CS 180 Spring 2014 Course Syllabus

Instructor Teaching Assistants

Michael Shindler David Felber Alan Roytman
Email shindler@cs.ucla.edu dvfelber@cs.ucla.edu alanr@cs.ucla.edu
Oce Boelter 4531M Boelter 2432 Boelter 2432
Oce Hours Tu 1:00 - 3:00p
When sending an email to course sta, include the substring CS 180 in your subject line. If you
are sending from an address other than your ocial UCLA email, please identify yourself and CC
your UCLA email.
Meeting Meeting Times Room
Lecture TR 10-11:50 HUMANTS A65
Disc 1A F 2-3:50 ROYCE 154
Disc 1B F 12-1:50 Boelter 5280
Disc 1C F 2-3:50 Boelter 5280
Textbook: Algorithm Design by Jon Kleinberg and Eva Tardos. Addison-Wesley, 2006.
Grading
Artifact Date Weight
Fundamentals Quiz April 24 7.5%
Programming Project April 29 May 13 7.5%
Homework (various) 20%
Midterm May 15 25%
Final June 11 40%
Homework Submission and Collaboration Policy
Homework assignments are due at the start of lecture for assigned dates and may be submitted
either at lecture or via dropbox B4 in Boelter 2432. It is required, on each homework, that you
provide a signed statement that your homework abides by the academic honesty policy. If your
homework consists of multiple pages, you must staple your pages together. You must also clearly
indicate your last (family) name on the rst page, such as by underlining it. Failure to abide by
these policies may result in a score of zero for the assignment.
If you require an alternate arrangement for turning in homework, such as due to sickness, please
send the instructor your request and reason as soon as possible. Electronic submission of homework
will be acceptable only under circumstances in which paper submissions are impossible. In the case
of foreseeable circumstances, permission must be secured ahead of time, and the submission will be
required to be submitted as a typed PDF. Homework submitted via email without prior permission
will not be accepted except in documentable emergencies. Extensions will not be granted for issues
related to time management.
You may make at most one submission for each homework assignment. If you submit multiple, we
may decide which one to grade (this will likely not be to your advantage). Once a homework has
been submitted, we will not return it to you prior to the due date.
Exams
Exams will be administered in-class. You will be provided with paper on which to take the exam;
you will not need a blue book. Exams will be individual eort and closed-book; you may not
communicate with anyone other than the designated proctors for any reason, nor may you use any
communication devices during the exam. You may not have any materials available to you other
than those used for writing (pencil, eraser, etc), unless notes are explicitly permitted. Students
requiring alternate exam arrangements must make such requests within the rst two weeks of the
term, or as soon as possible after knowing of the conict.
Projected Schedule
We reserve the right to modify the schedule as the class progresses. All assigned readings are in
the textbook of Kleinberg and Tardos.
Week Day Topic Reading Other
1 4/1 Introduction and Administrivia
4/3 Algorithm Analysis 2.1, 2.2 2.4
2 4/8 Graph Fundamentals 3.1 - 3.6 Homework 1 due
4/10 Graph Fundamentals
3 4/15 Fundamental Graph Algorithms 4.4, 2.5 Homework 2 due
4/17 Fundamental Graph Algorithms 4.5, 4.6
4 4/22 Dynamic Programming 6.1, 6.2, 6.4 Homework 3 due
4/24 Fundamentals Quiz Weeks 1-3
5 4/29 Dynamic Programming
5/1 Dynamic Programming 6.8, 6.9
6 5/6 Greedy Algorithms 4.1 - 4.3 Homework 4 due
5/8 Greedy Algorithms 4.8
7 5/13 Divide and Conquer 5.1 - 5.5 Homework 5 due
5/15 Midterm Exam Weeks 1-6
8 5/20 Divide and Conquer
5/22 Network Flow Algorithms 7.1 - 7.3
9 5/27 Uses of Network Flow 7.5 - 7.7 Homework 6 due
5/29 Limits of Knowledge 8.1 - 8.4
10 6/3 Complexity 8.5, 8.7, 8.8, 8.10 Homework 7 due
6/5 Coping with Complexity 10.1, 10.2, 11.1, 11.4
F 6/11 Final Exam 11:30am-2:30pm Weeks 1 - 10
CS 180 Spring 2014
Academic Honesty Policy
You are allowed, and indeed encouraged, to discuss the problem sets with other students. However,
you must write up your solutions independently. To satisfy these two requirements, we invoke the
Gilligans Island rule: you may discuss homework problems with other students, but you may
not take written notes, and you should engage in 30 minutes of mindless entertainment after the
discussion (such as watching Gilligans Island) before committing thoughts to paper. You may not
use any source other than the course materials when coming up with solutions.
This page is intended to inform you of the Academic Honesty policy for this class.
You may discuss all homework problems
with the course instructor and TAs without
attribution.
You may not look at homework solutions for
previous oerings of CS 180, whether oered
here or as a similar course elsewhere.
You may use any result from lecture or the
course textbook without attribution.
You may not search through other sources of
information for the answers to the homework
problems or to the programming project(s).
If you accidentally nd an answer while using
these sources for other purposes, you must
contact the instructor for guidance.
You may discuss all homework problems
with other students of this oering of CS 180,
as long as you take no written notes from
this discussion, take a 30 minute break after
the discussion before writing down your an-
swers, and you list the names of these students
prominently on your homework assignment.
You may not discuss homework problems or
the programming project(s) with people un-
aliated with this oering of CS 180.
Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated in this class. This includes facilitating academic dis-
honesty, whether by silence or by action. Any student suspected of academic dishonesty will be
reported to the Dean of Students for disciplinary action. In addition to a failing grade for the
course, students may face suspension or expulsion from the University.
CS 180 Spring 2014
Regrade Process
If you have a question on the grading of a homework or exam problem, or you feel a mistake was
made, you may submit it for regrade. Please make sure to follow the process described below.
On a fresh sheet of paper, explain your question or the mistake that you think was made.
Make sure to clearly identify what you want the grader to look at. Staple this paper to the
front of your paper.
Put the request in the homework dropbox. You must submit this request within one week of
the time we rst attempted to return the artifact. This applies even if you were not in lecture
to retrieve the item, or otherwise elected to not pick it up.
Do not modify the homework or exam in any way prior to submitting your regrade request.
If you do modify it in such a way that doesnt aect the problem being asked about, please
clearly indicate what change was made.
Once the regrade request is returned to you, it may be possible that you will not be satised with
the result. If you still believe there is an error in the grading that the grader did not x, you may
submit a regrade request to the instructor.
On a fresh sheet of paper, explain which parts of your regrade request were not satisfactorily
handled. Staple this paper in front of your paper (the original regrade request should still be
there).
Submit the nal regrade request to the instructor, either during oce hours or after class.
You must submit this request within one week of the time we attempted to return the regrade.
This deadline still holds even if you were not there to pick up the regrade!
You will receive an email to let you know the results of your regrade request, at which point
you may pick it up during instructor oce hours.
Please note the following:
The second regrade request should ONLY be regarding items you previously attempted to x
through the grader and that the instructor will ONLY x blatant errors in grading (such as
points being taken o for something which was correct).
We can only grade what you wrote on your submitted homework or exam, not what you
meant to write.
Late regrade requests will be ignored regardless of their merits. The exception to this is
clerical errors - if the sum of the points is incorrectly computed or incorrectly recorded.
Disagreement with the rubric does not constitute an error in grading. You will NOT be
awarded more partial credit for what is deemed strict grading.