COS Independent Work Seminar:
Algorithms and Uncertainty

COS IW10
Fall 2018

General Information:

Instructor: Sahil Singla (singla at cs dot princeton dot edu) (office hours: Monday 2:00-4:00PM at Room 219, 194 Nassau Street)
TA: Vidhya Ramaswamy (vidhyar at cs dot princeton dot edu) (office hours: Thursday 5:00-6:00PM at Room 246, 194 Nassau Street)
Meeting time and place: Friday 1:30-2:50PM, CS 301
Links: Description, Schedule, Resources, FAQ, Piazza

Description:

Several computer science problems can be modeled as a discrete/continuous optimization problem: maximize/minimize a given objective function while satisfying some constraints. Although there are many known algorithms for such problems, often they rely on exact knowledge of the problem parameters. In practice, however, we only have estimates on these inputs. How can we design algorithms that make irrevocable decisions without knowing the entire input? We need adaptive algorithms that change their behaviour depending on the realization of the input. The goal of this course is to learn/develop algorithms with provable performance guarantees for such optimization under uncertainty problems.

For more details, see this document.

Schedule:

Besides the schedule below, also see this link for important steps and deadlines.

Date	Topic
Sep 13	Attend the "Getting Started" Information Meeting (Maeder Hall 4:30 PM - Adlinger Center)
Sep 14	Introduction to Algorithms and Uncertainty
Sep 21	Basic Tools and Brain Storming
Sep 28	Develop project plans and informal proposal talks
Oct 3	Submit Written Project Proposal
Oct 5	Project discussions
Oct 12	Project discussions
Oct 19	Project discussions
Oct 22	Submit the Checkpoint Form
Oct 26	Progress reports, discussion, and feedback
Nov 2	Fall recess holiday
Nov 9	Submit a 5+ page Preliminary Report. Project discussions
Nov 12	Students attend "How to Give an IW Talk"
Nov 16	Project discussions
Nov 23	Thanksgiving holiday
Nov 27	Students attend "How to Write an IW Paper"
Nov 30	Progress reports, discussion, and feedback
Dec 7	Practice Prsentations
Dec 9	Submit Slides for an Oral Presentation
Dec 14	Give an Oral Presentation
Jan 8	Submit a Written Final Report
Jan 9	Submit a Poster
Jan 10	Present at the Poster Session (9am to 4:30pm Convocation Rm)

Resources:

Independent work:
See this document for related papers and articles.

Frequently Asked Questions:

May I partner with someone?
Yes, you may work with a partner. However, each person has to write their own proposal, paper, and poster. Of course the technical proofs will be the same but they should be written in your own words.

COS Independent Work Seminar: Algorithms and Uncertainty