CS 223 -- Random Processes and Algorithms

Contact info

Instructor: Michael Mitzenmacher, michaelm then at then eecs dot harvard dot edu
Classroom: Maxwell-Dworkin G-135.
Office hours: By appointment, and lunch.
Lecture Page: Lectures should be here Note: you will now be asked for a login/password. The login should be your HUID number, and the password is the corresponding password. At least that's what they tell me; let me know if you have trouble.

Announcements

12/9: Don't expect all answers on the exam to have pleasat closed forms. (Notcie pleasant closed froms weren't asked for.) You may have to settle for something calculable.
12/6: [Link now down.] The final exam is here (and below). I'll take the link down tomorrow so please grab it. Exam 8 (pdf) . Due Dec 13.
11/22: The new assignment is up. And happy Thanksgiving.
11/8: Tentatively, there will be no class on 11/27. An announcement will be made if this changes.
10/2: For video access, you will now be asked for a login/password. The login should be your HUID number, and the password is the corresponding password. At least that's what they tell me; let me know if you have trouble.
9/25: Assignment 2 is up. Some of assignment 2 material (specifically, the Coupon Collectors Problem) we won't get to until next week. Because of this, I will be lenient if a 1-day extension is necessary. However, it will be better if you aim to turn it in Thursday.
9/24: I'll be out of town after tomorrow; especially for the extension students, if you have a question, now is a good time to e-mail and ask!!!!
9/20: Assignment 1 is posted below.
9/20: Extension students only : If you're not handing things in, please e-mail pdfs (really, pdfs are the best to send) to cscis124@gmail.com with your assignments.
9/18: I will regularly be posting additional reading at the bottom of the web page. This will give links to additional material related to things we discuss in the course. In particular, I will try to point how things we learn about are used in various ways in current research.
You are expected to read these items at your own pace and encouraged to explore further.
9/18: Videos are posted from the link above. Note: after the 3rd or 4th lecture, you'll need a password (Harvard name/ID, usually) to get into the videos, and you'll need to be enrolled.
9/18: The first assignment will not be out until 9/20, due until 9/27. But please get the book and read chapter 1 when you can.
9/18: We will be trying MD G-135 on Thursday 9/20. We'll choose the classroom based on the class size.

Information

Link to the book:

Assignments

9/18: I recommend purchasing the book as soon as possible. We will be going through Chapter 1 on Thursday; feel free to read that.
9/20: Assignment 1 (ps) , Assignment 1 (pdf)

9/25: Assignment 2 (ps) , Assignment 2 (pdf) . Due Oct 4.

10/4: Assignment 3 (ps) , Assignment 3 (pdf) . Due Oct 11.

10/11: Assignment 4 (ps) , Assignment 4 (pdf) . Due Oct 18.

10/18: Assignment 5 (ps) , Assignment 5 (pdf) . Due Oct 25.

10/25: Assignment 6 (ps) , Assignment 6 (pdf) . Due Nov 8. Note that you have 2 weeks for this assignment!

11/8: Assignment 7 (ps) , Assignment 7 (pdf) . Due Nov 20. Note that this is due Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

11/22: Assignment 8 (ps) , Assignment 8 (pdf) . Due Dec 6.

[Link now down.] 12/6: Exam 8 (pdf) . Due Dec 13.

Class Handouts

Additional Reading

I will regularly be posting additional reading at the bottom of the web page. This will give links to additional material related to things we discuss in the course. In particular, I will try to point how things we learn about are used in various ways in current research.
You are expected to read these items at your own pace and encouraged to explore further.

For a brief introduction to nontransitive dice please read this wikipedia note .
For a brief introduction to testing multivariate polynomial identities, please read this wikipedia note .
The original paper with Karger's min-cut algorithm can be found here. Improvements can be found for example in this subsequent paper . (You may need to use Hollis to access this paper.)
The coupon collector's problem has recently appeared, for example, in papers on IP traceback.
For more on quicksort/quickselect, check out this blog post by David Eppstein.
Chernoff bounds are used multiple times in the first half of this paper on IP traceback.
Chernoff bounds are (part of) why the complexity class BPP makes sense.
Valiant routing has shown up recently for example in this paper .
If you like the hiring-the-assistant homework problem, have a look at this related problem.
Just like you can actually sort in o(n log n) time for random data with bucket sort, you can search in o(log n) time for random data using interpolation search. A good, short recent paper with references can be found here.
Here's a survey on Bloom filters. Several more pages are available on my papers page.
Here's a survey paper on recent ideas on random graphs and networks. And here's a whole great coure devoted to the topic.
For applications of the second moment method in recent research, I recommend reading this expository article and this survey .
Here's another more practically oriented paper with the second moment method used for studying random geometric graphs, a model widely used in sensor networks.
Here's an older but interesting note on Ramsey theory for anyone interested.
Here's Schoning's remarkably short original paper with the algorithm for 3-SAT (k-sat) as well as a derandomization .
Here's a fun paper on combining rankings that makes use of Markov chains.