News

New: Here is a summary of all the three coursework marks indexed by student ID. In case of problems please let me know. Courseworks can be found as usual in the UG pigeonholes by the back door. I have moved them into folders arranged by first letter of surname.

NEW Feedback on the 2008-09 G52ADS exam (requires usual username and password).

Also, see previous exams (note that the module code used to be G5BADS). Also, note that I did not teach this module in these years, and so cannot provide fuller answer sheets, and not all the topics are still relevant. However, if they raise some issue or problem, then please email me and I will see if I can help.

Reminder: emails sent in which you do not consider them important enough to add a subject will also be considered as not very important by me, and given low priority. Sending emails without meaningful subject lines is poor professional practice as it shows a lack of consideration for the reader.

Sat. 3rd Oct: I added password protection to the "files/" directory where the lecture notes are stored. The username/password are in the email I sent to the module mailing list, with subject line "web password & reminders of CW1 & LABS". If you did not receive this email, then you have not been added to the module mailing list yet (maybe you registered late). Please email me and I'll provide the username/password directly. However do check that you appear on the mailing list soon, and otherwise check your registration is okay, and otherwise check with TSG.

Introduction

This session this module is taught by Dr Andrew Parkes http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~ajp/.

The official module page.

From the University Timetable the lectures of G52ADS in Semester 1 of 2009-10 are
Wednesday 11:00-12:00 (Exch. LT3)
Friday 2-3pm (Exch. LT3)

and a lab session in A32 most (not all) Mondays 3-5pm.

The textbook recommended is "Data Structures & Algorithms in Java", Michael T. Goodrich and Roberti Tamassia ["GoTa"]. It can be found in the university library: here. Also, here is the amazon.co.uk entry which allows you to "Look Inside".

Contact Details

If you have any problems/suggestions/feedback etc, please feel free to email (ajp), telephone (0115 95 14210), or visit my office (CS Room B81 ).

If you send me an email then you must give it a meaningful subject line. If you leave the subject line empty then I will feel free to assume the email is also about nothing and delay answering it until I have nothing to do - you might well graduate long before this happens :-). This is necessary so that I have a chance of being able to organise the many emails that I receive. It is also poor professional practice, for example, see http://www2.essex.ac.uk/rm/guide/e-mail.shtm#6

The course also has an email list http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/local-cgi/lists.cgi?gs=g52ads. I will use this mailing list for sending out information. I'll advertise when the list is updated for this session, and I start sending out emails and you should make sure that you are receiving them.

Hence, you MUST make sure that the department (and technical services) has a working email address for you, and that it is included on the list (though note the list might not get fully updated until a few weeks into the semester).

Timetable

Please note that the timetable below is tentative and incomplete! It will change as we proceed, so please keep an eye on this page. When the mailing list is active, then I will also send out announcements to that list. I will also add links to the lecture notes as we proceed - though please note that the lecture notes do not necessarily cover everything I say during lectures. The dates of lectures are often just indicative; the notes are arranged in logical sections, but might not exactly coincide with the timeslots. (If you have any questions about slides please always tell me the name of the file, or the exact URL, and the page or slide number(s).)

Accessibility: I generally produce the slides in both "1 up" and "3 up" i.e. "PDF with 1 or 3 slides per page". Suggest to print multiple slides per sheet so as to save paper but leave space for notes (please also remember to print in duplex when possible!). When the slides have multiple slides to be viewed as an animation then you might just want the "1 up" version so that you can step through one slide at a time. If you need, or would like, the slides in other formats, then please do not hesitate to email me with your request.

Exercises from Lectures

Coursework

The assessment of this module is 25% in total on coursework. Details will be announced here, in lectures, and via the email list.

• Coursework ONE: 8%. "The Random Darts Problem" is available here. Deadline: October 13th. Scripts have been marked, and results will be emailed out by Nov 18th at latest -- I was late due to having to first check through some that raised "issues"- the results were emailed out. I have also emailed people regarding issues arising with their courework. If you believe you submitted and have not had enay email from me about it, then please let me know - this might happen if you sumitted only the softcopy via cw but not a hardcopy via the office. The scripts have been returned to you in the Undergradaute pigeonholes (by the back door) so that you can see specific feedback. General feedback is here (requrires the usual username/password).
  
  
• Coursework TWO: 7%. This will be in-class multiple-choice style of questions under exam questions (using the same system as you should have used within G51PRG last year). It will be in the lab session (3-5pm): on Monday November 30th. It will not the entire lab session, but just 30 mins - details to be released soon. It is likely that 30 minutes is far more than you will need. The scope of the test will be all the lecture material up to and including the Wed. Nov 4th lecture on simple sorting algorithms.
  
  This will require you to login using a special account for the Questionmark Perception system. Your username will be just your CS username and the password your student number - and these details will also be emailed to you closer to the date. There are just 9 questions, for a total of 14 marks, so each mark will correspond to just 0.5% towards the module as a whole. All the questions are simple multiple choice with one correct answer. Note that questions will not be "negative marked", i.e. wrong answers will NOT be penalised, so there is no reason not to make your best attempt at every question.
  
  The exam has been converted to a self-test quiz here: http://quest.cs.nott.ac.uk/q4/perception.dll and use the same username/password as for access to the lecture notes (but note that direct access is blocked from outside the University, though it is possible to access from outside by setting up an assh tunnel to the CS proxy server, see http://support.cs.nott.ac.uk/help/docs/access/ssh/#appendix "There are a couple of ways around this, but the simpliest and cleanest is to simply forward all your internal web traffic via our proxy servers...."). I would recommend to repeat the test until all questions are clear to you. Alternatively, if you cannot access the questionmark server, then the entire test, with correct answers and feedback, is here, but you will lose the advantage of the interactivity (merely agreeing with an answer, is much less instructuve for you than gneerating it).
  
  
• Coursework THREE 10%. A classic "program and report" with a deadline 12:00 Friday December 11th. This concerns graphs and various shortest path problems. It is is available here. General feedback on the coursework submissions is available here. If you wish to see your marked script then please feel free to email me and come and see me.

Feedback comment by AJP:: Please note that besides the feedback above, it was also available during the tutorial slots, when tutors were available to help directly with any questions or issues that arose. Note that previously G52ADS did not have any tutorials, but they were introduced (on my request) this year precisely to allow a chance for more direct interaction and feedback with me and tutors.

Exam

This course is examined by a two hour examination, which accounts for 75% of the marks.

Previous exams are available via the portal in the standard fashion, also some previous exams with answers to the MCQa are available here: http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~nza/G52ADS/EXAMS/

The format/rubric this year is the same as last year's 2008-09 exam. Here is the front page of the exam.

SCHOOL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

A LEVEL 2 MODULE, AUTUMN SEMESTER 2009-2010

ALGORITHMS AND DATA STRUCTURES

Time allowed TWO Hours

Candidates may complete the front cover of their answer book and sign their desk card but must NOT write anything else until the start of the examination period is announced

Answer QUESTION ONE and THREE other questions

Clearly cross through any question that you do NOT wish to be considered and ensure you state on the front of the answer book the FOUR questions that you have attempted. Marks available for sections of questions are shown in brackets in the right-hand margin

Only silent, self contained calculators with a Single-Line Display are permitted in this examination.

Dictionaries are not allowed with one exception.  Those whose first language is not English may use a standard translation dictionary to translate between that language and English provided that neither language is the subject of this examination.  Subject specific translation dictionaries are not permitted.

No electronic devices capable of storing and retrieving text, including electronic dictionaries,  may be used.

DO NOT turn your examination paper over until instructed to do so

Note that the rubric for the first compulsory multiple choice question, just like last year, is:

"This multiple choice question is compulsory. For each part select precisely one answer. You will not receive negative marks for incorrect answers. Write your answers clearly, in the answer book, in the form of a single table with one answer per row and including the label for which part of this question you are answering, i.e. in the form “(x) Y” per row"

This might seem overly complicated, but it is designed to make it less likely that you will make an 'off by one error' in filling in your answers. In MCQs it is quite common to miss a question and then fill in answers one step away from where they should be. It is a real pity when this happens; please be careful to avoid it just double-check you got the correct label. Write your answers in the main answer book with all the other answers - i.e. do not expect them to be marked if you only put them on the exam paper (sounds unlikely, but it can happen that people forget under the stress of the exam).

Also, note that it is not negatively marked - you should always give some answer, even if it is just a best guess.

Additional Reading Material

• Data Structures and Algorithm Analysis in Java. Mark A. Weiss (Addison Wesley).
• Bundle of Algorithms in Java: Fundamentals, Data Structures, Sorting, Searching, and Graph Algorithms: Pts. 1-5 (Paperback) Robert Sedgewick

JUnit

"JUnit" is a package to support unit testing in Java. It is highly recommended that you learn to use this package (or an equivalent) and use it for all your programming tasks - not just this module. Good usage of testing will allow you to catch bugs much more quickly.

• Junit Home Page
• Junit in Eclipse
• Using JUnit within the Eclipse IDE(O'Reilly). Note the discussion of "test-driven development (TDD)", and how are tests are written before writing the code!!
• Short tutorial on JUnit for total beginners
• Seminar in G51PRG about Extreme Programming (by Dave Elliman, 2006). It gives JUnit as the recommended tool.

Last updated: 2010-03-21