Course announcement

Computational Complexity (CS 221 - Spring 2018)

Prereq: CS 121 + Mathematical Maturity
Time: TuTh 1:00pm - 2:30pm
Location: MD 221
Homepage: http://madhu.seas.harvard.edu/courses/Spring2018/

This course covers advanced topics in computational complexity. It studies the effect of non-traditional resources, such as randomness, non-determinism, alternation, and counting on our ability to compute: Which problems become easier with such resources, and which ones remain intractable? And what tradeoffs are possible among these resources? Specific themes include:

Review of time and space complexity.
Non-determinism and alternation.
Non-uniform models of computation and lower bounds.
Interaction, proof, and knowledge.
Probabilistic Proof Systems

Other current topics may be covered depending on time and interest. A tentative list of topics by lecture is available at the course website. If you are interested (even tentatively) in the course, please sign up on the piazza site (https://piazza.com/harvard/spring2018/cs221/home).

Instructor: Madhu Sudan
TF: Preetum Nakkiran