Course Information

Topics

About CS 473ug

This section of CS 473 is intended for undergraduate students in computer science and related fields who have not already taken an algorithms class. See the official description and the difference between Grad and UGrad versions

 

Staff

Lenny Pitt is teaching CS 473ug this semester and is supported by two teaching assistants: Ke Chen, and Nitish Korula. See the Contacts for their availability.

 

Readings

Textbook
The course text is Algorithm Design (first edition), by Kleinberg and Tardos. It is strongly recommended. Readings and Homeworks will be assigned from it. Copies of this text will be on reserve in the Grainger Engineering library.

 

Class Resources

Course Website
There is a lot of material on this website. Use it. Check the class homepage often, and in any case, at least once each day. Also, make sure to reload it (which might involve clearing your cache) to ensure you are seeing the most recent version. Important announcements will be posted as well as handouts, lecture slides, problem sets, and solutions. A variety of other materials, links, and resources can be found on the resources page.

 

Course Newsgroup
The class newsgroup is class.cs473ug for on-line questions and discussions. The news server is news.cs.uiuc.edu and further information on its use can be found at http://news.cs.uiuc.edu. This is the place to post questions and see responses from the TAs, regarding course material and homeworks. Note: No solutions or hints to problems should be posted by students on the newsgroup. Only the instructors or TAs may post solutions or hints. Please do not use this newsgroup for any posts other than those relating to the course (broadly interpreted). Official announcements from the instructor or TAs will have subject line preceded with **OFFICIAL**. You are responsible for checking the newsgroup at least once each day.

 

Homework

Groups

You are encouraged to work in groups of size up to three, though you will get the most out of the homeworks if you spend time thinking about them by yourself first. See the newsgroup and Illinois Compass for instructions on signing up as a group, which you must do, even if you are a group of size one.

Roughly weekly, several problems of (at least) moderate difficulty will be assigned. Each group should work without consulting any resources other than the official course materials (book, lecture notes, newsgroup posts) or personnel (professor, teaching assistants, or graders). Consulting with students outside of the course, or using other documents, problems found on the internet, past notes or solutions, is expressly forbidden. See the course policy on Academic Integrity

 

Regular Homework Submission

On alternating weeks, each group will either submit their homework in writing, or orally. For written homeworks, each group should prepare a single writeup, with the names of each group member on the front page. If there are n problems in the assignment and p people in the group, then each person in the group must write up at least floor[n/p] problems alone (which may then be proofread by other members of the group). For oral homeworks, the group should schedule a presentation time with the TAs. Each member in a group must present at least one of the problems. The assignment of who presents what will be done randomly by the TA at the beginning of the presentation session Refer to the Homework Guidelines for detailed information, suggestions, and general grading criteria for both written and oral homeworks.

 

Checkpoint assignments, tentatively planned, will be handled automatically via UI Compass, and will cover basic understanding and skills that should take no more than an hour. These will be optional, hence worth bonus points, the impact of which can be understood by reading the section below on how grades are determined.

 

Head-Banging Sessions, which are also optional, but strongly encouraged. In particular, it is expected that each student will sign up for one of the four 75-minute sessions available each week. Sessions will be held in Room 0224, Siebel Center. See the newsgroup for information about session timings and how to sign up on Compass. A typical session will involve randomly assigned groups solving hw-style problems (some hard with hints, some easier without) under the helpful supervision of TAs and other course helpers to be named later. The theory is that a massive group head-banging in a friendly atmosphere will prevent (or at least minimize) prolonged individual head-banging and consequent implosion/explosion during the regular written/oral homework assignments. Bonus points will be awarded by the peers that you worked with in the particular headbanging session. Details of how this will work will be forthcoming.

 

Exams

There will be two midterm exams and a final exam. The final exam will be at 1:30-4:30 PM, Tuesday, December 13. The midterms are scheduled for Tuesday October 4, 7-9 PM, and Tuesday November 8, 7-9 PM, both in the regular classroom. The first will be graded before the drop deadline, October 14. See the Exams page for more detailed infomation, posted as soon as available.

 

Grading Policies

See the Grading Policy page for detailed information.

 

Academic Integrity

Refer to the University of Illinois Student Code, Part 4, regarding academic integrity. Be advised that while the Computer Science department has a "default" policy with suggested penalties, the professor, having been burned and disgusted by actions of several in the past, tends towards the draconian. Cheating on an exam will almost certainly result in failure in the course, and possible recommendation for explusion from the university. Cheating on homework will almost certainly result in a reduced letter grade for the course for the first offense, and failure in the course for a second offense.

The allowable resources for homeworks are described above. Resources that you may use during an exam will be clearly described before and at the beginning of an exam. In all cases, you are required to properly cite the material and must not present it as if it were your own work. For standard course resources such as the text and TAs, you need not cite it if it is being used for general relevant information, but do need to cite it if you are quoting it, or using a result directly from it. This may sound fuzzy, but the basic point is this: do not try to pass off work from elsewhere as your own - this is plagiarism.

 

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