• Instructor: Michele Scquizzato, PGH 574, m...@cs.uh.edu.
• Meetings: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, 10.05am - 11.55am, Agnes Arnold Hall 9, June 1 - July 16.
• Office hours: Mondays and Fridays, 10.00am - 11.00am.
• TA: Santosh K C, syantokc@gmail.com. Office hours: Wednesdays, 1.00pm - 2.00pm, PGH 575.

COSC 3320 provides an introduction to fundamental principles of algorithm design and analysis. A (tentative and subject to change) list of topics covered by the course follows.

• Fundamental concepts: computational problem, algorithm, model of computation. Analysis of correctness and complexity of algorithms.
• The divide-and-conquer paradigm, with applications to sorting and algebraic problems.
• Data structures: trees, heaps, hash tables, binary search trees.
• Graphs and graph algorithms: depth- and breadth-first search, minimum spanning trees, shortest paths.
• The dynamic programming paradigm, with applications to problems on strings.
• An introduction to NP-Completeness: complexity classes P, NP, co-NP and NPC, and polynomial-time reductions.

COSC 2320. If you take this class without this prerequisite, you forfeit your right to complain that the class is at an inappropriate level.

Your performance will be measured in three ways. (The percentage contributions to your grade given below are approximate.)

• Homework: 20%. They are assigned each Wednesday, and due the following Wednesday. All homework is due at the start of class on the date due, and no late homework is accepted. Homework has to be submitted individually, i.e., no group submissions are allowed. If a student's homework scores are conspicuously/suspiciously higher than a student's exam grades, the instructor reserves the right to base the course grade on only the exam scores.
  
  Homework 1   Homework 2   Homework 3   Homework 4   Homework 5   Homework 6  
  
  
• Midterm: 40%. It will consist of a few exercises similar to the ones in the homework, and possibly some theoretical questions such as proving some theorem seen in class. This test is closed book, closed notes. Date: June 30, 10.00am - 12.00am, Agnes Arnold Hall 9.
• Final Exam: 40%. It will consist of a few exercises similar to the ones in the homework, and possibly some theoretical questions such as proving some theorem seen in class. This test is closed book, closed notes. Date: July 22, 11.00am - 1.00pm, Agnes Arnold Hall 9.

• T. H. Cormen, C. E. Leiserson, R. L. Rivest, and C. Stein: Introduction to Algorithms, 3rd edition, The MIT Press, 2009.

Not required, but highly recommended.