CSE 690 (Spring'15)
Concurrent and Distributed Algorithms

[ General Information | Schedule | Handouts | Resources | Requirements ]


General Information

Course description: This course is for students interested in design and analysis of algorithms for concurrent and distributed systems, where multiple entities interact through shared memory or message passing. We will study well-known algorithms, which underlie today's most important distributed storage and concurrent processing applications. We will also discuss methods for systematically developing them and reasoning about them, and implement some of the algorithms.

Course work: In-class exercises, reading and homework assignments, an exam, and a project where students may implement and experiment with well-known algorithms, demonstrate their correctness and performance properties, study optimizations for them, exploit them in interesting applications, or take on other tasks that exploit or extend the topics studied.

Prerequisites: an algorithm course, a programming language or compiler course, a database course, and skills for programming in a high-level language such as Python or Java; or permission of the instructor. | Credits: 3.

Instructor: Annie Liu | Email: liu@cs.stonybrook.edu | Office: Computer Science 1433 | Phone: 631-632-8463.

Lectures: Wed 10AM-12:40PM, in CS 2114 | Office hours: Tue 12:40-1PM, 2:20-3:20PM, Wed 12:40-1PM, Thu 2:20-3:20PM, email for an appointment, or stop by any time I'm around.

Textbook: There is no required textbook for this course; relevant materials and additional references will be given as the course proceeds.

Grading: Lecture critiques, in-class exercises, reading and homework assignments, an exam, and a project, each worth 5%, 10%, 40%, 25%, and 20%, respectively, of the grade. Reduced credit for late submissions, 20% per day.

Course homepage: http://www.cs.stonybrook.edu/~liu/cse690


Schedule

Week 1: Overview. Assignment 1

Part I: Foundation

Week 2: Mutual exclusion in shared-memory systems. Assignment 2

Week 3: Mutual exclusion in message-passing systems.

Week 4: Concurrent and distributed programming languages. Assignment 3

Week 5: Correctness and efficiency.

Part II: Important algorithms

Week 6: Distributed consensus. Assignment 4

Week 7: More distributed algorithms.

Week 8: More distributed algorithms.

Week 9: Non-blocking algorithms. Assignment 5

Week 10: More concurrent algorithms.

Week 11: (4/15) Exam: In-class exam. Project

Part III: In the large

Week 12: Distributed services.

Week 13: Knowledge and common knowledge.

Week 14: Project presentations.

(5/8) Project report due


Handouts

Questionnaire

Lecture Critiques

In-Class Exercises

Assignment 1: Concurrent and distributed applications

Assignment 2: Mutual exclusion

Assignment 3: Distributed mutual exclusion

Assignment 4: Paxos and more

Assignment 5: Non-blocking queue and more

Exam

Project


Other Resources

Interactive Site of This Course, for students in the class

Computer Science Department Computing Labs


Requirements

Learn all information on the course homepage. Check the homepage periodically for announcements and other dynamic contents.

Attend all lectures and take good notes. This is the most efficient way to learn the course materials, because we will both distill and elaborate paper materials and discuss other important materials. We will start promptly on time, with quick reviews every time, followed by exercises or quizzes. We will have every student participate in solving problems and presenting solutions in class.

Do all course work. The readings are to help you preview and review the materials discussed in the lectures. The assignments and project are to provide concrete experiences with the basic concepts and methods covered in the lectures. The exercises and quizzes are to help check that you are keeping up with the lectures and the assignments. The exams will be comprehensive.

Your handins, whether in electronic form or on paper, should include the following information at the top: your name, student id, course number, assignment number, and due date, and should be submitted in a neat and organized fashion.

Your programming assignments should always be submitted with a README.txt file explaining where things are, what you did and found for the assignment (that is not described in the assignment handout), and how to run and test your code. This file is worth a non-trivial portion of the grade.

Your approach to solving problems is as important as your final solutions; you need to show how you arrived at your solutions and include appropriate explanations. Always include good explanations in your README file and good comments in your code.

If you feel your grade was assigned incorrectly, please bring it up no later than two weeks after the grade was posted.

Ask questions and get help. Ask questions in class, in office hours, and in the Q&A forum. Talk with your classmates, and share ideas (but nothing written or electronic).

Academic Integrity: All course work must be done individually, unless specified otherwise; you may discuss ideas with others and look up references, but you must write up your solutions independently and credit all sources that you used. Any plagiarism or other forms of cheating discovered will have a permanent consequence in your university record.

Each student must pursue his or her academic goals honestly and be personally accountable for all submitted work. Representing another person's work as your own is always wrong. Faculty are required to report any suspected instances of academic dishonesty to the Academic Judiciary. For more comprehensive information on academic integrity, including categories of academic dishonesty, please refer to the academic judiciary website at http://www.stonybrook.edu/uaa/academicjudiciary/

Americans with Disabilities Act: If you have a physical, psychological, medical or learning disability that may impact your course work, please contact Disability Support Services, ECC(Educational Communications Center) Building, Room 128, (631)632-6748. They will determine with you what accommodations, if any, are necessary and appropriate. All information and documentation is confidential.

Critical Incident Management: Stony Brook University expects students to respect the rights, privileges, and property of other people. Faculty are required to report to the Office of University Community Standards any disruptive behavior that interrupts their ability to teach, compromises the safety of the learning environment, or inhibits students' ability to learn. Further information about most academic matters can be found in the Undergraduate Bulletin, the Undergraduate Class Schedule, and the Faculty-Employee Handbook.