Module Identifier CSM1220  
Module Title DATA STRUCTURES, ALGORITHMS AND SOFTWARE DESIGN  
Academic Year 2003/2004  
Co-ordinator Mr Christopher W Loftus  
Semester Available all semesters  
Pre-Requisite CSM1020  
Course delivery Other   55 Hours Contact Hours. plus around 100 hours of self study and practical work  
Assessment
Assessment TypeAssessment Length/DetailsProportion
Semester Exam3 Hours  80%
Semester Assessment Course Work:  20%
Further details http://www.aber.ac.uk/compsci/ModuleInfo/CSM1220  

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of the module, students should:


Brief description

In the 40 or so years that people have been developing software, a range of common tasks, such as sorting and searching, have been identified and a body of knowledge has been accumulated about how these tasks are best carried out. This knowledge usually consists of various ways of structuring the data, a range of different algorithms, and performance analysis that enables a designer to chose the algorithm and data structure most appropriate to the circumstances of the system, and to predict how the system will perform.

This module introduces students to this body of knowledge and sets it into the context of modern software design and structuring techniques.

Aims

The aims of this module are to:

Content

Course Overview -
Time/space complexity. Issues of correctness as they relate to the definition of ADTs. Abstraction and encapsulation. Notations for describing ADTs. Review of Java support for their implementation: packages, exceptions and interfaces.

Further Design and Implementation of Computer Programs -
Programming language facilities to support more advanced data structures and the development of larger, more reusable software. Linear data structures: stacks, queues and lists of objects, implemented using arrays and utilising interfaces.

Dynamic Storage Allocation -
Unbounded data structures and a comparison with their bounded equivalents. Implementation of dynamic storage allocation in run-time systems; 'heap creep'.

Object-Oriented Techniques -
Object-oriented analysis and design. The Unified Modelling Language (UML). The Unified Process, a recipe for developing UML diagrams during object oriented analysis and design.

Introduction to Complexity -
OO notation, growth rates. Measurement of execution time of program examples and the estimation of their time complexity. Examples of time/space trade-offs.

Storing and Retrieving Data by Key From Internal Storage -
Binary search trees, 2-3 trees. How the characteristics of the problem (data volumes, volatility and relative frequency of the different operations) affect the choice of data structure.

Storing and Retrieving Data by Key from External Storage -
Performance issues. Hashing and B-tree organisations. The Hashable class in Java.

Sorting -
Quicksort, Mergesort and Selection Sort and their time complexities.

Graphs -
Weighted, directed graphs. Shortest path algorithms, breadth first and depth first searching. Minimum spanning trees and topological sorting.

Reading Lists

Books
** Consult For Futher Information
Thomas H. Cormen, Charles E. Leiserson, and Ronald L. Rivest. (1990) Introduction to Algorithms MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts
John E Hunt (1998) Java and Object Orientation: An Introduction Springer Verlag
Rebecca Wirfs-Brock, Brian Wilkerson, and Lauren Wiener. (1990) Designing Object-Oriented Software Prentice Hall
T A Standish (1998) Data Structures in Java Addison-Wesley
T A Standish (1994) Data Structures, Algorithms and Software Principles Addison-Wesley
Robert Sedgewick (1988) Algorithms Addison-Wesley
J. Rumbaugh, M. Blaha, W. Permerlani, F Eddi, and W Lorensen. Prentice-Hall, 1991. (1991) Object-Oriented Modeling and Design Prentice-Hall
Robert L Kruse. (1987) Data Structures and Program Design 2nd. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
Alfred Aho, John Hopcroft, and Jeffrey Ullman. (1983) Data Structures and Algorithms Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts
Alfred Aho and Jeffrey Ullman. (1992) Foundations of Computer Science Computer Science Press, New York
Hans-Erik Eroksson and Magnus Penker (1997) UML Toolkit Wiley, New York
Michael Main. (1998) Data Structures and Other Objects Using Java Addison-Wesley
Rob Pooley and Pardita Stevens. Addison-Wesley, 1999. (1999) Using UML: Software enginering with objects and components Addison-Wesley
Grady Booch (1994) Object-Oriented Analysis and Design Addison-Wesley

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 7