COMP572 -- Fall 2004

Project FAQ

This page maintains answers to questions asked by students concerning the COMP572 project.

• General Questions

  • Q: Can I use tool XXXX  (not available on your machines) to build my  GUI?
    A: Yes, as long as there is some way that we can test your executable code on either our Windows PC or Solaris machines. That is,  you should be able to send us working object code or set up a URL where we can test your GUI on your own server.  What wouldn't be allowable, though, is implementing your code in such a way that it could only be run on your own notebook that would have to be brought into our offices.
     
  • Q: I did very poorly on Homework 1.  Can I make up for this by doing extra work on the project?
    A: Yes.  If you want to do this you should sign up as an individual for project 2A, 3A or 4A but,  when it comes time to hand in the project,  you should hand in as much of 2B, 3B or 4B that you can do. A couple of comments. 
    • (i)  I am permitting this because I was asked by a few students  who wanted to make up for poor performance  but I do not recommend doing this unless you received below a 65 on the first homework..  If you received a 65 on the first homework but did well on the other two and the project it is still possible to get a B+ in the class.
    • (ii) Your  class grade will depend only upon your performance and not on that of the rest of the class. This means that if you are currently doing well in the class you do not have to worry that some other students will raise their grades by doing extra work on the project and this  will lower your grade.  I mention this because there is always some misunderstanding on this point by students who incorrectly believe that the class is being marked on a "curve".
       
  • Q: Does my code have to be robust to input, e.g., , does it have to check if the input data is in proper format, etc?
    A: No. Your code may assume that input data is in the specified format.  It must run properly on correct data but its performance on unformatted input doesn't matter.

  Simplex

  • Q: How should I handle LPs with infeasible or unbounded solutions?
    A:  You need to report these situations.  this was missing from the original specs but has now been added.
     
  • Q: How should I handle LPs with redundant constraints?
    A:  You do not need to explicitly report finding redundant constraints but you should be aware that your program needs to implicitly handle this case in Phase I by throwing away redundant constraints.
     
  • Q: Should I worry about cycling?
    A:  Yes.  It is highly recommended that you use Bland's anti-cycling  rule given in the slides (or any other anti-cycling rule that you might find).  In your documentation you should explicitly state which anti-cycling rule you are using.
     
  • Q: Are the variables to the problem constrained or unconstrained?
    A:  This was omitted in the original specifications. The variables should always be constrained.  That is,  you should assume that all variables x_i satisfy x_i >=0.

• Hungarian Algorithm

• Fibonacci Heaps

• Max-Flow
   

This page was released on November 19, 2004 and last revised on 11/24/2004 18:34 +0800

Return to main project page