Course Schedule

Lecture slides and transcripts are protected by PennKey login via Canvas.

Bulk downloads — 📄 All Slides (ZIP)🔒 · 📝 All Transcripts (ZIP)🔒

Interactive visualizations open directly in your browser — no login required.

Week 1: Welcome & Course Introduction

Jan 15 & 20

Classes canceled

Jan 22

Lecture 1: Welcome to CIS 5020: 📄 Slides🔒
📝 Transcript🔒

Week 2: Foundations

Jan 27

Class canceled — university closure (winter storm)

Jan 29

Lecture 2: Analysis of Algorithms: 📄 Slides🔒

Feb 3

Lecture 3: Epistemic vs. Cybernetic AI Use: 📄 Slides🔒
📝 Transcript🔒

Feb 5

Lecture 4: Super Syllabus Exploration: 📄 Slides🔒
📝 Transcript🔒

Week 3: Approximate Counting

Feb 10

Lecture 5: When “Good Enough” Is Better Than Perfect: 📄 Slides🔒
📝 Transcript🔒

Feb 12

Lecture 6: Grand Jury & Approximate Counting: 📄 Slides🔒
📝 Transcript🔒

Week 4: Deeper Analysis of Morris

Feb 17

Lecture 7: Deeper Analysis of Morris: 📄 Slides🔒
📝 Transcript🔒
🔬 Morris Visualization

Feb 19

Lecture 8: Tail Inequalities — Discovery Day: 📄 Slides🔒
📝 Transcript🔒
🔬 Tail Inequalities Visualization
🧪 Discovery Activity

Week 5: Streaming Majority

Feb 24

Lecture 9: MJRTY — Streaming Majority Detection: 📄 Slides🔒
📝 Transcript🔒
🧪 MJRTY Learning Activity
🖥️ StreamLang

Feb 26

Lecture 10: Beyond Majority — Two Problems, Two Paths: 📄 Slides🔒
📝 Transcript🔒
⚙️ Reservoir Roulette

Week 6: Frequency Sketches

Mar 3

Lecture 11: From Exact Counting to Histogram Sketching: 📄 Slides🔒
📝 Transcript🔒
🔬 Misra-Gries Histogram Activity

Mar 5

Lecture 12: Cardinality Estimation: 📄 Slides🔒
📝 Transcript🔒
🧪 Cardinality Estimation Activity

Week 7: Spring Break

Mar 9–13: Spring Recess — no classes

Week 8: Leader Election

Mar 17

Lecture 13: Leader Election — Breaking Symmetry: 📄 Slides🔒
📝 Transcript🔒
🧪 Leader Election Activity

Mar 19

Lecture 14: Hirschberg-Sinclair — O(n log n) Leader Election: 📄 Slides🔒
📝 Transcript🔒
⚙️ Beat LCR Activity
🖥️ Distributed Blockly Challenge

Mar 24

Class canceled

Mar 26

Lecture 15: Visualization as Pedagogy: 📄 Slides🔒
📝 Transcript🔒

Week 9: Knuth-Yao & Buffon Machines

Mar 31

Lecture 16: Buffon Machines — Bit-Level Randomness: 📄 Slides🔒
📝 Transcript🔒

Apr 2

Lecture 17: Buffon Machines — Continued (slides same as Lecture 16): 📝 Transcript🔒
🔭 Buffon Simulation Sandbox
🔬 Knuth-Yao Visualization

Apr 7

Lecture 18: Buffon Machines — From Coin Flips to π: 📄 Slides🔒
📝 Transcript🔒

Week 10: Linear Programming

Apr 9

Lecture 19: Linear Programming — The Hidden Engine: 📄 Slides🔒
📝 Transcript🔒

Apr 14

Lecture 20: The Simplex Method: 📄 Slides🔒
📝 Transcript🔒

Apr 16

Lecture 21: Simplex by the Book: 📄 Slides🔒
📝 Transcript🔒

Week 11: Online Algorithms

Apr 21

Lecture 22: The God Algorithm — Competing with Omniscience: 📄 Slides🔒
📝 Transcript🔒
⚙️ Frozen Horizon

Week 12: Matching & the Politics of Algorithms

Apr 23

Lecture 23: Gale-Shapley, the APB Scandal, and the Politics of Matching: 📄 Slides🔒
📝 Transcript🔒
🔬 Algorithms That Sort Students
📦 Parcoursup Source (GitLab)

Week 13: The Lottery of Babylon

Apr 28

Lecture 24: The Lottery Becomes the System — Borges, Babylon, and What Algorithmic Thinking Gives You (final lecture): 📄 Slides🔒
📝 Transcript🔒