CIS 6930: Approximation Algorithms
 
Announcements   |       Syllabus       |        Schedule        |       Lecture Notes        |     Assignments 
 
 
  12-06-2006
  • The final exam (take home) has been posted. There are totally three problems, 10 points each.
  • Due in my office no later than 4pm, December 13, 2006. No late submission will be accepted.
  • You are not allowed to discuss the problems with anyone else!
  11-26-2006
  • Notes on the Semidefinite Programming have been posted. I will update this file as we go along.
  11-19-2006
  • Notes on the Dual-Fitting Analysis have been posted. I will update this file as we go along.
  11-07-2006
  • Homework assignment 5 has been posted. Per students' requests, it will be due on 11-29 (instead of 22)
  11-01-2006
  • I'm not feeling well so the class today is cancelled. The lecture notes on Steiner Forest were already posted last night and we will cover the new materials in the next lecture (Friday, Nov 3rd). Consequently, there is no office hour today.
  10-26-2006
  • Notes on the Primal-Dual method have been posted. I will update this file as we go along.
  10-20-2006
  • Homework assignment 4 has been posted. It will be due on 11-08.
  • Check the assignment page for the updated schedule.
  10-13-2006
  • My new office is E438.
  10-08-2006
  • Notes on LP relaxation, rounding, and randomized rounding techniques have been posted. I will update this file as we go along.
  • I've just updated the schedule for the rest of this semester. Basically, for the next three weeks, we will cover the LP relaxation, rounding, and randomized rounding techniques. The primal-dual schema and dual-fitting analysis will be covered next.
  10-02-2006
  • Notes on Introduction to Duality for this week have been posted.
  10-01-2006
  • Homework assignment 2 has been posted.
  09-25-2006
  • Lecture Notes for week 6 (introduction to LP) have been posted.
  09-21-2006
  • There are two options for the final exam. You can choose one of them.
    • The normal take home final, which will be handed out on Dec 6th. It will consist of (about) 10 problems
    • Project option: If you choose this option, you need to identify the topic and inform me by the Midterm exam date. You will need to submit a final report (similar to a journal paper) on Dec 14th. The final report need to have these following sections:
      1. Introduction: Introduce the problem you work on and your contributions
      2. Related Work: Review on the literature related to your work
      3. Main Results: Approximation algorithm you propose to solve the problem and theoretical analysis
      4. Experimental Work: Only if necessary
  • Notes on some possible project topics have been posted
  • We will cover Linear Programming (LP) starting next week. I will provide lecture notes on the "Introduction to Linear Programming," which is not covered in the textbook. If you want to learn more (in depth) about LP, you are referred to this book: Vasek Chvatal, Linear Programming, W. H. Freeman Company, 1st ed., 1983, ISBN: 0716711958
  09-18-2006
  • Notes on weighted k-center and bin packing have been posted
  09-18-2006
  • Notes on k-center and a partial solution of hw1 have been posted
  09-12-2006
  • Notes on CDS and homework assignment 2 have been posted.
  09-10-2006
  • Notes of Lecture 8 have been posted.
  09-07-2006
  • Notes of Lecture 7 have been posted
  • Due to time constraints, problem 5 of homework assignment 1 is removed. Check the homework assignment for the latest version.
  09-06-2006
  • Check the class website for the latest version of Lecture 6.
  09-05-2006
  • Notes of Lecture 6 have been posted
  08-31-2006
  • Notes of Lecture 4 and 5 have been posted
  • A paper on an improved algorithm (recent results) of Minimum Steiner Tree is posted (under the Reading Assignment). Read it to learn how the authors were able to design a better algorithm.
  08-28-2006
  • Notes of Lecture 3 have been posted
  • Homework assignment 1 has been posted
  08-25-2006
  • Notes of Lecture 2 have been posted
  • A chapter on Greedy Techniques and Analysis has been posted (under the Reading Assignment). Please read it to have a strong knowledge about these techniques
  08-23-2006
  • Welcome to CIS6930. Enjoy and have fun learning!
  • Notes of Lecture 1 have been posted
CIS 6930: Approximation Algorithms - 2342  Turlington Hall