An Introduction to Binary Search Trees Using Recursion

Talk title: An Introduction to Binary Search Trees Using Recursion

Abstract: The core of this talk is a short model lecture introducing binary search trees. It is targeted at new computer science students who have already taken one coding course using a procedural programming language and who have also been exposed to basic recursion and pointers.  Its intended outcomes are an understanding of the use of BSTs as a practical data structure and an exposure to the use of recursion as a design tool.  The other parts of the talk will be a discussion of the pedagogical principles behind the structure of this lecture as well as a short discussion of the speaker's past teaching and program design experience.

Bio: After receiving his doctorate from Princeton University in 1990, Dr.  Golin worked as a researcher in the Projet Algorithmes at INRIA in  Rocquencourt, France. In 1993, he moved to the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), where he is currently a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

Dr.  Golin  was HKUST's Associate Vice-President for  Postgraduate Studies from 2011-2014. In addition, he was the 2008 recipient of the  HKUST Michael G. Gale Award for Distinguished Teaching. His research interests are in the theory, design and application of algorithms, computational geometry, information theory and combinatorics, and he is an editor of the journal Theoretical Computer Science.