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 Type | Assessment Length/Details | Proportion |
Semester Exam | 3 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:
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have an understanding of the concepts of problem abstraction and program design;
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be capable of realising their designs in software that is robust, reusable and maintainable;
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understand the principles of abstractions and encapsulation, as they apply to object-oriented design;
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understand the importance of the ideas of space and time complexity and be able to use them to predict the behaviour of simple systems;
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understand and be able to use a variety of approaches to algorithm design such as greedy algorithms, divide and conquer and dynamic programming;
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be able to evaluate and choose appropriate data structures and algorithms for a range of programming problems;
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have an appreciation of the importance of program correctness and some of the techniques used to ensure it.
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:
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introduce students to the standard data structures and algorithms that form the common currency of software design;
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develop students' understanding of the object-oriented model of software;
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introduce students to the analysis and prediction of performance.
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