We invite you to a fascinating journey into Graph Theory — an area which connects the elegance of painting and the rigor of mathematics; is simple, but not unsophisticated. Graph Theory gives us, both an easy way to pictorially represent many major mathematical results, and insights into the deep theories behind them.
In this online course, among other intriguing applications, we will see how GPS systems find shortest routes, how engineers design integrated circuits, how biologists assemble genomes, why a political map can always be colored using a few colors. We will study Ramsey Theory which proves that in a large system, complete disorder is impossible!
By the end of the course, we will implement an algorithm which finds an optimal assignment of students to schools. This algorithm, developed by David Gale and Lloyd S. Shapley, was later recognized by the conferral of Nobel Prize in Economics.
As prerequisites we assume only basic math (e.g., we expect you to know what is a square or how to add fractions), basic programming in python (functions, loops, recursion), common sense and curiosity. Our intended audience are all people that work or plan to work in IT, starting from motivated high school students.
Status: Program Development
Program Development
Status: Traffic Flow Optimization
Traffic Flow Optimization
Beginner·Course·21 hours
Featured reviews
5.0
·Reviewed May 22, 2020
I got my new field of interest after going through this course. There were many WOW moments in this course. Problems were closely related to real world.
5.0
·Reviewed Feb 1, 2019
I wish to thank the professors for having brought this course to Coursera, this topic is absolutely fantastic, and very well presented. I highly recommend it.
5.0
·Reviewed Nov 16, 2017
Was pretty fun and gave a good intro to graph theory. Definitely felt inspired to go deeper and understood the most basic proof ideas. The later lectures can spike in difficulty though. Very nice!
5.0
·Reviewed Dec 11, 2017
A good course with proper explanation. The mathematical proof of this course is generally easy to understand although a small part of them are vague
4.0
·Reviewed Dec 30, 2019
This course was fun an informative, but wasn't as developed as the first two courses in this series. Still a great class
4.0
·Reviewed Jun 6, 2020
Week 5 was very confusing and not well curated. Please fix this.I had to lookup youtube videos to understand the concepts and that defeats the purpose of me taking the course on coursera
5.0
·Reviewed Oct 11, 2020
Great, informative courses. I liked that they are NOT focusing much on Python. I am more confident now with Graphs and its application
4.0
·Reviewed Dec 31, 2017
This course is interesting, and it is a good introduction. I like the first four weeks' courses, while I feel the last week's course is not clear presented, which changes the instructor.
5.0
·Reviewed Nov 11, 2017
I like this course. Very basic, but teachers are really great and explanations are perfect! Highly recommended for all who wants to begin with Graph Theory.
5.0
·Reviewed Apr 8, 2019
It was really good experiencing the different way of learning everything explained so properly all doubt are clear and the quiz and puzzle really helpfull
5.0
·Reviewed Dec 8, 2017
This course provides a great overview to graph theory. I especially liked the special attention that was paid to trees and bipartite graphs.
5.0
·Reviewed Oct 3, 2020
Excellent Course, It refreshed and renewed my concepts of graph theory. I would apply graph theory to solve computer science problems.
All reviews
Showing: 20 of 228
All Learners
All Stars
Most Helpful
B
Bryan
1.0
·Reviewed Dec 3, 2018
This course was very weak compared to the previous two courses in this series. The concepts are challenging but not very well presented. The quizzes are too easy and do not require you to master the material. The final algorithm problem is laughably easy. However, Dr. Alexander Shen was very responsive to all my questions.
J
Justus
2.0
·Reviewed Nov 6, 2017
Instructors' language was extremely difficult to understand. The potential applications of many of these theoretical concepts was not addressed algorithmically; it was very difficult to put any of this into practice.
E
Eugenio
2.0
·Reviewed Jan 6, 2019
The course gives a good overview to understand graphs and the math behind them. However, I expected more and I'm not satisfied with several parts of the course, poorly explained or with vague exercises. Specially the last week. This does not worth 70€ a month
A
Ahmed
5.0
·Reviewed May 30, 2018
it is excellent but it may need to have a small 3, 4 videos tutorial on python which is powerful language to brush on the basics but over the all it is well suited with the puzzles and quiz on each topic and learning a lot about graph which represent a lot of our life and how things are connected one of the best I enjoyed.
R
Robert
5.0
·Reviewed Nov 17, 2017
Was pretty fun and gave a good intro to graph theory. Definitely felt inspired to go deeper and understood the most basic proof ideas. The later lectures can spike in difficulty though. Very nice!
S
Saptarshi
5.0
·Reviewed Nov 15, 2018
Liked in depth discussion of graph theory. Being an CS student, I have read graph theory from couple of books. But this course has provided a comprehensive understanding and many real life problems that can be solved using graph theory. Keep up your good work.
S
Sivakrishna
5.0
·Reviewed Feb 28, 2019
Appreciate the structure and the explanations with examples. The practice tool before every lesson not makes it fun to learn but also sets the student in the context and can anticipate the concept.
P
patrizio
5.0
·Reviewed Feb 2, 2019
I wish to thank the professors for having brought this course to Coursera, this topic is absolutely fantastic, and very well presented. I highly recommend it.
E
Edward
5.0
·Reviewed Feb 21, 2018
I have been reading and buying books on Graph Theory in the hopes of finding some interesting insights I could bring to my after school students. None of them had Guarini's Puzzle which really is a beautiful and succinct example of Graph Theory in action. Hoping we can use what I am learning here to develop some rigorous graph methods for finding the solutions to tiling polyominoes and packing the SOMA cube. We like to make build physical objects as a starting off point for study. (leonardosbasement.org).
I am enjoying the "try this" before "we explain everything" approach also. Solving problems in python notebook is also great.
C
Christopher
5.0
·Reviewed Apr 8, 2020
I loved this course so much. Some very difficult topics were made understandable to even a dunderhead like me. These professors are great. They have such a good command of the subject and they use humor, copious examples, and a very relatable style to explain it thoroughly and in a way that makes sense. The exercises and puzzles were really thought-provoking and left me primed and wanting to learn more. Very good stuff. I can't wait for the next course!
A
Arthur
5.0
·Reviewed Dec 20, 2018
This course is an excellent introduction to Graph Theory. It gives an overview of important topics and have a intuitive approach to the main problems. Also, the exercises are very helpful on memorizing the main concepts and training what you have learned. I strongly recommend this course for a first contact with Graph Theory.
P
Pedro
5.0
·Reviewed Jun 17, 2018
Really nice introduction to discrete math and basic algorithms. The content is quite basic, but as mentioned in the syllabus is for beginners. Still, for those of you who are at that level is worth taking this specialization.
J
Jure
5.0
·Reviewed May 17, 2020
This course is very efficient in teaching you about graph theory in computer science. I had to check other youtube videos on one occasion but otherwise, I always managed to pass the tests just with the course material.
D
Dmytro
5.0
·Reviewed Nov 12, 2017
I like this course. Very basic, but teachers are really great and explanations are perfect! Highly recommended for all who wants to begin with Graph Theory.
K
kartikey
5.0
·Reviewed Apr 9, 2019
It was really good experiencing the different way of learning everything explained so properly all doubt are clear and the quiz and puzzle really helpfull
L
Liang
5.0
·Reviewed Dec 12, 2017
A good course with proper explanation. The mathematical proof of this course is generally easy to understand although a small part of them are vague
S
Steven
5.0
·Reviewed Dec 9, 2017
This course provides a great overview to graph theory. I especially liked the special attention that was paid to trees and bipartite graphs.
A
Ayush
5.0
·Reviewed Nov 25, 2017
This course is really good. If someone has interest in graph theory or he wants to learn it, then this course is definitely a good start.
P
Pengcheng
5.0
·Reviewed Nov 6, 2017
I just audit this course and it's very good. It gives basic ideas about graph theory and this is a super interesting subject!
A
afaq
5.0
·Reviewed May 3, 2019
Very friendly and applied course.
A well-balanced approach, even layman can understand the concept with exceptional ease.