Computer Laboratory – Course material 2007

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Algorithms II

Lecturer: Dr F.M. Stajano

No. of lectures: 8

Prerequisite courses: Algorithms I (CST students) or Data Structures and Algorithms (Diploma)

This course is a prerequisite for Computer Graphics and Image Processing, Complexity Theory, Artificial Intelligence I.

Aims

The aim of this course is to give further insights into the design and analysis of non-trivial algorithms through the discussion of several complex algorithms in the fields of graphs and computer graphics, which are increasingly critical for a wide range of applications.

Lectures

Advanced data structures. Fibonacci heaps. Disjoint sets. [Ref: Ch 20, 21] [1-2 lectures]
Graph algorithms. Graph representations. Breadth-first and depth-first search. Topological sort. Minimum spanning tree. Kruskal and Prim algorithms. Shortest paths. Bellman-Ford and Dijkstra algorithms. Maximum flow. Ford-Fulkerson method. Matchings in bipartite graphs. [Ref: Ch 22, 23, 24, 25, 26] [4-5 lectures]
Geometric algorithms. Intersection of segments. Convex hull: Graham's scan, Jarvis's march. [Ref: Ch 33] [1-2 lectures]

Objectives

At the end of the course students should

have a good understanding of how several elaborate algorithms work
have a good understanding of how a smart choice of data structures may be used to increase the efficiency of particular algorithms
be able to analyse the space and time efficiency of complex algorithms
be able to design new algorithms or modify existing ones for new applications and reason about the efficiency of the result

Recommended reading

* Cormen, T.H., Leiserson, C.D., Rivest, R.L. & Stein, C. (2001). Introduction to Algorithms. MIT Press (2nd ed.). ISBN 0-262-53196-8
Sedgewick, R. (2004). Algorithms in Java, vol 2. (note that C and C++ editions are also available and are equally good for this course). Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-36121-3.
Kleinberg, J. & Tardos, É. (2006). Algorithm design. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-321-29535-8.

Students are expected to buy and make extensive use of one of the above references: those not doing so will be severely disadvantaged. The easiest and recommended choice is Cormen et al. which covers all the topics in the syllabus: the pointers in the syllabus are to chapters in that book. The other textbooks are all excellent alternatives and are sometimes clearer or more detailed than Cormen, but they are not guaranteed to cover every item in the syllabus. Their relative merits are discussed in the course handout.

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