2026-27
Winter Term 2
General Information
Lecture Time: Mon, Wed 11am-12:30pm
Location: MCML
256
Instructor: Prof. Nick
Harvey, X851,
nickhar@cs.ubc.ca
Topics
Main Themes
· Chernoff
& Hoeffding Bounds
· Randomized
Rounding
· Johnson-Lindenstrauss, Locality Sensitive Hashing
· Derandomization, Pessimistic Estimators
· Online
Learning: Randomized Weighted Majority, Bandits
· Martingales
· Algebraic
Methods
References
The instructor’s textbooks: Book 1 and Book 2.
Structure
The course will involve a mixture of lectures by the
instructor, in-class discussions with everybody, and paper presentations by the
students.
Auditors and Undergraduates
Auditors welcome. Graduate students who wish to audit should
file a graduate
registration form with the CS front
office. Undergraduate students who wish to take the course for credit should
request permission from the instructor and file an undergraduate
registration form to the CS front
office.