ECE 250 Algorithms and Data Structures

ECE 250 Algorithms and Data Structures
Welcome to ECE 250

Algorithms and Data Structures
Douglas Wilhelm Harder, M.Math. LEL
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
ece.uwaterloo.ca
[email protected]
© 2006-2018 by Douglas Wilhelm Harder. Some rights reserved.

Introduction
2
Support WEEF
Remember that WEEF is one of the few organizations which will

support you throughout your undergraduate career
http://www.weef.uwaterloo.ca/
Introduction
3
ECE 150 Fundamentals of Programming
ECE 150 covered:

– The history of computing / objects / types / console I/O
– Operators / loops / methods / parameter passing
– Selection statements / arrays / strings
– Exceptions / debugging
– File input / file output
– Pointers / unsafe code / linked lists
– Collections / multi-dimensional arrays / search algorithms
– Sorting algorithms
– Object-oriented design / polymorphism / interfaces / inheritance
– Abstract class
Introduction
4
ECE 150 Fundamentals of Programming
These were the basics of programming

– The ability to manipulate the computer to perform the required tasks
You saw data storage techniques:

– Arrays, and
– Linked lists (collections were discussed)
You saw array accessing/manipulation techniques:

– Searching, and
– Sorting
Introduction
5
In this course, we will look at:

– Algorithms for solving problems efficiently
– Data structures for efficiently storing, accessing, and modifying data
We will see that all data structures have trade-offs
– There is no ultimate data structure...
– The choice depends on our requirements
Introduction
6
‫‫‬ Consider accessing the kth entry in an array or linked list

– In an array, we can access it using an index array[k]
• You will see in ECE 222 that there is a single machine instruction for this
– We must step through the first k – 1 nodes in a linked list
‫‫‬ Consider searching for an entry in a sorted array or linked list

– In a sorted array, we use a fast binary search
• Very fast
– We‫‫‬must‫‫‬step‫‫‬through‫‫‬all‫‫‬entries‫‫‬less‫‫‬than‫‫‬the‫‫‬entry‫‫‬we’re‫‫‬looking‫‫‬for
• Slow
Introduction
7
‫‫‬ However, consider inserting a new entry to the start of an array or a

linked list
– An array requires that you copy all the elements in the array over
• Slow for large arrays
– A linked list allows you to make the insertion very quickly

• Very fast regardless of size
Introduction
8
‫‫‬ All course-related material on the course web site

http://ece.uwaterloo.ca/~dwharder/aads/
‫‫‬ This includes:

– The Course Outline
– Various tutorials
– Lecture Material
– Lecture Topics
– Projects
– Homework
– Tutorial summaries
– Examination Details
Introduction
9
Classroom Etiquette
All laptop computers, cell phones, tablet computers must be closed

during all classroom hours
– If you wish to use a computer, you are welcome to step outside
– Computers distract the most people behind and around the user
– You require a Verification of Illness form to use a computer in class
– The classroom is not for watching the next football match—even if your
country is playing—but you are welcome to sit outside
Bilby
© FIFA
Introduction
10
C++
‫‫‬ You will be using the C++ programming language in this course
Modified for C++ from http://www.foxtrot.com/

Introduction
11
C++
‫‫‬ This course does not teach C++ programming

– You will use C++ to demonstrate your knowledge in this course
‫‫‬ One lecture covers:

– Features of C++ and differences with C#
‫‫‬ An on-line tutorial is available on the course web site

– It assumes minimal knowledge of programming
‫‫‬ Please note: marks in ECE 250 are not strongly correlated with
marks in ECE 150
Introduction
12
C++
‫‫‬ Other sources of help in C++ are:

– The Project T.A.s,
– The lab instructor, and
– The instructor
– Other online tutorials: http://www.cplusplus.com/
‫‫‬ Laboratories are held every second week

– All laboratory material the course web site
– Laboratories is associated with a project
– Project 0 has no marks but allows you to practice C++
Introduction
13
Unix
‫‫‬ You will also be exposed to the Unix environment

– All the projects will be marked in Unix using the g++ compiler
– Its usage is similar to that of the cs command-line compiler for C# used
in ECE 150
‫‫‬ A Unix tutorial is also available
‫‫‬ You can develop your code on Windows, but you are responsible for
testing your code to Unix
Introduction
14
Evaluation
‫‫‬ The course is divided into numerous topics

– Storing ordered and sorted objects
– Storing an arbitrary collection of data
– Sorting objects
– Graphs
– Algorithm Design Techniques
There are two self-study topics:

– Splay trees, and
– Disjoint sets
The self study topics will appear on the final examination as bonus
questions
– A question for each will appear but you may only answer one
Introduction
15
Evaluation
‫‫‬ Your evaluation in this course is based on three components:

– Five equally weighted projects
– One mid-term examination
– One final examination
– A commenting bonus (up to 3%)
‫‫‬ You must pass both the examination component and the project
component separately in order to pass the course
– If you fail either component, your grade is the lesser of the two
– Handing in no projects will result in a grade of zero
Introduction
16
Evaluation
‫‫‬ Your grade G is calculated according to the formula:
Let P, M , and F be marks out of 100 and let E  13 M  23 F ;

 min  E, P  E  50 or P  50

 75  21 E  54 P  401 EP 50  E  60 and E  P
then G   .
225  4 E  2 P  40 EP 50  P  60 and P  E
15 7 3
 4 P 4 E
1 3
E  60 and P  60
where F, M, and P are your marks on your final, mid-term, and

projects, respectively
Introduction
17
Evaluation
‫‫‬ Here is a visual representation:

Introduction
18
Evaluation
‫‫‬ Observations:
– This function is continuous (no threshold marking)
– You must achieve 60% in both the projects and the examinations in
order to have the usual marking scheme of 25% projects, 25% mid-term
examination, and 50% final examination
– You can achieve 100% on both the mid-term and the final examinations
and 50% on the projects, and you will have a grade of 50
Introduction
19
Evaluation
‫‫‬ A student who misses either examination must provide:

– A Verification of Illness form indicating a severe illness, or
– Other formal documentation, as appropriate
‫‫‬ With proper documentation:
– Missing the mid-term examination sets E = F in the formula
– Missing the final examination results in the opportunity to write with the
next offering of the course
‫‫‬ Without proper documentation:
– Missing the mid-term examination results in 0
– Missing the final examination results in DNW and
“Required‫‫‬to‫‫‬Withdraw‫‫‬from‫‫‬Engineering”
‫‫‬ There will be no re-weighting of the mid-term examination under any
circumstances
Introduction
20
Evaluation
‫‫‬ Commenting code is necessary for engineers:

– Engineers who do not comment code will not encourage employees and
contracted programmers to comment their code
– This will lead to significant additional costs
The commenting bonus occurs at the end of the term

– Instructions for commenting code are available on the Projects web site
– Quality comments are required in at least three projects for any marks
to be awarded
Introduction
21
Projects
‫‫‬ For each of the five projects, you will be required to implement one
or more of the data structures taught in class
‫‫‬ We provide an environment in which we test your projects
‫‫‬ The times the projects are due is fixed:

– Projects are due Tuesday at 22:00 (10:00 PM) on Learn
– The drop-box will be kept open until midnight for late submissions
– Maximum grade for late submissions is 70
Introduction
22
Projects
‫‫‬ We provide a interpreter which you can use to test your software
– We will use the same interpreter to test your software
‫‫‬ Your output must perfectly match our output

– Comparisons are done using text comparisons
– Any debugging printouts will cause your project to fail a test
Introduction
23
Projects
‫‫‬ What happens if you make a mistake?

– I will be holding one-on-one sessions with any student who got a grade
on a project below 70
– The maximum grade of your resubmission depends on:
Maximum Grade
You can articulate all errors and give fixes 70
You require assistance in correcting one member function 60
You require significant assistance on two member functions 50
Introduction
24
Projects
‫‫‬ You are allowed to:

– Make multiple submissions—we take the last
– Declare and define other classes and other member functions not
specified in the project descriptions
– You may even, though be very cautious, overload the given member
function signatures or give the functions extra parameters so long as the
functions as specified may be called with no ambiguity
– Use the following standard library functions (and no others):
#include <iostream> all functions and classes
#include <cassert> assert( predicate )
#include <algorithm> std::max( x, y ) std::min( x, y )
The use of any other standard library function or class will result in an
automatic grade of 0
Introduction
25
Projects
‫‫‬ You are responsible for the naming convention on the submitted file
uwuserid_pM.tar.gz
where:
uwuserid is your uWaterloo User ID,
M is the number of the project
The execution must always be of the form
tar -cvf uwuserid_pM.tar file1.h file2.h etc.h
gzip uwuserid_pM.tar
Three students failed at life when they submitted

their project with uWaterloo User ID “uwuserid”
Introduction
26
Projects
‫‫‬ In Unix, file names are case sensitive:

– The files j99smithP1.tar.gz and j99smith_p1.tar.gz are
different
‫‫‬ Also, you must use the tar and gzip utilities on Unix
– Using‫‫‬zip‫(‫‬even‫‫‬if‫‫‬you‫‫‬rename‫‫‬it)‫‫‬doesn’t‫‫‬work
‫‫‬ If you cannot submit through uWaterloo LEARN, you must e-mail the
file to the Lab Instructor
– Any penalty is based on the time stamp at which the e-mail is received
(not sent)
– You are responsible for all information on the site
ece.uwaterloo.ca/~dwharder/aads/Projects/
Introduction
27
Projects
Even xkcd has some advice on

coding...
http://xkcd.com/844/
Introduction
28
Improving Your Performance
The human brain can retain approximately 5-9 independent items of

information in its short-term memory
George Miller, The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some
Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information, Psychological
Review, Vol.63 pp.81–97, 1956
The introduction of new information causes the brain to discard an

item currently in your short-term memory
– For example, consider the 12 words which will appear on the next
sequence of screens
Your goal: at the end, write down all twelve words

Introduction
29
Cat
Introduction
30
Ultimate
Introduction
31
Knife
Introduction
32
Asteroid
Introduction
33
Motion
Introduction
34
Shipwreck
Introduction
35
Peach
Introduction
36
Ford
Introduction
37
Pencil
Introduction
38
Metre
Introduction
39
Curtain
Introduction
40
Forever
Introduction
41
‫‫‬ Now, write down as many of these words as you can

– Most of you will be able to write down somewhere between 7 through 9
of these
– It may even be possible to remember more new topics, however, you
will note that there is no relationship between these objects
Introduction
42
‫‫‬ To transfer information from your short-term memory to your long-

term memory, that information must be imposed on your mind at
least three times
‫‫‬ You should always try the following:

– Look at the slides before class
– Attend lectures
• You see the information again with commentary
– Review the lecture during the evening
• Rewrite and summarize the slides in your words
Introduction
43
‫‫‬ In addition to this, you should:

– Get a reasonable nights sleep (apparently this is when information is
transferred to your long-term memory), and
– Eat a good breakfast (also apparently good for the memory)
Introduction
44
‫‫‬ Like other courses, this course builds on previous information

– I will not answer questions about material which I have either previously
covered or indicated that you are required to read
‫‫‬ Also, neither the T.A.s nor myself will be available for help either on
the day of the mid-term or final examinations
– There is no help which can be derived in that time, and therefore, to
impress this upon you, you must study before-hand if you believe you
will need help
Introduction
45
Academic Offences
‫‫‬ Academic Offences include, but are not limited to:

– Infringing unreasonably on the work of other members
• E.g., disrupting classes
– Cheating
– Plagiarism
– Misrepresentations
‫‫‬ All students must read Policy 71

Introduction
46
Plagiarism
‫‫‬ All projects must be done individually:

– You may not copy code directly from any other source
– Plagiarism detection software will be used on all of the projects
– If you viewed another code (from books or lecture notes), you must
include a reference in your project
– You may not share code with any other students by transmitting
completed functions to your peers
• This restriction includes—but is not limited to—electronic and hard-copy
sharing
– You may discuss projects together and help another student debug his
or her code; however, you cannot dictate or give the exact solution
Introduction
47
Plagiarism
‫‫‬ Projects will be submitted to MOSS for plagiarism detection

‫( ‫‬Measure Of Software Similarity)
This plagiarism-detection software hosted on a Stanford University
server and is based on the paper
Winnowing: Local Algorithms for Document Fingerprinting
by Saul Schleimer, Daniel S. Wilkerson, and Alex Aiken
You are only asked for you uWaterloo User ID in both the project
files and the name of the submitted file
– It is not recommended that you include either your full name or your
uWaterloo Student ID Number
Introduction
48
Plagiarism
‫‫‬ Collaboration with other students must be limited to

– Discussions
– High-level pseudocode
– Assistance with debugging (only through the offering of advice)
– Sharing test files
‫‫‬ All such collaborations must be documented in your source code

Introduction
49
Plagiarism
When one student copies from another student, both students are
responsible
– Exceptions are made for outright theft
The penalty for plagiarism on a Project is a mark of 0 on the project in

question and a further 5% is subtracted from your final grade
– Regardless if Projects are counted or not
Introduction
50
Plagiarism
One‫‫‬student‫‫‬cannot‫‫‬accept‫“‫‬full‫‫‬responsibility”
– For example, Alex, Bailey, Casey, and Devin worked together in a group
– They each did their own work, however, they shared code to comment
on each others programming
– Bailey gave‫‫‬Alex’s‫‫‬code‫‫‬to‫‫‬Emerson who copied it for his project and
submitted it
– Alex, Bailey and Emerson received a 0 and –5 %
Introduction
51
Plagiarism: Example 1
‫‫‬ Alex and Bailey were lab partners in ECE 222

‫‫‬ Bailey left herself logged on Unix to allow Alex to complete the lab
‫‫‬ Alex‫‫‬copied‫‫‬Bailey’s‫‫‬ECE‫‫‬250‫‫‬project
Introduction
52
‫‫‬ Leslie asked if Morgan could send her his code so that she could
look at it (promising, of course, not to copy it)
‫‫‬ Morgan sent the code
‫‫‬ Leslie copied it and handed it in
Introduction
53
‫‫‬ Erin did not chance her default password

‫‫‬ Fanny‫‫‬logged‫‫‬onto‫‫‬Erin’s‫‫‬account‫‫‬and‫‫‬took‫‫‬Erin’s‫‫‬code
– Erin is still responsible
Introduction
54
‫‫‬ Garry and Harry worked together on a single source file initially and
then worked separately to finish off the details
‫‫‬ The result was still noticeably similar with finger-print-like
characteristics which left no doubt that some of the code had a
common source
Introduction
55
‫‫‬ Jordan uploaded the projects to GITHUB.com without setting

appropriate permissions. Kasey found this site, downloaded the
projects and submitted them. Both are guilty.
– This applies to any public forum, news group, etc.,‫‫‬not‫‫‬just‫‫‬gitub.com…

Introduction
56
Plagiarism
‫‫‬ The minimum penalty for plagiarism is 0 on the project and –5% on
your final mark for each case of plagiarism
– the penalty is applied regardless of what proportion the Projects are of
your final grade
‫‫‬ A student who cheats must receive a grade lower than a student
who did not hand in a project
Introduction
57
Plagiarism
‫‫‬ All instances of plagiarism are reported to the Associate Dean of

Undergraduate Studies
‫‫‬ The Associate Dean may increase the penalty, including:
– requiring four extra courses in ethics
– a suspension
– expulsion
Introduction
58
Plagiarism
‫‫‬ Please note that if you get 70% on:

– all projects,
– the mid-term examination, and
– the final examination
and you are caught once for plagiarism, your course average will be
61.5
Introduction
59
Plagiarism
‫‫‬ The best way to avoid plagiarism is:

– review the C++ tutorial
– read the project as soon as it is available
– start the project so that there is sufficient time to contact the T.A. or
myself if you have difficulty
– do not give your code to anyone
Introduction
60
Distribution of Information
‫‫‬ Information may be pass to the class through one of two media:
– An announcement in class,
– An e-mail via an e-mail through uWaterloo LEARN
Introduction
61
Summary
‫‫‬ In this topic, we have:

– Outlined the course
– Discussed C++ and the projects
– Improving your performance
– Discussed plagiarism and its consequences
Introduction
62
Usage Notes
• These slides are made publicly available on the web for anyone to
use
• If you choose to use them, or a part thereof, for a course at another
institution, I ask only three things:
– that you inform me that you are using the slides,
– that you acknowledge my work, and
– that you alert me of any mistakes which I made or changes which you
make, and allow me the option of incorporating such changes (with an
acknowledgment) in my set of slides
Sincerely,
Douglas Wilhelm Harder, MMath
[email protected]

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ECE 250 Algorithms and Data Structures

Welcome to ECE 250

© 2006-2018 by Douglas Wilhelm Harder. Some rights reserved.

Remember that WEEF is one of the few organizations which will

ECE 150 Fundamentals of Programming

ECE 150 covered:

ECE 150 Fundamentals of Programming

These were the basics of programming

You saw data storage techniques:

You saw array accessing/manipulation techniques: