From: Smith Timothy James Subject: CSSU Technical Seminar: Dynamic Programming FEB 9 12PM BA1130 Message-ID: Sender: news@cdf.toronto.edu (Usenet News) Organization: University of Toronto Computing Disciplines Facility Date: Sun, 5 Feb 2006 21:17:21 GMT Hello all, The CSSU will be hosting a technical seminar on Dynamic Programming. The seminar will be given by Igor Naveriouk (http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~igor/). Igor is a graduate student at UofT and heads the UofT Programming Team. >From Igor: ===== I will talk about one of the most useful techniques in algorithm design - dynamic programming (DP). Its main advantage is its amazing versatility. DP can be applied to a variety of different problems that, at first glance, have nothing in common. For the same reason, DP is, in my opinion, the most misunderstood topic in undergraduate computer science. In fact, there are at least 3 professors in our department who are trying to define just what DP is, as there is no agreement on a precise definition. Instead of attempting to define DP, I will present a number of various problems from different branches of computer science and show how DP can be used to find efficient solutions to them. Some of these, you have probably seen in undergraduate classes on algorithms; others might be new. I will also talk about the difference between DP and memoization (that's without an 'r'), when they are the same thing and when one should be used instead of the other. Memoization is usually not mentioned in computer science courses, although it is, I think, a much easier way to understand dynamic programming. ===== Students who have or are currently taking CSC373, as well as persons with a general interest in problem solving and efficient programming are highly encouraged to attend. Coffee and soft drinks will be served. The event will last from 12:10PM until 1:00PM this Thursday, February 9th, in Bahen Centre room BA1130. Hope to see you there, Cheers, Tim Smith CSSU President 2005/2006