CMPUT 396: Algorithmic Problem Solving

Check often. If you have clarification questions send a message to the forum (link below). I am not using eClass in this course, except for the forum and for submitting assignments. In particular, due dates will NOT appear in your eClass calendar!

Fall 2017, Instructor: Michael Buro
Lectures: TR 8:00-9:20 TL 11 (starting Sep. 5)
Office hours MB: TR 9:30-10:00, R 12:30-13:30 (ATH 337)
Office hours TAs: send email to TA to arrange a meeting
TAs: Dylan Hyatt-Denesik (hyattden@...), Joshua Sirota (sirota@...) [UAlberta accounts]

News

Resources

Prerequisites

Important: registration is open to anyone who has passed a CMPUT 2xx course. Students lacking the prerequisite will be withdrawn from the course without notice. Also helpful is the knowledge of fundamental algorithms and data structures (e.g., CMPUT 175, 204, 304, or 275) and coding skills in either C++, Java, or Python.

Tentative Schedule

               Lecture      Assign.   Lecture
  Week of     Tues.(+1)        Thurs.(+3) 
  (Monday) |    8:00             8:00
 1. Sep.04 |     L1          A1r      L2      R1
 2. Sep.11 | SQ? L3                   L4  SQ? R2
 3. Sep.18 | SQ? L5        A1d/A2r    L6  SQ? R3  
 4. Sep.25 | SQ? L7                   L8  SQ? R4
 5. Oct.02 | SQ? L9        A2d/A3r    L10 LQ1 R5
 6. Oct.09 | SQ? L11                  L12 SQ? R6
 7. Oct.16 | SQ? L13       A3d/A4r    L14 SQ? R7
 8. Oct.23 | SQ? L15                  L16 SQ? R8
 9. Oct.30 | SQ? L17       A4d/A5r    L18 SQ? R9
10. Nov.06 | LQ2 L19                  L20 SQ? R10
--  Nov.13 | ====== Reading Week ======== ===
11. Nov.20 | SQ? L21       A5d/A6r    L22 SQ? R11
12. Nov.27 | SQ? L23                  L24 SQ? R12
13. Dec.04 | SQ? L25         A6d      L26 SQ? REX
                                              
Legend: Li         : lecture i
        Ajr/Ajd    : assignment j released / due (Thursdays 8:00)
        LQi        : long quiz i about previous 4 weeks' content (Tuesdays)
        SQ?        : short quiz about previous week's content (randomized) 
        Final Exam : Dec-21-2017 9-11am, Main Gymnasium Rows 1,3, CLOSED BOOK FORMAT

Purpose

This course presents fundamental search algorithms and their applications to decision problems and optimization.

(Tentative) Topics

Course Work

There will be 6 assignments, 8 quizzes, and a final exam.

Grading

Please visit this page to learn about our interpretation of letter grades. In this course grades will not be curved, they are absolute - closely following these cut points: 
≥ 95% A+   ≥ 90% A    ≥ 85% A-
≥ 80% B+   ≥ 75% B    ≥ 70% B-
≥ 65% C+   ≥ 60% C    ≥ 55% C-
≥ 50% D+   ≥ 45% D    < 45% F
subject to this important condition: if the result of the final exam is less than 40%, the final course grade can't be better than D+.

Quizzes

There will be 8 in-class quizzes in this course: 2 long (~40 minutes) and 6 short (~10 minutes). After each lecture week students are expected to go over the covered material at home and answer sample questions that will be provided. In the Tuesday meeting the following week there might be a short quiz that checks whether students actually did their homework. The 6 short quizzes are scheduled randomly throughout the term and we will only consider the best 5. Missed short exams will receive 0 marks.

Long quizzes are scheduled ~4 weeks and ~8 weeks into the term (see schedule). They function as "midterm exams light" covering the recent ~4 weeks of course content. All quizzes will commence 8:03 sharp. The weight of missed long quizzes will be moved to the final exam.

Assignments

Assignments are comprised of small programming tasks and exercises related to recently covered course material. Solutions have to be handed in by 08:00 on the due dates electronically via eClass. We will allow groups up to *2* students working on one assignment. Each student will be allowed AT MOST ONE assignment submission that is late by at most 24 hours. For such late assignments 30% of the achievable marks will be deducted. Any subsequent late submission will receive 0 marks - as will submissions that are late by more than 24 hours. Assignment marking related questions will be addressed by the TAs. You need to contact them within 2 days after you the marked assignments have been returned. Later inquiries will be ignored.

Program Input/Output

Please ensure that the following invocation of your submitted programs works on the ugrad machines: 
  ./prog < inputfile > outputfile
where < and > are redirection operators. Your programs are supposed to communicate via the standard input and output streams, rather than reading from files or writing to files. Also, your code is not supposed to ask for inputs or to print anything beyond what's described. Quite a few marks will be deducted if I/O doesn't work.

Final Exam

The final 2h exam will cover all course material: The exam question format will be similar to that of the long quizzes, including multiple-choice and bonus questions. To prepare for the exam, read the lecture material and then try to answer all reading/assignment/quiz questions *before* looking up solutions (see the "final" reading assignment for additional questions relating to the last lecture week). Forming study groups is highly recommended.

Deferred final exam date: Monday, Jan. 8, 2018, 14:00 to 16:00 (ATH 332)

Academic Integrity

The University of Alberta is committed to the highest standards of academic integrity and honesty. Students are expected to be familiar with these standards regarding academic honesty and to uphold the policies of the University in this respect. Students are particularly urged to familiarize themselves with the provisions of the Code of Student Behaviour and avoid any behaviour which could potentially result in suspicions of cheating, plagiarism, misrepresentation of facts and/or participation in an offence. Academic dishonesty is a serious offence and can result in suspension or expulsion from the University. (GFC 29 SEP 2003)

Copying and cheating on assignments will be penalized with a mark of 0 (see the standard handouts for academic dishonesty and copying and cheating), and Section 30.3.2 Inappropriate Academic Behaviour.

Course Policies

Unless otherwise noted, the CS Department Policies are in effect.

Collaboration

In this course we use the "Consultation" model: students are encouraged to discuss and solve problem sets in small groups to speed up learning and stimulate idea exchange. In the end, however, students must write down their own solutions and be able to solve similar problems independently.

Regardless of the collaboration method allowed, you must always properly acknowledge the sources you used and people you worked with. Failure to give proper credit is considered plagiarism. In general, academic dishonesty is a serious offence and can result in suspension or expulsion from the University.

Your professors reserve the right to give you an exam (oral, written, or both) to determine the degree that you participated in the making of the deliverable, and how well you understand what was submitted. For example, you may be asked to explain any code that was submitted and why you choose to write it that way. This may impact the mark that you receive for the deliverable.

Note that this potential additional questioning about your deliverable is part of the assessment process, both summative (for marks) and formative (for feedback to you and us). It is intended to give us additional information about what you have learned. So, whenever you submit a deliverable, especially if you collaborate, you should be prepared for an individual inspection/walkthrough in which you explain what every line of your code, assignment, design, documentation etc. does and why you chose to write it that way.

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