CS 598 TH1: Administrivia

About This Course

We (I, you, or the guest lecturers) will try to cover recent advances in theoretical CS. See the schedule page for the tentative topics list. We will have problem solving session to attempt hot open problems, hopefully for each topic covered. Students will be expected to present a paper or two, and may be work on an open research problem.

Coursework:

Course grades are based on

• Paper presentation
• Project: work on an open problem and presentation the findings at the end of the course
• Class participation (5%)

Prerequisites

This is a graduate level class and background in algorithms, a bit of complexity theory, and proof writing will be assumed. This is at the level of CS 473 or higher. Knowledge of some probability and linear programming would be useful. Attempt will be made to make the material accessible to interested theory students. Consult the instructor if you have questions.

For review of the prerequisite material, we strongly recommend the following online resources.

• CS 473 taught by Jeff Ericson. Review the notes on linear programming and duality.
• Mathematics for Computer Science by Eric Lehman, Tom Leighton, and Albert Meyer, written for the Mathematics for Computer Science course at MIT.

Reading Material

There is no required textbook. Pointers to existing lecture notes from various sources will be posted to the course web site as the semester progresses.

Course materials elsewhere

Homeworks and Exam

No Homeworks. There may be exercises, which won't be graded. No exams.

Projects

Students would be encouraged to work on an open research problem. In last few weeks, students will present their findings on the problems they worked on.