Introduction to Algorithms 6 006 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professors Konstantinos Daskalakis and Patrick Jaillet September 9 2010 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 create an account on the 6 006 website at https sec csail mit edu and 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 a recitation 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 Staff Lecturers Teaching Assistants Konstantinos Daskalakis costis csail mit edu 32 G694 617 253 9643 Patrick Jaillet jaillet mit edu 32 D624 617 452 3379 Jenny Barry jlbarry mit edu Arnab Bhattacharyya abhatt mit edu 617 253 9302 Matt Goldstein austein mit edu 617 324 9037 Alina Griner a griner mit edu Aleksander Madry madry mit edu 617 258 5791 World Wide Web http courses csail mit edu 6 006 fall10 Emails Entire Class Faculty Staff TAs 6 006 students mit edu 6 006 faculty mit edu 6 006 staff mit edu 6 006 tas mit edu 2 2 Handout 1 Course Information Prerequisites A strong understanding of programming in Python and a solid 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 or a professor before taking the course 3 Course 6 requirements Under the new curriculum 6 006 serves as a Foundational Computer Science course It is a prerequisite for 6 046 which serves as a Computer Science theory header 4 Lectures Lectures will be held in Room 4 370 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 One hour recitations will be held on Wednesdays and Fridays We will decide the locations and times to minimize the number of students with conflicts 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 We do NOT use the recitation assignments made by the scheduling office During the first meet of the class Thursday September 9 the professor will tell you how to register on the course webpage The course staff will assign recitations based on the information you provide on the course website by running an appropriate algorithm that minimizes the number of conflicts Recitation assignments will be posted shortly thereafter to the course website If you cannot make any recitation time you should not take the class 6 Problem sets Six problem sets will be assigned during the semester The course calendar available from the course 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 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 be two days late on the first part and two days late on the second part However the total number of days that you are late over the course of the semester must not exceed six 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 We strongly encourage that problem set solutions other than code be written in LaTeX using the template provided on the website They should be uploaded to the class website in PDF form by 11 59PM of the due date If hand drawn diagrams are useful for explaining solutions please refer to the diagrams in your LaTeX submission scan them and include them in your submission If you are unable to use LaTeX you may scan and submit your handwritten problem set solutions 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 13 and Wednesday November 17 The quizzes will be two hours long starting at 7 30PM room to be announced Recitations on 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 6 problem sets two quizzes and a final The problem sets 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 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 may 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 4 9 Handout 1 Course Information 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
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