Formal Reasoning about Programs
Undergraduate Course at HKUST CSE - Course Code: COMP 4901X
Previous Offering: Summer Semester 2022-23
Number of Students: 44 (27 for credit)
Average Rating by the Students: 5.0/5.0
Highest student ratings among all CSE courses at HKUST
Blockchain, Cryptocurrencies and Smart Contracts
Undergraduate Course at HKUST CSE - Course Code: COMP 4901W
Previous Offering: Spring Semester 2022-23
Number of Students: 109 (89 for credit)
Most popular CSE elective course
Average Rating by the Students: 4.82/5.0
First Offering:
Number of Students: 149 (125 for credit)
Most popular CSE elective course
Average Rating by the Students: 4.90/5.0
Highest student ratings among all CSE courses at HKUST
Covered topics:
Hash Functions and Public-key Cryptography
The Double-spending Problem
Bitcoin and Proof-of-Work (PoW)
Proof-of-stake and other alternatives to PoW
Programmable Blockchains
Introduction to Ethereum and Solidity
Implementing Smart Contracts
Commitment Schemes
Auctions and Escrows
Re-entrancy and Out-of-gas Vulnerabilities
Incentivization Bugs
Advanced Algorithms
Postgraduate Course at HKUST CSE - Course Code: COMP 5711
Previous Offering:
Number of Students: 39
Average Rating by the Students: 4.58/5.0
Hardest CSE PG course according to student surveys
Covered topics:
Amortized Analysis
Splay Trees
Disjoint Sets
Minimum Spanning Trees
Binomial and Fibonacci Heaps
Randomized Algorithms
QuickSort, QuickSelect, MinCut, Max-3-SAT, LazySelect
Randomized Complexity Classes
Markov, Chebyshev and Chernoff Bounds
The Probabilistic Method
Treaps and Skip Lists
Polynomial Identity Testing
Parameterized Algorithms
Branching and Color Coding
Kernelization and Iterative Compression
XP and FPT
Treewidth and Pathwidth
Algebraic Parameterized Algorithms
Approximation Algorithms
Register Allocation, Knapsack, Bin Packing, Makespan Minimization
LP-based Approximation
DNF Counting and Counting Perfect Bipartite Matchings
Markov Chains
Semantics and Verification
Postgraduate Course at HKUST CSE - Course Code: COMP 6613B
Previous Offering:
Number of Students: 16
Average Rating by the Students: 4.71/5.0
Covered topics:
Operational, Denotational and Axiomatic Semantics
Infinite-duration Two-player Games on Graphs (with Omega-regular objectives)
Automata on Infinite Words
Linear Temporal Logic
Termination Analysis
Research Courses
I often provide research and self-study courses to particularly talented students in theoretical computer science. If you are a UG/PG student at HKUST and are interested in such courses, please write an email to me. I have offered the following titles in the past:
Axiomatic Probability Theory (UG, COMP 4901F)
Parameterized Algorithms (UG, COMP 4971A)
Martingale Theory (PG, COMP 6931A)
Parameterized Algorithms and Complexity (PG, COMP 6931A)
Computability and Contractability on the Blockchain (PG, COMP 6931A)
Parameterized Algorithms in Computational Algebraic Geometry (COMP4981H)
Parameterized Algorithms in Static Program Analysis (UROP)
Optimization Problems in Blockchain Ecosystems (UROP)