Course Goals

The derivation of the word algorithms does is not etymologically:

algiros [painful] + arithmos [number] ==> "Painful Number"

but stems from Al-Khowarizmi "Rules of Restoration and Reduction", or "algebra." The Oxford English Dictionary later defines "algorist" as "one skillful in reckonings or figuring."

At the successful completion of CSE 589, the student should have accomplished the following goals:

• An appreciation for application of algorithmic techniques in the real world. - To utilize real world problems, generated from the student's work environments, for the purpose of demonstrating application of algorithmic techniques.
• A larger toolbox. - Increase the number of tools students have with which to find solutions for problems encountered. Self - explanatory.
• A better sense of how to model problems encountered in real life as well-known algorithmic problems. - Become able to map problems to algorithms rather than reinventing the wheel for each problem. This is usually the hardest part of the process!
• A deeper understanding of the issues and tradeoffs involved in algorithmic design.

The plan for the first lecture was to provide a whirlwind version of CSE 421, the undergraduate algorithms course. The first lecture was to cover an introduction to algorithm design and analysis (this corresponds to chapters 1 and 2 in the recommended text.[]), dynamic programming (chapter 16), easy graph problems (chapters 23 - 26), and hard graph problems (roughly equivalent to chapter 36). Unfortunately time ran out and the material on hard graph problems will be covered in the next lecture.