This version of SCI199 was previously titled BEAUTIFUL ALGORITHMS but we shall pursue the more general (and more debateable) theme of GREAT IDEAS in COMPUTING (including some beautiful algorithms). The list of topics we shall discuss will depend to some dgeree on the background and interests of the class. During the fall of 1999, the topics discussed included the following: Turing's concept of computability and the Church-Turing thesis, the von Neumann machine model, FORTRAN and the development of `high level' languages, fast sorting algorithms, recursion, an `information theortic lower bound for comparison based sorting, search engines (including a visit by Andrei Broder, Altavista CTO), Shannon's development of information theory, compression algorithms, error correcting codes, the Euclidean algorithm and a brief discussion of computational number theory problems, public key crypography, and the Theory of NP-completeness. This page provides WWW access to various documents concerning SCI199. Most, if not all, of these documents are electronic versions of handouts given to the class. Some announcements will also be made on this page.
We are changing the time of the course
for the duration of the TA strike and perhaps for the remainder
of the term. Until further notice, we will not be
meeting Tuesdays 3-5 but rather we will meet
Thursdays 3-4 (in the usual WB144) and Fridays 12-1 in LP378.
LP378 (in the Pratt building which is connected to both the
Sandford Fleming and Walberg Buildings) is a nice small seminar room
which is more appropriate for this course.
Please send any comments or questions to the instructor: