Foundations of informatics - a bridging course

This course is not listed in Aachen Campus and listed in Bonn Basis as Foundations of Informatics.

Responsible

Lecture

Dr. Michael Nüsken (contact person)
Dr. Daniel Loebenberger
Prof. Dr. Thomas Noll
Walter Unger

Time & Place

20 - 23 October 2015, b-it bitmax (Michael Nüsken).
26 - 30 October 2015, b-it bitmax (Daniel Loebenberger).
29 February - 4 March 2016, b-it Marschallsaal (Thomas Noll).
21 - 24 March 2016, b-it Marschallsaal (Walter Unger).

First meeting: Tuesday(!), 20 October, 9⁰⁰. (Please ignore what is written in BASIS or campus.)

Schedule: Mon-Fri 9⁰⁰ - 12³⁰ and 14⁰⁰ - 16⁰⁰, each block includes 30 minutes break. (If a course week advances fast, Friday afternoon may be free.)

Exam

Exam1: Wednesday, 30 March 2016, 10⁰⁰-13⁰⁰, b-it bitmax.
Post-Exam1: Thursday, 28 April 2016, 13⁰⁰, b-it 1.25.
Exam2 (repetition): Tuesday, 24 May 2016, 14⁰⁰-17⁰⁰, RWTH Aachen, CS Department, Lehrstuhl für Informatik 2, extension building E1, 2nd floor, room 4201b.
Post-Exam2: Wednesday, 22 June 2016, 11⁰⁰, b.it 1.25.

The exam is about the entire course. Please note that the second exam is for repetitions.

You do not need to register for either exam. An email would be nice, if you are not on the lists composed in autumn.

The exam is offered twice a year. There is no further limit on the number of attempts.

Week 1 - Mathematical tools

This week will deal essentially with three subjects:

Linear Algebra (Gauß-Jordan-algorithm, expansion, dim ker A + dim im A = n, ...),
Probabilities (Definitions, conditional probabilities, random variables, expected runtime of a random exit loop, some applications, ...),
Integers modulo N (Definition, inversion and extended Euclidean algorithm, square and multiply, exponentiation, Theorem of Lagrange, of Euler and Fermat's little theorem, RSA correctness and efficiency, ...).

The screen notes (PDF) contain all handwritten stuff (last updated 28 October 2015, 15:29).

Week 2 - Analysis of Algorithms

Agenda

foundations (first examples, asymptotic notation, solving recurrence equation)
sorting (QUICKSORT, sorting in linear time)
data structures (linked lists, hash tables, binary search trees)
graph algorithms (elementary (breadth-first, depth-first), single-source shortest path)
as time permits: advanced (matrix operations, polynomial and FFT, NP-completeness)

Literature

Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest, and Stein, Introduction to Algorithms, 3rd edition, MIT Press, 2009.
Goldreich, Computational Complexity: A conceptual perspective, Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Knuth, TAOCP, Vol. 1 -- Fundamental Algorithms, 3rd edition, Addison-Wesley.

Week 3 - Regular Languages, Context-Free Languages, Processes and Concurrency

More information.

Week 4 - Complexity

Allocation

equivalent V4+Ü4
Note that all Media informatics courses only start in the third week of the lecturing period, so that everybody can participate in this course.

For some MI-students this course is obligatory, for the others it's optional. There are no credits for this course.