Computer Science Dept. at Information Technology University is excited to offer a graduate level course on Approximation Algorithms in Spring 2018. Since this is a unique opportunity of sorts, folks from all institutes in lahore are welcome to apply for a spot in this class. While course is heavy on theory, we plan to discuss a lot of recent applications in Data Mining, Networks, Knowledge Discovery and other domains. A tentative list of topic is below.

– Design by LP relaxation (after intro to NP-Hardness and Basics of LP)
– Submodular objectives
– Semidefinite Programming
– PTASs and FPTASs
– Hardness of Approximation
– Fixed Parameter Tractability (if time permits)

Prerequisites include a good command on algorithms, basic probability theory, and discrete mathematics. We do expect participants to contribute heavily in form of projects and presentations.​ Feel free to send an email to mudassir@rutgers.edu if you have any queries. Make sure you add a couple of lines about your background and why you are interested in this course. Spring at ITU starts in the later half of January. Hope to see you then!​