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\title{CS 591 Randomized Algorithms, Class Project}

\author {Prof. Jared Saia, University of New Mexico}

\date{\emph{Due: Tuesday, Dec. 15th}}

\maketitle

\noindent 

A significant part of this class is the class project.  In this
project, you will apply mathematical tools learned in this class to
solve an algorithmic problem.  The project must have a significant
analytical component to it where you demonstrate mastery of
mathematical tools learned in this class.  The project can optionally
contain an empirical component where you do empirical tests which
support or complement your analytical results.  You are encouraged to
do this project in groups of between two and four students.

The main deliverable for the class project is a paper no more than
twelve pages in length (not including bibliography and appendix).
This paper should be structured as a standard research paper in that
it should have an abstract, an introduction, a related work section, a
body (containing a section on algorithms and a separate section on
analysis), and a conclusion and future work section.  I expect each
paper to have at least one non-trivial idea.

Learning to write good research papers is a life-long process.  There
are links to several good references for this process on my home page
in the \emph{Student Advice} section.  I strongly recommend discussing
your project with other students both inside and outside of your group
and getting other students to review a copy of your paper before you
turn it in.  I also strongly recommend that you come by my office
hours periodically to discuss your progress on the project.

\section{Project Ideas}

Following are some ideas for getting a topic for the class project:

\begin{enumerate}

\item Use a problem related to your own research.  Randomized
algorithms are used in almost all areas of computer science, so if you
would like some pointers to relevant papers, send me mail or come by
my office hours.

\item Find a topic in the textbook that interests you.  Find papers on
this topic in the bibliography of the textbook (www.citeseer.org is a
good place to find a paper online if you have the title).  Find
problems in the ``Conclusions and Future Work'' section of these
papers.

\item Come talk to me.  I have several problems that would be suitable
for a class project.

\item In many discussions in this class, we used asymptotic notation
to analyze the run times of algorithm.  This notation hides constants
which can sometimes have a big impact on actual run times.  One possible
project is to go back and find the hidden constants in run times of
some subset of the algorithms we have studied.  For this type of
project, you should also do empirical tests to verify that the actual
run times of the algorithms closely match your analysis.

\item Use a research problem in the textbook (These are the problems
labelled \emph{Research Problem}).  Note these problems are frequently
very challenging.  If you want to look at one of these problems, you
should first try to make it \emph{easier} by looking at a restricted
version of the problem.

\end{enumerate}

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