CS174 Sp01 Course Information

Welcome to CS174! This course covers probabilistic methods and their applications in computer science. The course content is roughly divided into thirds:

• Probabilistic and counting techniques. Gives you the tools for the rest of the course.
• Applications in algorithms and computer systems. Some traditional algorithms and some distributed algorithms important for networked envionments.
• Applications to the management of information, including cryptography, authentication, e-cash and voting.

The detailed syllabus is here.

Administrative Details

Lecture: TuTh 12:30-2:00pm in 306 Soda, ccn 26540

Section 101: Th 4-5P, 105 Stanley, ccn 26543

Section 102: F 10-11A, 3111 Etcheverry, ccn 26546

Section 103: F 11-12P, 285 Cory, ccn 26549

Prerequisites: Math 55, CS170
Final exam group: 14

Credit: 4 units

Sections will meet in the first week.

Instructor: John Canny, jfc@cs.berkeley.edu, 529 Soda, 642-9955

Office hours: Weds 2-3, Th 3-4

 

TA: Dawn Song, dawnsong@cs.berkeley.edu, 593 Soda, 642-2128
Office hours: TBA

Course Secretary: Winnie Wang, catwoman@cs.berkeley.edu, 719 Soda Hall, 642-9575
But see Prof. Canny for extra copies of handouts.

Prerequisites:
The prerequisites are CS170 and Math55. If you haven't taken these courses recently or if you have substituted some other course(s), make sure you are up to speed on basic probability theory. Things move quickly after the first lecture.

Grading
There will be two midterms and a final, along with weekly homeworks. There will also be two or three short pop quizes at the begining of class. The quizes wont be announced ahead of time, so make sure you stay on top of the material.

• First midterm 15%
• Second midterm 15%
• Final 30%
• Weekly Homeworks 35%
• Pop quizes 5%

Letter Grades:
The course is not curved but will use a fixed grading scale. Unless the HW and exam averages are unusually high or low, your grade will be computed according to this table:

Late Policy
20% off the value of a homework for each day late. Your lowest homework score will be dropped. Homeworks are to be handed in in class, or in the TA's mailbox or class mailbox by 5pm on the due date.

Course Text:
The online notes comprise the main text for the course.

Recommended:
"Randomized Algorithms" by Rajeev Motwani and Prabhakar Raghavan, Cambridge University Press, New York, NY, 1995. This is a difficult book with proofs that demands a lot of work from the reader.  But it does cover the material well (2/3 of it) and is the nearest thing to a textbook for the course.

"Digital Cash" by Peter Wayner, Academic Press, London, 2^nd Ed. 1997.
This book includes material for the last 6 lectures in chapters 2 and 3. The description there is not very detailed and will be supplemented by information from lectures. Nevertheless this is an interesting and useful book to have.

Policy on Cheating:
Its normal to discuss and work together on the homework problems. But you should write up your homework solutions yourself. Dont write them up by looking at someone else's. Minor mistakes get copied that way, and those are tell-tale signs of cheating. Cheating on HWs will lead to a score of zero for that HW. Repeat HW offences or cheating on midterms or the final will earn a zero for that exam and be reported to the office of student conduct.

Policy on Selling Notes:
The only organization authorized to sell notes taken in Berkeley classes is Black Lightening. Its a violation of campus policy to sell notes to anyone else.

Class Home Page:
Is http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~jfc/cs174

Newsgroup:
The newsgroup is an important tool for staying in touch with the class and getting help from the TA or instructor or from other students. You should set up a newsreader (Netscape works fine) to the campus news server agate.berkeley.edu and select the newsgroup ucb.class.cs174. You must be connected to the campus network directly or to a campus dialup line to access the course newsgroups. Click here if you are.