toothpaste/
Why care about algorithms?
Google searches
Amazon
• How does Amazon fulfill so many orders so fast?
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADgSTMla3EU
• Efficiency is the key– We will see this a lot in this course– Not good enough to just solve a problem. It must
be fast!– We will do lots of runtime analysis
Algorithms are everywhere
Now about the course
It will be hard!
We’ll do loads of
Writing down your thought process formally and precisely!
Proofs!
The language of proofs
Brad Pitt had a beard
Every goat has a beard
waleg.com
animaldiversity.org
Hence, Brad Pitt is a goat?Hence, Brad Pitt is a goat?
*Problem from homework 0
A common complaint
Your examples in class look nothing like HW questions.
True because….
zazzle.com
False because…
HWs and exams will test your understanding of the material
What I’ll strive to do
Help you with your questions and/or doubts
If need be, email me for time outside of regular office hours
I’m not a mind reader
Tell me what you don’t understandso I can explain it better
Homework 0
Will be graded but not count towards your grade
Hopefully can avoid some common mistakes in the HWs that count
Online by Thursday. Due Thursday, May 30
Follow the Textbook
The only way to do well is to work hard
Structure of Homeworks
Easy Problem (40%)
Medium hard Problem (45%)
Hard Problem (15%)
Warning: Easy != Plug n’ Chug
Lecture pace
Mid-term
Who is Algorithm named after?
Abū ‘Abd Allāh Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī
9th century Persian astronomer/mathematician
825 AD: “On Calculation with Arabic Numerals”
Latin translation 12th century
“Algorithmi de numero Indorum”
What are Algorithms?
Don Knuth
Don Knuth Reward Checks
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32184482@N03/3010989157/
Knuth’s Definition
An algorithm is a finite, definitive, effectiveprocedure with some input and some output
From problem to software
Day 1 Survey
• On UBLearns
• What do you want to do after graduation?• What are your hobbies?
• So I can get a feel for who you are and possibly customize examples to the classes common interests
Questions/Comments?