It is assumed the student has a reasonable mastery of C++ or a similar high level language, as the course will involve substantial work implementing the data structures under discussion.

The course will focus heavily on the concepts of abstract data types (ADTs), classes, and objects. We will study both the data structures themselves, the algorithms used to manipulate them, and the applications that would typically use the structures. We will also study techniques which enable more advanced analysis of the efficiency of algorithms in general.

Specific data structures and algorithms will include:

• LISTS: sorting(merging) lists, self organizing lists, sparse tables
• TREES: balanced binary search trees, multiway trees, heaps, heapsort
• GRAPHS: implementations, spanning trees, shorted path determination, and network flow problems
• HASH TABLES: hash functions, clash resolution, radixsort
• DATA COMPRESSION: compression and encoding techniques

Contact information, materials

• Lecturer: Dave Wessels, 753-3245 ext 2436, wesselsd@mala.bc.ca
• Office hours (in Bldg 315, Rm 222): TBA
  If you need to see me outside office hours please send me an email (David.Wessels@viu.ca) to arrange a suitable time.
  
• Textbook: there is no specific required textbook for the course. There are a great many textbooks available (through bookstores, ebay, amazon,etc) with titles along the lines of "data structures and algorithms". Most of these give decent coverage of the general concepts and at least some of the specific data structures we'll look at this semester.
• Web material: supplementary lecture notes, assignments, tutorials, sample programs, practice problems, etc, are accessible through http://csci.viu.ca/~wesselsd/courses/csci260/

Timetable and assessment

• Lectures: TBA
• Tutorials: Bdlg 315, Rm 115: TBA
• Assessment:
  • Assignments: 6 assignments, worth 5% each
  • Midterm: two in-class midterms (dates TBA) worth 15% each
  • Final exam: (time and location TBA) worth 40%

Tutorials
You must be enrolled in, and fully participate in, the weekly tutorial/lab sessions.
Each tutorial may involve study questions, and/or practical problems (programming, design, debugging, etc), and are specifically geared towards helping solve the current assignment.

To access your lab accounts you must first have a VIU Discovery account. This MUST BE DONE BEFORE YOUR FIRST LAB, and can be set up via the following web page:
entrance.capitan.mala.bc.ca/student/studentaccounts/creaccount.htm

Computer accounts
To work on your tutorials and assignments, you will be given accounts for the computer science labs.
There is a user id and password associated with each account (to prevent others from reading your mail).
The appropriate use of these accounts will be discussed in your first tutorial.

Assignment notes
Each assignment has a due date and time. Assignments must be submitted before the due date and time, using the submission process which will be discussed in the class and lab sessions. No other method of submission will be accepted and no late assignments will be accepted.
Assignment marking will be based on the correctness of your solutions, the quality of your code and supporting documentation, and adherence to standards and restrictions which will be specified on an assignment-by-assignment basis.

Appeals of Grades: Any exercise or examination grade may be appealed. However, the appeal must be made to the instructor, in writing and attached to the work in question, and within 7 days of the grade being made available to the class. The instructor reserves the right to re-grade the entire piece of work submitted on appeal, not necessarily just the component that the student believes is in error.

Grade Conversion: The following scale will be used but the instructor reserves the right to lower the numerical score required for a particular letter grade if that seems appropriate, but the same conversion will be applied to all persons in the class. Under no circumstances will the numerical score required for a particular letter grade be raised.

90-100	85-<90	80-<85	76-<80	72-<76	68-<72	64-<68	60-<64	55-<60	50-<55	<50
A+	A	A-	B+	B	B-	C+	C	C-	D	F

Lab and Computer Usage Rules:
See http://www.viu.ca/computerscience/resources.asp#Lab_And_Computer_Usage_Rules.

Guidelines Concerning Fraud
These guidelines concern the type of fraud where a student presents another's work as his or her own, or allows another to do so.

• As fraud invalidates the evaluation of a student's progress, it is the duty of instructors, teaching assistants, and laboratory assistants to take measures to prevent fraud and to be vigilant towards symptoms of fraud.
• Students are encouraged to study together. But, unless the contrary is indicated, submitted work is to be done by students individually. Students are to collaborate on submitted work only when this is explicitly permitted by the instructor. In such a case, the names of all students who have collaborated on a piece of submitted work should be indicated on all submitted material.
  As in all academic endeavour, due credit must be given to all reference material. Students should consult the course instructor if they are not certain which outside material is appropriate for use in a course.
  The collaboration is to involve reasonable effort on the part of all students involved. In a situation where this is clearly not the case, appropriate action will be taken with regard to those students who have not fully contributed to the collaborative effort.
• In case fraud is detected, credit is withheld from the work affected. The students involved are reported to the department chair who may take additional disciplinary action commensurate with the severity of the fraud and the past records of the students.