Analysis of An Approximate Median Selection Algorithm

We present analysis of an efficient algorithm for the approximate median selection problem that has been rediscovered many times, and easy to implement. The contribution of the article is in precise characterization of the accuracy of the algorithm. We present analytical results of the performance of the algorithm, as well as experimental illustrations of its precision

2001 Computer Science Department MQP Review

This report presents results of a peer review of MQPs conducted within the Computer Science Department during the Summer of 2001 as part of a campus-wide MQP review. The goal of the report is to assess whether the department MQPs are accomplishing their educational goals. An additional goal of this year\u27s report is to examine the MQP role in fulfilling department-defined student learning outcomes. The report identifies problems that need to be addressed and trends that need to be continued to make the MQPs a worthwhile learning experience. It reflects data and evaluations for 47 MQPs, involving 104 computer science students, that were completed between the Summer of 2000 and the Spring of 2001. The report also makes comparisons to similar reviews done in the past. Overall, the large majority of the projects are meeting the educational goals of the department. The reviews indicate that the overall quality of the projects is up a bit from the 1999 MQP Review with 92% of the projects rated as at least adequate with 19% judged to be excellent. The report draws a number of conclusions about the success of the projects based upon the data collected and evaluations done for this review. The report concludes with recommendations for future reviews as the department continues to use the MQP Review as part of a larger department assessment effort

An Efficient Approximate Algorithm for the k-th Selection Problem

We present an efficient randomized algorithm for the approximate k-th selection problem. It works in-place and it is fast and easy to implement. The running time is linear in the length of the input. For a large input set the algorithm returns, with high probability, an element which is very close to the exact k-th element. The quality of the approximation is analyzed theoretically and experimentally

On a functional equation arising in the analysis of a protocol for a multi-access broadcast channel

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The evaluation of packet transmission characteristics in a multi-access channel with stack collision resolution protocol

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Singularity analysis, Hadamard products, and tree recurrences

We present a toolbox for extracting asymptotic information on the coefficients of combinatorial generating functions. This toolbox notably includes a treatment of the effect of Hadamard products on singularities in the context of the complex Tauberian technique known as singularity analysis. As a consequence, it becomes possible to unify the analysis of a number of divide-and-conquer algorithms, or equivalently random tree models, including several classical methods for sorting, searching, and dynamically managing equivalence relationsComment: 47 pages. Submitted for publicatio