Course Outline

• Introduction
  • Cryptography.
• Network Flows
  • Max Flow Min Cut Theorem;
  • Algorithms for Max Flow;
  • Applications: Bipartite Matching, Vertex Cover etc.
• Linear Programming
  • (Weak and Strong) Duality, Complementary Slackness;
  • Algorithms for solving LPs (Simplex, Ellipsoid);
  • Application of LPs.
• NP and NP-completeness
  • Reductions;
  • NP-completeness and proof of Cook’s Theorem.
• Heuristics
  • Backtracking: Hamiltonian Cycle, Satisfiability ;
  • Branch and Bound ;
  • Local Search.
• Approximation Algorithms
  • Vertex Cover;
  • Traveling Salesman.
• Randomized Algorithms
  • Minimum Cut;
  • Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC), Simulated Annealing.
• Other topics we may cover
  • Online Algorithms;
  • Fixed-Parameter Tractability;
  • Complexity: PSPACE, EXP.