Computer Science 385
Design and Analysis of Algorithms

Spring 2026, Siena University

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Agenda

• Welcome to Algorithms!
  • What is an algorithm?
• What is this course about?
• Syllabus and roll call
• Announcements
  • Please bring laptop computers to labs if you have them, sometimes helpful for lectures too
  • Before class on Friday: read Levitin Chapter 1
• Pseudocode
• Lab 0: Data Structures Refresher
  • on paper
  • due before class on Friday (but hopefully you get done before you leave here today)
  • related to the Fundamental Data Structures topic notes

Terminology

• algorithm
• inputs/outputs
• precise
• deterministic
• non-deterministic
• finiteness
• correctness
• verifying correctness
• proofs
• generality
• efficiency
• theoretical
• practical
• design and anaylsis
• lower bounds
• optimal
• impossible
• pseudocode