CMSC 341 Section 0301

CMSC 341 Data Structures Spring 2008
Section 0301 (TuTh 5:30 - 6:45 PM, ACIV015)
Mr. Mitch Edelman
Office: ITE 218
Office hours: TuTh 7:00 - 8:00 PM and by appt.

Announcements

From time to time, I will post notes of special importance, such as class cancellations, in this space. Please check here frequently. Newest announcements will appear at the top of this list

I will hold office hours on Tuesday, May 27, from 6:00 - 8:00 in my office, ITE 218. You may pick up your exams and projects at that time.
Thursday, May 8 Additional lecture notes for dfs with finish times are available here
Wednesday, May 7 Please note review time for final exam is Wednesday, May 14, 6:00 PM in ITE 231
Wednesday, April 9 EXAM 2 REVIEWS will be held Wednesday, April 9 and Thursday April 10 in room ACIV 015 All students are welcome to attend.
Feb 7 Java Generics articles that you may find useful are here
Sunday, January 27 Welcome to CMSC 341, Section 301!!

Course Description

course content

We will cover the design and implementation of a number of "classical" data structures - lists, stacks, queues, trees, sets, and graphs, to name a few.

We will also cover techniques for analyzing the performance of our implementations of these data structures, using a technique known as "algorithm analysis".

course objectives

You will learn how to select an appropriate data structure and implementation based on the problem you are solving.

You will learn some Java - as will the instructor. As we are still in transition, with some of you having had CMSC 202 while it was being taught in C++, we will devote some time to Java essentials.

you will learn how to analyze the performance of code, both in terms of their running time and space requirements.

You will have ample opportunities (in the form of quizzes and coding projects) to practice these skills.

Textbooks

Required: Data Structures and Algorithm Analysis in Java, 2rd Edition, by Mark Alan Weiss, Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-321-37013-9
Recommended:

Your favorite Java reference book -- here are some of mine (NOTE: Most of these are rather new. Java is an evolving language, and release 1.6 includes many language features not described in earlier texts)

Absolute Java, Third Edition by Walter Savitch Addison Wesley Publishing, ISBN: 0-321-48792-3. This is the text used in CMSC 202
Java in a Nutshell, 5th Edition by David Flanagan, O'Reilly, 2005, ISBN 0-596-00773-6
Thinking in Java, edition by Bruce Eckel, Prentice-Hall PTR, 2006, ISBN 0-131-87248-6. Available online at http://www.codeguru.com/java/tij/tij_c.shtml.
Head First Java, Second Edition by Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates, O'Reilly, 2005, ISBN 0-596-00920-8
Learning Java by Neimeyer & Knudsen, O'Reilly Press, 2005 ISBN 0-596-00873-2

Data structures and algorithms with object-oriented design patterns in Java by Bruno Preiss, Wiley, 1999.
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 Java by Sartaj Sahni, McGraw-Hill, 1998.
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 in C++ by Ellis Horowitz, Sartaj Sahni, and Dinesh Mehta, 2006. Update of another classic.
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. We will not review material that has been covered in the prerequisite courses. We do cover a few of the concepts from CMSC 202, but from a deeper point-of-view.

Grading

Your grade for this course will be based on 5 programming projects, 2 in-class exams and the final exam. Each programming project is 8% of your grade, each exam is 20% of your grade. 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). Projects are due on or before the published due date, and they will not be accepted after that time. Please plan your schedules accordingly. Note that it's much better for you to turn in a partially-completed project than not to turn anything in. Makeup exams are generally not given. If your work schedule precludes your taking an exam, please notify me in advance. 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. Similarly, you are responsible for all assigned reading, even if it is not discussed in lecture. You should keep up with the assigned readings during the semester. Some reading material will be distributed through the course web page.
You must keep up with the work to do well in this course. If the only coding you do is just the projects, and all your studying is just before the exam, you can reasonably expect a "c". If you want to earn a better grade, you will need to do more than just 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.

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 your UMBC account to send mail. This will remove any ambiguity about who you are, and my mail filters will probably not eliminate campus mail.
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.

Lab Access and Policies

During TA Lab Office Hours, students enrolled in CSMC 341 will be able to use computers in the CSEE Systems Lab (ITE 240) for their project work. The lab contains 24 high-end Pentium machines with 1 GB RAM, dual-processor Pentium 4 CPUs and a CD-RW drive. Working there, during those times, will give students almost instant access to TA assistance as they work on projects. Students using the lab must observe all the rules below:

Observe all the University and Departmental policies regarding the use of the University's and the Department's computer and laboratory facilities.
No Food or Drinks Allowed in the Lab. Absolutely Never!
Do not log in to multiple machines, especially when there are students waiting for access to the lab.
Be respectful of others working in the lab. DO NOT create disturbances (e.g. don't be noisy, don't play audible music, etc).
CMSC 421 related activities have priority. This is because they have special requirements that limit them to this lab, while there are designated OIT Labs across campus that provide general computer access.
Observe the TA hours in the lab. CMSC 341 students are only allowed to work during the TA lab hours. Sign in with the TA when you arrive. You must leave the lab by when the TA goes off duty - no excuses, no exceptions!
When you complete working in the lab, remove all your code from the lab machines. Leaving your code where others may find it does not absolve you from being charged with cheating, should some other student find and "borrow" your code.
Report offenders of lab rules to the instructional staff.
Report any suspicious activity to the instructional staff or the Campus police, as appropriate.
The lab is provided to you by the University for your benefit. Take good care of it! Do not abuse it!
Repeated offenses might result in shutting down the laboratory for everybody.

Failure to observe all the lab rules will result in suspending your lab access, as well as further disciplinary actions as determined by Departmental and University policy.

As lab time and resources are limited, you should plan to use them to your best advantage. I suggest that your best use of the lab is to obtain assistance from the TA on some problems you have, rather than to experiment with code design (or any other such activity that can be done effectively in one of the regular labs, without the TA's presence). Lab time and space are limited resources. Please use them when you must, but please try to use them only when you must.

Class Schedule

Class	Date	Topic	Reading
1	Tue Jan 29	Introduction and Java	MAW 1
	Wed Jan 30	Project 1 Assigned
2	Thu Jan 31	Java and OOP	MAW 1; tutorial
3	Tu Feb 5	Java and OOP	MAW 1; tutorial
4	Thu Feb 7	Asymptotic Analysis	MAW 2
5	Tu Feb 12	Asymptotic Analysis	MAW 2
6	Th Feb 14	List ADT and Implementations	MAW 3
	Fri Feb 15	Project 1 Due
7	Tu Feb 19	Stacks and Queues	MAW 3
8	Th Feb 21	Exam 1	Classes 1 - 7
	Mon Feb 25	Project 2 Assigned
9	Tu Feb 26	Basic UI layout in Java	Handouts
10	Th Feb 28	Basic Event Handling in Java	Handouts
11	Tu Mar 4	Introduction to Trees	MAW 4.1 & 4.2
12	Th Mar 6	Binary Search Trees	MAW 4.3
13	Tue Mar 11	Binary Search Trees	MAW 4.3
14	Th Mar 13	Splay Trees	MAW 4.5-6, 11.5
	Fri March 14	Project 2 Due
	Week of March 17	Spring Break
	Mon Mar 24	Project 3 Assigned
15	Tu Mar 25	K-D Trees	MAW 12.6
16	Th Mar 27	Red-Black Trees	MAW 12.2 + notes
17	Tu Apr 1 (no foolin' - it's April!)	Red-Black Trees	MAW 12.2 + notes
18	Thu Apr 3	B-Trees	MAW 4.7
19	Tu Apr 8	B-Trees	MAW 4.7
20	Thu Apr 10	Hashing	MAW 5
	Fri Apr 11	Project 3 Due
21	Tu Apr 15 (A taxing day for us all)	Exam 2	Classes 9 - 19
	Wed Apr 16	Project 4 Assigned
22	Th Apr 17	Hashing	MAW 5
23	Tu Apr 22	Priority Queues and Heaps	MAW 6
24	Th Apr 24	Priority Queues and Heaps	MAW 6
25	Tu Apr 29	Skip Lists	MAW 10.4.2 + notes
	Wed Apr 30	Project 4 Due
	Wed Apr 30	Project 5 Assigned
26	Th May 1 Mayday, Mayday!!	Disjoint Sets	MAW 8
27	Tu May 6	Graphs	MAW 9.1, 9.3 + notes
28	Th May 8	Graphs	MAW 9.1, 9.3 + notes
29	Tu May 13	Graphs and Review
	Tues May 13	Project 5 Due
	Thu May 15	Final Exam 6:00 - 8:00	Classes 20 - 29

Dates and topics are subject to change as required by class progress
Review Sessions for the exams will be held by Professor Mitch Edelman

Monday, 2/18 7:15 - 9:15 room TBA
Wednesday, 4/9 7:15 - 9:15 room TBA
Wednesday, 5/14 (study day) 6:00 - 8:30 room TBA

MAW = Weiss text "Data Structures & Algorithm Analysis in Java"

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/spring08/index.shtml

Please check the web page frequently. Any changes to the page will be mentioned in the "Latest News" link.

Last modified on January 27, 2008 by Mitch Edelman

email: edelman AT cs.umbc.edu
Back up to Spring 2008 CMSC-341 Homepage

CMSC 341 Data Structures Spring 2008 Section 0301 (TuTh 5:30 - 6:45 PM, ACIV015) Mr. Mitch Edelman Office: ITE 218 Office hours: TuTh 7:00 - 8:00 PM and by appt.