Introduction to Algorithms: 6.006Massachusetts Institute of Technology September 9, 2010Professors Konstantinos Daskalakis and Patrick Jaillet Handout 1Course InformationThis handout describes basic course information and policies. Most of the sections will beuseful throughout the course. The main items to pay attention to NOW are:1. Be sure to create an account on the 6.006 website at https://sec.csail.mit.eduand fill out the student information sheet. You should register using your Athena username(but not your Athena password). You MUST do this by 2:00PM today in order to receive arecitation assignment.2. Please note the dates of the quizzes on the attached calendar and plan trips accordingly.Notify the staff if you have an unavoidable conflict, e.g., an exam in another class.3. Please note the collaboration policy for homeworks.4. Please note the grading policy.1 StaffLecturers: Konstantinos Daskalakis 32-G694, [email protected] Jaillet 32-D624, [email protected] Assistants: Jenny [email protected] Bhattacharyya [email protected] Goldstein [email protected] [email protected] Madry [email protected] Wide Web: http://courses.csail.mit.edu/6.006/fall10Emails: Entire Class [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Handout 1: Course Information2 PrerequisitesA strong understanding of programming in Python and a solid background in discrete mathematicsare necessary prerequisites to this course.You are expected to have taken 6.01 Introduction to EECS I and 6.042J/18.062J Mathematicsfor Computer Science, and received a grade of C or higher in both classes. If you do not meet theserequirements, you must talk to a TA or a professor before taking the course.3 Course 6 requirementsUnder the new curriculum, 6.006 serves as a Foundational Computer Science course. It is a pre-requisite for 6.046, which serves as a Computer Science theory header.4 LecturesLectures will be held in Room 4-370 from 11:00 A.M. to 12:00 P.M. ET on Tuesdays and Thurs-days.You are responsible for material presented in lectures, including oral comments made by thelecturer.5 RecitationsOne-hour recitations will be held on Wednesdays and Fridays. We will decide the locations andtimes to minimize the number of students with conflicts.You are responsible for material presented in recitation. Attendance in recitation has beenwell correlated in the past with exam performance. Recitations also give you a more intimateopportunity to ask questions and interact with the course staff.We do NOT use the recitation assignments made by the scheduling office. During the first meetof the class (Thursday, September 9), the professor will tell you how to register on the course web-page. The course staff will assign recitations based on the information you provide on the coursewebsite (by running an appropriate algorithm that minimizes the number of conflicts). Recita-tion assignments will be posted shortly thereafter to the course website. If you cannot make anyrecitation time, you should not take the class.6 Problem setsSix problem sets will be assigned during the semester. The course calendar, available from thecourse webpage, shows the tentative schedule of assignments, and due dates. The actual due datewill always be on the problem set itself.A large portion of each problem set will be a coding assignment to be done in Python. Anycode for submission must uploaded to the class website, and the final submission will be graded.Handout 1: Course Information 3• You are allowed to be late by at most two days for any problem set deadline. (For example,if a problem set has two parts with each having separate deadlines, you are allowed to betwo days late on the first part and two days late on the second part.) However, the totalnumber of days that you are late over the course of the semester must not exceed six. If thereare extenuating circumstances, you should make prior arrangements with your recitationinstructor.An excuse from the Dean’s Office will be required if prior arrangements have not been made.• We strongly encourage that problem set solutions (other than code) be written in LaTeXusing the template provided on the website. They should be uploaded to the class websitein PDF form by 11:59PM of the due date. If hand-drawn diagrams are useful for explainingsolutions, please refer to the diagrams in your LaTeX submission, scan them, and includethem in your submission. If you are unable to use LaTeX you may scan and submit yourhandwritten problem set solutions.Be sure to fill in the “Collaborators” section of each problem. If you solved the problemalone, write “none”.• The problem sets include exercises that should be solved but not handed in. These questionsare intended to help you master the course material and will be useful in solving the assignedproblems. Material covered in exercises will be tested on exams.7 ExamsThere will be two evening quizzes, on Wednesday October 13, and Wednesday November 17.The quizzes will be two hours long, starting at 7:30PM (room to be announced). Recitations onthose days will be optional review sessions.There will also be a final exam during finals week.8 Grading policyThe final grade will be primarily based on 6 problem sets, two quizzes, and a final. The problemsets will together be worth 30 points, each quiz will be 20 points, and the final exam 30 points.The specifics of this grading policy are subject to change at the discretion of the course staff.Grading of CodeCode 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 may run your code against a more thorough private set of unit tests. Your code must runwithin the time allotted (which will vary by assignment).Algorithm Your code must come well-commented describing the algorithm used. Your code mustbe readable so the TAs will believe that your code does what it claims to do. Your algorithmshould be efficient.4 Handout 1: Course Information9 Collaboration policyThe goal of homework is to give you practice in mastering the course material. Consequently, youare encouraged to collaborate on problem sets. In fact, students who form study groups generallydo better on exams than do students who work alone. If you do work in a study group, however,you owe it to yourself and
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