MA421      Half Unit
Topics in Algorithms

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Availability

Requisites

Additional requisites:

Students must have completed Algorithms and Computation (MA407) or have taken an equivalent course to provide a basic knowledge in analysis of algorithms: running time and correctness of an algorithm, and basic knowledge of computer programming (in Python). Students should be very comfortable with proofs and proof techniques used in pure mathematics.

This course covers modern topics in the theory of algorithms. The topics selected can differ year to year. A syllabus of the course content will be available to students at the beginning of the academic year.

30 hours of lectures in the Winter Term.

Regular exercises. Some of these will include programming exercises in Python.

T. H. Cormen, C. E. Leiserson, R. L. Rivest and C. Stein, Introduction to Algorithms, 3rd or 4th ed., MIT;

M.R. Garey and D.S. Johnson, Computers and Intractability: A Guide to the Theory of NP-completeness, W.H. Freeman, 1979;

D. Williamson, D. B. Shmoys, The Design of Approximation Algorithms, Cambridge University Press, 2011;

V. Vazirani, Approximation Algorithms, 2nd ed., Springer, 2002;

Michael Mitzenmacher and Eli Upfal, Probability and Computing, 1st or 2nd ed., Cambridge University Press.

See the syllabus

Exam (100%), duration: 120 Minutes in the Spring exam period