CMSC 341 Data Structures

Spring 2003 Section 0401
Monday/Wednesday 5:30 - 6:45pm SS 110
Professor Yun Peng

Contact Information:
Office: ECS Building Room 221
Phone: 410-455-3816
email: ypeng@cs.umbc.edu
Office Hour: MW 4:30 - 5:30pm (or by appointment)

Course Description

Data Structures are the paramount concern of this course. The principle objective of the course is to help you learn how to design and analyze a wide range of data structures.

The course covers data structures and associated algorithms. Relationships among data structures, their utility in various situations, and factors affecting their performance in algorithms will be considered. You will learn to analyze the demands of algorithms, how to choose appropriate data structures, and how to integrate data structures into algorithms.

Textbooks

Required: Data Structures and Algorithm Analysis in C++, 2nd Edition, by Mark Alan Weiss, Addison-Wesley

Recommended:

Your favorite C++ reference book -- here are some of mine

The C++ Programming Language, Special Edition by Bjarne Stroustroup

C++ Primer, Third Edition by Stanely B. Lippman, Josee Lajoie

C++ FAQs, Second Edition by Marshall Cline, Greg Lomow, Mike Girou

Effective C++ Second Edition by Scott Meyers

More Effective C++ by Scott Meyers

Thinking in C++ by Bruce Eckel.

http://www.mindview.net/Books/TICPP/ThinkingInCPP2e.html

Data Structures and Algorithm Analysis by Clifford Shaffer, Prentice-Hall, 1996. This book has good coverage of data structures and algorithm analysis in C++. It has excellent descriptions of a number of data structures.
Data Structures, Algorithms, and Applications in C++ by Sartaj Sahni, McGraw-Hill, 1998. Covers some material not covered by the Heileman text.
Data Structures and Algorithms by Alfred Aho, John Hopcroft, and Jeffrey Ullman, Addison-Wesley, 1983. This is one of the all-time classics, written in Pascal.
Fundamentals of Data Structures by Ellis Horowitz, Sartaj Sahni, and Dinesh Mehta, 1995. Another classic. In C++.
Abstract Data Types by Nell Dale and Henry Walker, D.C. Heath and Company, 1996. A high-level view of data structures and algorithms, with no programming language specified. A very worthwhile and modern text with an alternative viewpoint.

Prerequisites

We will assume that you have mastered the material from CMSC 201, CMSC 202, and CMSC 203, including mastery of the C++ language. We will not review material that has been covered in the prerequisite courses. We do cover a few of the data structures from CMSC 202, but from a deeper point-of-view. A few advanced C++ topics such as templates and exceptions will be reviewed.

Grading

Your grade for this course will be based upon 5 projects, 2 in-class exams and the final exam. The projects are worth 40% of your grade, each project weighted equally. Each in-class exam is worth 20 percentage points; the final is worth 20 points. Note that the due dates for the projects and the dates of the exams are already set (q.v., the syllabus and project policy handout). Please plan your schedules accordingly. Makeup exams will be given only under the most dire circumstances (almost never).

Your final letter grade is based on the standard formula:

0 <= F < 60, 60 <= D < 70, 70 <= C < 80, 80 <= B < 90, 90 <= A <= 100

These levels may be adjusted slightly in your favor, but grades will not be ``curved'' in the conventional sense.

Your grade is given for timely work done during the semester; incomplete grades will only be given for medical illness or other such dire circumstances.

Attendance and Readings

You are expected to attend all lectures. You are responsible for all material covered in the lecture, even if it is not in the textbook. You should keep up with the assigned readings during the semester. Some reading material will be distributed through the course web page. You are responsible for the material in the readings, even if it is not covered during lecture.

You must study to do well in this course. It will not be enough to attend lectures and do the homework. As advanced undergraduates, you will be responsible for learning material that is not necessarily covered in lectures. A prime learning requirement is that you contribute to class discussions and raise questions about the course material.

BlackBoard Discussion Board

A BlackBoard site has been created for this course. This site is used primarily to support discussion boards, but announcements are also posted there. A discussion board will be established for each programming project. Students are encouraged to post general project questions, answer questions posted by other students or just browse the discussion board to find answers to project questions. Your instructors and TAs will also be posting questions and answers. Your questions may be posted anonymously. Other discussion boards for topics such as general C++ questions will also be established. The course BlackBoard is accessed by logging on to my.umbc.edu and clicking on the BlackBoard tab at the top of the page.

Contacting Me or the TAs

Please feel free to visit me or the TAs during our office hours. If you can't make it during the regular hours, please ask for an appointment. We will do everything we can to be available to provide help with this course. Office hours, phone numbers and other contact information is available on-line. If you need to contact any of the course staff outside of lecture and office hours, email is much better than the telephone. You should, however, observe the following etiquette:

Please do not email program code. If you want me or the TA to help you debug your code submit the code in the usual way, and then send email about the problem. We will look at the submitted code. Please, do NOT mail code to me or to the TA!
Note that the Help Center does not offer help with code for this course.
Please use your real name. Email from "Crazy Ape" does not get the attention you may want it to. Besides, when you get that great-paying job because you know data structures so well, will you want to send mail to your boss from "Crazy Ape?" Your mail will look much more professional if you use your real name.
Include a meaningful subject line, something like "CMSC 341 Project 2 question."

Academic Integrity

Cheating in any form will not be tolerated. Instances of cheating will be reported to the UMBC Academic Conduct Committee. These reports are filed by the Committee and can be used for disciplinary action such as a permanent record on your transcript. Academic honesty is absolutely required of you. You are expected to be honest yourself and to report any cases of dishonesty you see among other students in this class. Reports of dishonest behavior will be kept anonymous.
Further details on honesty in doing projects for this course are on-line at the Project Policy link.

Students are welcome and encouraged to study together for exams, but examinations are to be your own work -- not your neighbor's and not your notes. All exams are closed-book, closed-notes. Only pencils (or pens) and erasers are permitted in the exam room unless otherwise indicated. Scratch paper is provided to you, as needed. Having any other materials in your possession during an exam will be taken as evidence of cheating and dealt with accordingly.

Syllabus


Class	Date	Topic	Reading
	Mon Jan 27	Project 1 Assigned
1	Mon Jan 27	Introduction and C++	MAW 1
2	Wed Jan 29	C++ and OOP	MAW 1
3	Mon Feb 3	Asymptotic Analysis	MAW 2
4	Wed Feb 5	List ADT and Implementations	MAW 3
	Sun Feb 9	Project 1 Due at 11:59pm
	Mon Feb 10	Project 2 Assigned
5	Mod Feb 10	List Implementations	MAW 3
6	Wed Feb 12	Stacks, Queues and Deques	MAW 3
7	Mon Feb 17	Stacks, Queues and Deques	MAW 3
8	Wed Feb 19	Binary Search Trees	MAW 4
	Sun Feb 23	Project 2 due at 11:59pm
9	Mon Feb 24	Binary Search Trees	MAW 4
10	Wed Feb 26	Exam 1	Classes 1 - 9
	Mon Mar 3	Project 3 Assigned
11	Mon Mar 3	Balanced Search Trees	MAW 4
12	Wed Mar 5	Balanced Search Trees	MAW 4
13	Mon Mar 10	Balanced Search Trees	MAW 4
14	Wed Mar 12	Balanced Search Trees	MAW 4
	Sun Mar 16	Project 3 due at 11:59
15	Mon Mar 17
16	Wed Mar 19
	Mon Mar 24	Spring Break
	Wed Mar 26	Spring Break
17	Mon Mar 31	Priority Queues and Heaps	MAW 6
18	Wed Apr 2	Priority Queues and Heaps	MAW 6
19	Mon Apr 7
	Wed Apr 9	Project 4 Assigned
20	Wed Apr 9	Exam 2	Classes 9 - 19
21	Mon Apr 14	Hashing	MAW 5
22	Wed Apr 16	Hashing	MAW 5
23	Mon Apr 21	Skip Lists	MAW 10 + Notes
	Tues Apr 22	Project 4 Due 11:59pm
	Wed Apr 23	Project 5 Assigned
24	Wed Apr 23	Skip Lists	MAW 10 + Notes
25	Mon Apr 28	Graphs	MAW 9
26	Wed Apr 30	Graphs	MAW 9
27	Mon May 5	Disjoint Sets	MAW 8
	Tues May 6	Project 5 Due 11:59pm
28	Wed May 7	B - Trees	MAW 4 + notes
29	Mon May 12	B - Trees	MAW 4 + notes
	Mon May 19 6:00 - 8:00pm (tentative)	Final Exam	Classes 21 - 29

Dates and topics are subject to change as required by class progress
MAW = Weiss text "Data Structures & Algorithm Analysis in C++"

Course Web Page

A few handouts will be provided in paper form at the first class. After that, all handouts will be provided only on the web. The course web page URL is

www.cs.umbc.edu/courses/undergraduate/341/spring03/index.shtml

Please check the web page frequently. Any changes to the page will be mentioned in the "What's New" link.

Last modified on Monday January 13, 2003 by Dennis Frey

email: ypeng@cs.umbc.edu
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