Spring 1998 Course information page

[Lectures and handouts] [Grades] [External links]

[Section A] [Section B] [Section C] [Section D] [Course staff]

Have a great summer!

• Lecture slides, assignments and handouts.
• Here's the online information form that you were required to fill out for the first homework. You can use it to submit anonymous feedback at any time.
• Grades. Your grades in this course are available online. Please check to make sure that your grades accurately reflect your status in the course. You must have proper andrew tokens to access this page.
• Course newsgroups:
  • Announcements by course staff: cmu.andrew.academic.cs.15-299.announce
  • General discussion: cmu.andrew.academic.cs.15-299.discuss
• LaTeX help. All assignments after the first homework should be typeset using LaTeX or a word processor capable of typesetting equations.
• Here is an archive of previously featured external links on this page.
• Watch the Spice Girls defy the information-theoretic lower bound for sorting algorithms.
• Here's an MP3 of the Find the Longest Path song from lecture, with lyrics. (This song was written and performed by Dan Barrett.)

Course overview

• Course Number: 15-299
• Credit: 12 units
• Lectures: Tues/Thurs 10:30-11:50, 2210 Doherty Hall
• Instructor: Bruce Maggs
  • Office hours: Thurs. 2-3pm, 4123 Wean Hall (x8-7654)
  • Email him at bmm+@cs
• Teaching assistants:
  • Rob Miller
    • Recitation section `A', 10:30-11:30 Mon. in 203 Student Center
    • Office hours: Sun. 3-4pm, 5103 Wean Hall (x8-7571)
    • Email him at rcm@cs
  • Adam Kalai
    • Recitation section `B', 11:30-12:20 Mon. in 203 Student Center
    • Office hours: Mon. 3-4pm, 7113 Wean Hall (x8-7123)
    • Email him at akalai@cs
  • Hal Burch
    • Recitation section `C', 12:30-1:20 Mon. in 203 Student Center
    • Recitation section `D', 1:30-2:20 Mon. in 203 Student Center
    • Office hours: Fri. 3-4pm, 7110 Wean Hall (x8-7670)
    • Email him at hburch@cs
  • Doug Beeferman
    • Office hours: Thurs. 1-2pm, 5101 Wean Hall (x8-8139)
    • Email him at dougb@cs
• Course secretary: Dorothy Zaborowski
  • Office: 4116 Wean Hall (x8-3779)
  • Email her at daz+@cs

Dramatis Personae

Course staff

• Bruce Maggs is an Associate Professor in the Computer Science Department. His research interests include parallel architectures and algorithms.
• Rob Miller is a third-year graduate student in the Computer Science Department. His research interests are in programming languages and user interfaces.
• Adam Kalai is a second-year graduate student in the Computer Science Department. His research interests include computer graphics, virtual reality, and theoretical computer science.
• Hal Burch is a first-year graduate student in the Computer Science Department. His research interests include algorithms and scientific computing.
• Doug Beeferman is a third-year graduate student in the Computer Science Department. His research interests include natural language modeling and artificial intelligence.

The Ideas

• Counting: Learn how to count without counting.
• Induction: Recognize it in all its guises.
• Exemplification: Find a sense in which you can try out a problem or solution on small examples.
• Abstraction: Abstract away the inessential features of a problem.
• Modularity: Decompose a complex problem into simpler subproblems.
• Representation: Understand the relationships between different possible representations of the same information or idea.
• Refinement: The best solutions come from a process of repeatedly refining and inventing alternative solutions.
• Toolbox: Build up your vocabulary of abstract structures.
• Optimization: Understand which improvements are worth it.
• Probabilistic methods: Flipping a coin can be surprisingly helpful!

How to get electronic course information

• Use the Web browser of your choice and visit this page often! Click here for Netscape's official handbook on using its Navigator 3.0 browser. Regardless of which browser you choose, you can probably access a similar tutorial in its Help menu.
• You should also read the class newsgroups regularly.
  If the following addresses are not accessible, please use messages or batmail to read the newsgroups. You can post via email by sending to bb+academic.cs.15-299.discuss@andrew.cmu.edu.