Course Syllabus

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Welcome to CS 261: Data Structures (online)

The purpose of this course is to develop your knowledge and understanding of data structures. The course was intentionally designed so that, at the end of the term, you will be able to do the following:

• Describe the properties, interfaces, and behaviors of basic abstract data types, such as collection, bag, indexed collection, sorted collection, stack, and queue.
• Read an algorithm or program code segment that contains iterative constructs and analyze the asymptotic time complexity of the algorithm or code segment.
• State the asymptotic time complexity of the fundamental operations associated with a variety of data structures, such as vector, linked list, tree, and heap.
• Recall the space utilization of common data structures in terms of the long-term storage needed to maintain the structure, as well as the short-term memory requirements of fundamental operations, such as sorting.
• Design and implement general-purpose, reusable data structures that implement one or more abstractions.
• Compare and contrast the operation of common data structures (such as linear structures, priority queues, tree structures, hash tables, maps, and graphs) in terms of time complexity, space utilization, and the abstract data types they implement.

We call this list the course Learning Objectives. We recommend that you periodically revisit this list throughout the term to check your progress on developing this knowledge and these skills.

Course Structure

We structured the course around the Learning Objectives, above. We will present and material and assess your learning in multiple ways, including the following:

• Weekly readings
• Explorations and Video lectures
• Programming assignments (completed individually)
• Quizzes

Note: There will be no exams in this course that need to be proctored.

Your Instructional Team

Instructors:

Samina Ehsan (ehsans@oregonstate.edu)                                                                   

Hello Everyone, My name is Samina Ehsan and I will be one of your instructors for CS-261-Data Structures. Right after completing my Ph.D. from Oregon State University, I joined OSU as an Instructor in the online CS program. For the past 8 years, I have been teaching exclusively online courses. I believe that a strong understanding of data structures is very important to drastically improve one's ability to solve problems with powerful and efficient programs because it deals with data storage, manipulation, and retrieval when we write computer programs. And I hope this course will provide you a solid understanding of various data structures, abstract data types, and their implementation in Python. I look forward to a great term with all of you!

Tim Alcon (alcont@oregonstate.edu)

Hi all, and welcome to CS 261!  I have an M.S. in Computer Science from Western Washington University and an M.S. in Bioinformatics from Iowa State University. My recreational interests include hiking, biking, ultimate frisbee, racquetball, board games, and learning new stuff.

ULAs: 

Jered Abate 
Email: abatej@oregonstate.edu 

Grigori Barbachov  
Email: barbachg@oregonstate.edu  

Lisa Bettcher
Email: bettchem@oregonstate.edu  

Logan Cope
Email: copel@oregonstate.edu 

Jaspreet S. Dhillon
Email: dhillonj@oregonstate.edu 

Luwey Hon 
Email: honl@oregonstate.edu 

Anjanette Oborn 
Email: oborna@oregonstate.edu