T-79.5202 Combinatorial algorithms / Exercises 2008

Exercises

A collection of exercises and their solutions [pdf, in Finnish] is available. An [English version] is also available. The problems are approximately graded for difficulty as follows:

* -- An easy problem; can be solved directly from the definitions or directly applying the algorithms discussed.
** -- Moderately difficult; requires some insight or is slightly more laborious
*** -- Somewhat challenging; requires applying the knowledge gained in the course or is somewhat laborious

In exercise sessions assistant shows solutions to some demo exercises from the topic of the previous lecture(s). Instructions and hints for the home assignments will also be given.

• Exercise session 1 (Jan 24): Instructions for 1st home assignment, exercise 3.
• Exercise session 2 (Jan 31): Exercises 4, 9, 12.
• Exercise session 3 (Feb 7): Exercises 21, 22 and a backtrack demo
• Exercise session 4 (Feb 14): Instructions for 2nd home assignment
• Deadline for 1st home assignment on Feb 15
• Exercise session 5 (Feb 21): Exercises 13, 14 and 15
• Exercise session 6 (Feb 28): Exercises 26, 27 and 28
• No excercise session on Mar 6 (exam week)
• Exercise session 7 (Mar 13): Tips for 2nd home assignment, local search demo
• Deadline for 2nd home assignment on Mar 14
• No excercise session on Mar 20 (Easter holiday)
• Exercise session 8 (Mar 27): Instructions for 3rd home assignment
• Exercise session 9 (Apr 3):
• Exercise session 10 (Apr 10):
• Exercise session 11 (Apr 17):
• Exercise session 12 (Apr 24):
• Deadline for 3rd home assignment on Apr 25
• No excercise session on May 1 (Vappu)

Home assignments

Home assignments and peer reviewing them are an obligatory part of the course. The three home assignments will be published on this page.

The home assignments (and peer reviewing them) must be passed before taking the exam. The weight of the home assignments on the course is considerable: the maximum score on the exam is 24, and each home assignment is graded on a 0-6 scale. We guarantee that with 50% of all points a student will pass the course. Other than this the grading scale is decided afterwards.

Grading home assignments

If a submission is clearly deficient, the student will be asked to revise it. Also a good report can be returned to the student for revision, if the report contains a significant error.

Approximate guidelines: less than 3 points = unacceptable; significant shortcomings in the solution or badly reported; will be returned to the student to be completed. 3 points = least acceptable performance. Minimum requirements satisfied and adequately reported. 6 points = a truly extraordinary performance. Presents something special regarding the problem considered and is very well reported. If a report is returned to the student for revision, 1 point is subtracted from the score. Each time a student submits a report, a revised report, or a peer review after the deadline similarly costs one point, and one extra point for every three days late.

Familiarize yourself with the instructions for submitting the home assignments. There are also LaTeX templates for the report [pdf] and code [pdf] parts of the submission.

Schedule for home assignments

• 1st home assignment given on Jan 24, to be returned by Feb 15
  • peer review Feb 18 to Feb 25.
  • for the people who submitted after deadline Feb 23 to Feb 29
• 2nd home assignment given on February 14, to be returned by March 14
• peer review March 17 to March 24.
• for the people who submitted after deadline Mar 27 to Apr 4
• 3rd home assignment given on March 27, to be returned by April 25.
• a link to kotit3.c
• peer review April 28 to May 7.
• second peer review group from May 6 to May 13.

Note also the policy on computation intensive use (in Finnish) of the Computing Centre

Peer review

The students will review the submissions of two other students using the given form. The form is emailed to the assistant, who will then forward the evaluations to the authors of the report. In this way everyone receives two peer reviews for each report.

The reports will be made available to other participants of the course. We will carry out a single-blind review: the reviewers will know whose report they are reviewing, but the author will not know who has reviewed their report.

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Päivitetty viimeksi 06.05.2008. (pjsavolatcs.hut.fi)