Introduction to Algorithms Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professors Ron Rivest and Srini Devadas September 6 2007 6 006 Handout 1 Course Information This handout describes basic course information and policies Most of the sections will be useful throughout the course The main items to pay attention to NOW are 1 Be sure to hand in the recitation sign up sheet at the end of lecture 2 Please note the dates of the quizzes Oct 17 and Nov 28 and make sure you will be available on these dates 3 Please note the collaboration policy for homeworks 4 Please note the grading policy and in particular the penalty for missed problems 1 Staff Lecturers Teaching Assistants 2 Ron Rivest rivest mit edu 32 G692 617 253 5880 Srini Devadas devadas mit edu 32 G844 617 253 0454 Michael Lieberman mathmike mit edu TBD 857 928 6521 Yoyo Zhou yoz mit edu TBD 703 501 0275 World Wide Web http courses csail mit edu 6 006 Email 6 006 staff mit edu Prerequisites Some understanding of programming in Python and a good background in discrete mathematics are necessary prerequisites to this course You are expected to have taken 6 01 Introduction to EECS I and 6 042J 18 062J Mathematics for Computer Science and received a grade of C or higher in both classes If you do not meet these requirements you must talk to a TA before taking the course 2 3 3 1 Handout 1 Course Information Course 6 requirements New Curriculum For those students pursing the new curriculum 6 006 will serve as a Fundational Computer Science course Next year 6 046 will have 6 006 as a prerequisite and 6 046 will serve as a Computer Science theory header 3 2 Old Curriculum Students pursuing the old curriculum may count 6 006 as their computer science theory header i e as a substitute for 6 046 Later 6 046 can still be taken and counted as a theory elective Advice if you do so it would be better to wait a bit as the material in 6 046 will be adapted to overlap less with 6 006 material 4 Lectures Lectures will be held in Room 1 190 from 11 00 A M to 12 00 P M ET on Tuesdays and Thursdays You are responsible for material presented in lectures including oral comments made by the lecturer 5 Recitations Two one hour recitations will be held in Room 4 153 on Wednesdays and Fridays Recitation assignments made by the scheduling office are not used The course staff will schedule recitations based on the recitation sign up sheets that should be turned in at the end of the first lecture Students must attend recitations You are responsible for material presented in recitation Attendance in recitation has been well correlated in the past with exam performance Recitations also give you a more intimate opportunity to ask questions and interact with the course staff Your recitation instructor will have a significant say in your final grade 6 Problem sets Six problem sets will be assigned during the semester The course calendar on the last page of this document and also available on the class webpage shows the tentative schedule of assignments and due dates The actual due date will always be on the problem set itself A large portion of each problem set will be a coding assignment to be done in Python Any code for submission will be uploaded to the class website and the final submission will be graded Handout 1 Course Information 3 Late homework will generally not be accepted If there are extenuating circumstances you should make prior arrangements with your recitation instructor An excuse from the Dean s Office will be required if prior arrangements have not been made Problem set solutions other than code must be written in LaTeX using the template provided on the website They should be submitted by 11 59PM of the due date You must submit them in PostScript or PDF format following the instructions given on the homework itself If hand drawn diagrams are useful for explaining solutions please refer to the diagrams in your LaTeX submission and hand them in at your next recitation make sure your name is on these diagrams Be sure to fill in the Collaborators section of each problem If you solved the problem alone write none The problem sets include exercises that should be solved but not handed in These questions are intended to help you master the course material and will be useful in solving the assigned problems Material covered in exercises will be tested on exams 7 Exams There will be two evening quizzes on Wednesday October 17 and Wednesday November 28 The quizzes will be two hours long starting at 7 30PM Recitations those days will be optional review sessions There will also be a final exam during finals week 8 Grading policy The final grade will be primarily based on recitation participation 6 problem sets two quizzes and a final Recitation partipation will be worth 20 points The problem sets will together be worth 30 points each quiz will be 20 points and the final exam 30 points There is a penalty for missing i e not attempting problems in the problem set The following table shows the impact of failing to do problems 4 Handout 1 Course Information Problems skipped 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 or more Impact None One hundredth of a letter grade One tenth of a letter grade One fifth of a letter grade One fourth of a letter grade One third of a letter grade One half of a letter grade One letter grade Two letter grades Fail Please observe that this table is for problems skipped not problem sets The specifics of this grading policy are subject to change at the discretion of the course staff Grading of Code Code will be graded for correctness and for the algorithm used Correctness You will be given a public set of unit tests to test your code For grading purposes we will run your code against a more thorough private set of unit tests Your code must run within the time allotted which will vary by assignment Algorithm Your code must come well commented describing the algorithm used Your code must be readable so the TAs will believe that your code does what it claims to do Your algorithm should be efficient 9 Collaboration policy The goal of homework is to give you practice in mastering the course material Consequently you are encouraged to collaborate on problem sets In fact students who form study groups generally do better on exams than do students who work alone If you do work in a study group however you owe it to yourself and your group to be prepared for your study group meeting Specifically you should spend at least 30 45 minutes trying to solve each problem
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