Introduction to Hashing and Hash Tables

CSE Lecturer Candidate

Abstract: This lecture will focus on introducing a fundamental data structure, the hash table, at the level of an introductory data structures course. We will explore construction and querying, with a particular focus on the effects of hash collisions on the asymptotic bounds of the structure. This lecture will also introduce the concept of ‘average-case behavior’ as an alternative to the standard Big-O notation.

Bio: Dr. Brad Solomon is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Computer Science at Johns Hopkins University. His research focuses on developing new algorithms and data structures for the efficient storage, search, and analysis of genomic sequencing data. He completed his PhD in Computational Biology at Carnegie Mellon University with the thesis “Computational methods for enabling sequence search on 100 TB RNA-seq datasets.” Prior to joining CMU, he received a triple-major B.A. degree in Integrated Sciences, Computer Science, and Molecular Biology and Genetics from Northwestern University. As a lecturer, Brad is interested in teaching a wide range of introductory courses for both CS majors and non-majors as well as advanced topics in data structures, string algorithms, and computational genomics.