COMP 360: Algorithm Design
Lecture 1
Winter 2015
Yang Cai
www.cs.mcgill.ca/~cai
Administrivia
Textbook: Algorithm Design by Jon Kleinberg and Eva Tardos
Prerequisite: Comp 251 and one of Math 240/Math 235/Math 363
TA: TBA
Office Hours: Thur 3pm – 4:30 pm, MC 324
Administrivia
Attendance/Evaluation:
Everybody is welcome
Requirements, if registered for credit):
-
Solve problem sets: 5 problems sets, one week to solve.
(25%)
 Collaboration allowed, must list your collaborators (a
group of at most 3).
 If obtain a solution through research (e.g. on the web),
must acknowledge the source.
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Midterm. (25%)
-
Final. (50%)
Course Outline
Cryptography: RSA
Network Flow
• Max Flow Min Cut Theorem
• Algorithm for Max Flow
• Applications: Bipartite Matching, Vertex Cover …
Linear Programming
• (Weak and Strong) Duality, Complementary Slackness
• Algorithms for solving LPs (Simplex, Ellipsoid)
• Application of LPs
NP and NP-completeness
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Reductions
NP-completeness and proof of Cook’s Theorem
Course Outline
Heuristics
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Backtracking: Hamiltonian Cycle, Satisfiability
Branch and Bound
Local Search
Approximation Algorithms
• Vertex Cover, Traveling Salesman…
Randomized Algorithms
• Minimum Cut
• Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC), Simulated Annealing
Other topics we may cover
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Online Algorithms
Fixed-Parameter Tractability
Complexity: PSPACE, EXP