Computer Science 312 - Algorithms

Algorithms

Spring
2025
01
4.00
Audrey Lee St. John

TTH 09:00AM-10:15AM

Mount Holyoke College
126446
Clapp Laboratory 306
astjohn@mtholyoke.edu
How does Google Maps find the best route between two locations? How do computers help to decode the human genome? At the heart of these and other complex computer applications are nontrivial algorithms. While algorithms must be specialized to an application, there are some standard ways of approaching algorithmic problems that tend to be useful in many applications. Among other topics, we explore graph algorithms, greedy algorithms, divide-and-conquer, dynamic programming, and network flow. Students learn to recognize when to apply each of these strategies as well as to evaluate the expected runtime costs of the algorithms they design.

Prereq: COMSC-205 and MATH-232.

Permission is required for interchange registration during the add/drop period only.