Course Introduction

Algorithms and Data Structures

Algorithm: Any well-defined computational procedure that takes some value, or set of values, as input and produces some value, or set of values, as output.

Data structure: A particular way of storing and organising data in memory so that it can be used efficiently.

Programming is the means to express a solution to a problem.

Algorithms and Data Structures are the heart of CS.

Learning objectives

Understand, explain, and implement standard data structures.
Understand, explain, and implement standard algorithms.
Apply standard data structures and algorithms to solve programming tasks.
Analyse and compare implementations with respect to their time and space complexity.
Understand and explain advanced topics in algorithm design

Tools and technologies

We will be using Python throughout the course.
You can use your favourite editor or IDE (I recommend PyCharm)
We will be using Jupyter notebooks to submit the assignments.
We will be using Brightspace for assignment uploads and sending announcements. Remember to subscribe!

Assignments

The course work consists of 4 obligatory assignments.
You always work in groups
Grade: \(\frac{\sum_{assign=1}^{4} grade(assign)}{4}\), aka the mean
- No submission? Grade \(\rightarrow\) 0
- Late submission? Grade \(\rightarrow\) 0
- Non-show for sign-off? Grade \(\rightarrow\) 0
All assignment grades add to \(> 10\)

Grades

60% final exam, written + multiple-choice. Minimum grade 6.
40% assignments

There will be a resit, there is no mid-term.

You can transfer your assignment grade to the resit AS A WHOLE!

Assignment sign-off

Deadlines for each assignment are on the course’s web site

One day before the deadline (before 23:59) you must:

Upload a PDF version of your Jupyter notebook to Brighspace, at a designated location
Book a designated timeslot with an examiner, using a Doodle link provided to you

On the deadline date

You show up at the designated timeslot
- late arrivals are graded with 0
You present a LIVE version of the Jupyter notebook
- The examiner might ask you to re-run parts of the code

Forming groups

All assignments are done in pairs:

You can decide your partner; fill in the Google form the TAs will distribute.
No partner? Ask the TAs!
Problems within the group? Talk to the TAs!

Getting help

Generally, two types of Thursdays
- Practicum Thursdays: you work on you assignments and TAs provide help
- Sign-off Thursdays: you only need to be there for sign-off, but you can be there longer before/after to work on other assignments
The TAs will add everybody to a Slack channel

TAs and their role

The TAs are there to help you! They are responsible for

facilitating your learning
grading your assignments and giving verbal feedback
monitoring your progress

They are not responsible for:

Providing real-time support over Slack. Slack is asynchronous communication.
Solving problems for you

Joris Quist and Wouter Zorgdrager will be TAs for this year.

Slide symbols

Q A question with a known answer; this will be revealed, but we should work together towards it!
D A open discussion item; we need to think and discuss.

Lecture notes

Freely available on the web, on my homepage (http://gousios.org/teaching.html)
You can print/download them before the lecture and bring them along to make additional notes.
I am looking forward to improve them! If you have suggestions etc, let me know!