CS 285/485 Instructor Page
CS 285/485 Instructor Page
Algorithms and Elections
Spring 2015,
Prof. Lane A. Hemaspaandra (instructor) and Rupam Acharyya (TA)
Syllabus/Course Information Document
Information/Resources
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Academic Honesty.
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Assistance Services (now renamed CETL, which provides a wide range of services including Disability Support).
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The DBLP Computer Science Bibliography.
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Department, URCS.
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Ian Parberry's article
"How to Present a Paper in Theoretical Computer Science:
A Speaker's Guide for Students" (which is of interest far beyond theoretical
computer science, and indeed which is VERY relevant to this course
as it is about how to present well a paper by someone else) can be
found through the pdf
link in the "Speaker's Guide (1988-1998)" block at the *end*
this
page. Also note the (different and more recent)
"Speakers' Guide for Neuroscientists (2000)" block and its pdf link
at the *start*
of that same page---the one that is jointly by Bob Spillman and Ian Parberry,
which is phrased in terms of presenting your own work.
Both are old enough that they speak about
using *transparencies* for your talks (but many of the points
still very much apply!), although the more recent
one does charmingly write
"At the moment the North American Membrane Society makes heavy use of
manual transparencies and an overhead projector...
In the future we would expect to see increasing
use of electronic display devices connected to a computer."
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Instructor.
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RSI Information.
Misc.
Some Advice on Versions of Literature Papers:
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When I suggest to you a paper (or when your group selects a paper),
I/you may typically name something like "X's 2010 Conference on
Widgets paper," or "Y and Z's 2003 Journal of Rainbows paper." But
even if so, as the presenting group, you probably want to poke
around to find all versions of a paper. Basically, a conference
version of a paper is typically severely limited in length by the
rules of the conference (typically limited to somewhere between 6
and 12 pages). Also, a conference version is typically earlier than
a journal version. On the other hand, conference papers are written
to be clear, attractive, and readable, as that is one way they help
themselves be accepted. In contrast, *if* a conference paper has a
journal version (if not, you could try to see if there is a
technical report version, for example at arxiv.org; tech report
versions tend to be long like journal versions, but are often not as
proofread and polished as journal versions), it will typically be
longer, have more or fuller proofs, have more results, be much
better refereed/polished, and so on. So, each has its role, and
having both in hand (if both exist) is always a good idea.
Some of My Favorite Pieces of Wisdom for Understanding and Evaluating (or Doing) Research:
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After solving a challenging problem, I solve it again from scratch,
retracing only the *insight* of the earlier solution. I repeat this
until the solution is as clear and direct as I can hope for. Then I
look for a general rule for attacking similar problems, that *would*
have led me to approach the given problem in the most efficient way
the first time. -- Robert Floyd
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In computer science, elegance is not a dispensable luxury, but a
matter of life and death. -- Edsger Dijkstra
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Imagination is more important than knowledge. -- Albert Einstein
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They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see
nothing but sea. -- Francis Bacon
Other Odds and Ends (Mostly Quotations):
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I don't believe it. Prove it, and I still won't believe it.
--Life, the Universe and Everything
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It was mentioned on CNN that the new prime number discovered
recently is four times bigger then the previous record.
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Sooner or later society will realize that certain kinds of hard work
are in fact admirable even though they are more fun than just about
anything else. -- Donald E. Knuth
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Getting tenure doesn't really change anything.
However, not getting tenure changes everything.
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My late friend Stan Ulam used to remark that his life was sharply
divided into two halves. In the first half, he was always the
youngest person in the group; in the second half, he was always the
oldest. There was no transitional period.
-- Gian-Carlo Rota, "Indiscrete Thoughts"
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Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Some
can avoid it. Geniuses remove it.
-- Alan Perlis, Epigrams in Programming
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More Quotes from Dijkstra:
* None of the programs in this monograph, needless to say, has been tested on a machine. (From "A Discipline of Programming.")
* Computer science is not about computers, any more than astronomy is about telescopes.
* The question of whether computers can think is just like the question of whether submarines can swim.
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"Supposing a tree fell down, Pooh, and we were underneath it?" [said Piglet.]
"Supposing it didn't," said Pooh after careful thought.
Page Maintained by: Lane A. Hemaspaandra