From introductory Computer Science courses you know what an algorithm is. The area algorithms (sometimes called algorithms and data structures or algorithmics) is at the core of Computer Science and deals with all aspects of the concept of algorithm design, usually with a focus on certain properties. This always includes correctness and usually performance in some form; the time complexity of an algorithm, the quality of solutions computed by an algorithm, etc. Algorithms people design concrete algorithms for specific problems, but also consider limits of computation, for instance establishing lower bound results on how efficient algorithms for particular problems can be. Algorithms people can be very mathematically oriented or can have a more applied focus. However, usually algorithms work involves both modeling of "the real world" and proofs or other formal statements concerning the algorithmic possibilities in a given setting.

If you are a Computer Science student who likes to think and to be challenged, you probably like algorithms. The central algorithms courses on the bachelor education are

• Algorithms and Data Structures,
• Advanced Algorithms
• Complexity and Computability

What all these courses and the courses at the MS level have in common is that they focus on core algorithmic problems of importance in many real-life applications. At the same time, they are based on a solid algorithmic foundation, usually with provably correct algorithms accompanied by qualitative results in the form of asymptotic time complexities or performance quarantees.

On the MS program, the following list of elective courses highlight different aspects of algorithms, listing the courses very roughly from the more theoretical (proof-oriented) to the more applied (implementation-oriented):

• Advanced Data Structures (Kim Skak Larsen)
• Algorithms in Cheminformatics (Jakob Lykke Andersen)
• Approximation Algorithms (Lene Favrholdt)
• Computational Geometry (Kim Skak Larsen)
• Online Algorithms (Lene Favrholdt)
• Parameterized Algorithms (Lars Rohwedder)
• Privacy-Preserving Algorithms (Teresa Steiner)
• String Algorithms (Rolf Fagerberg)

It is a broad field, and everyone has preferences, but if you like some of these courses, you like algorithms!

VisuAlgo visualizes many of the structures we work with in the area of algorithms.

Since you have the book anyway, you can look at some of the more advanced topics in

Thomas H. Cormen, Charles E. Leiserson, Ronald L. Rivest, Clifford Stein.
Introduction to Algorithms, 4th ed.
The MIT Press, 2022.

You can of course also talk to faculty members and Ph.D. students, working on topics you are particularly interested in.

You can also attend colloquia and research seminars. It varies a lot over the year how many are scheduled, and you should be warned that most of these are talks from researcher to researchers, so they are hard to follow, but it is fine to try to show up. They usually last 45-60 minutes.

If you want to know more about algorithms at IMADA, this page gives a very brief overview. It varies, but some members of the group have more on their own home pages, and you can look at individual papers, almost all of which are listed under publications.

A few surveys have been written by group members, giving overviews of a particular area. You should be warned that this is not popular science communication, but research communicated to other researchers, so it can be difficult to read.

Online Algorithms with Advice: A Survey.

Joan Boyar, Lene M. Favrholdt, Christian Kudahl, Kim S. Larsen, and Jesper W. Mikkelsen.
ACM Computing Surveys, 50(2):1-34, 2017. Article No. 19

Relative Worst-Order Analysis: A Survey.

Joan Boyar, Lene M. Favrholdt, Kim S. Larsen.
ACM Computing Surveys, 54(1):1-21, 2021. Article No. 8.

Other than guessing from courses and maybe reading a bit in addition, it is often a good idea to talk to older students, currently working on their MS thesis (or possibly BS thesis), and hear about their experiences with topics and advisors.

You can also consider this list of fairly recent MS dissertation titles (and advisors), which displays quite a variety in topics, as well as in direction with regards to theory or practice.

• Online Algorithms with Predictions
  (Lene Favrholdt, Kim Skak Larsen)
• Pathway Models in Chemical Reaction Networks
  (Jakob Lykke Andersen)
• Bin Covering with Limited Item Sizes
  (Lene Favrholdt, Kim Skak Larsen)
• Online Multi-Coloring of Trees and Interval Graphs
  (Lene Favrholdt, Kim Skak Larsen)
• Automated Rule Inference for Systems Chemistry
  (Daniel Merkle, Jakob Lykke Andersen)
• Causality and Concurrency for Analysing Chemical and Biological Systems
  (Daniel Merkle, Jakob Lykke Andersen, Rolf Fagerberg)
• Coloring of Graphs
  (Anders Yeo)
• Domination and Total Domination in Graphs
  (Anders Yeo)
• Mathematical Programming Approaches for the Salt Spreading Problem with Side Constraints
  (Anders Yeo, Marco Chiarandini)
• Connectivity Properties of Semicomplete Digraphs
  (Jørgen Bang-Jensen, Anders Yeo)
• Minimum Spanning Tree
  (Rolf Fagerberg)
• Domination and Total Domination in Graphs
  (Anders Yeo)
• Colouring in Graphs and Digraphs
  (Anders Yeo, Jørgen Bang-Jensen)
• How Feasible is a Unikernel OS for Robots?
  (Daniel Merkle, Jakob Lykke Andersen)
• Generic Implementation of Algorithms for Graph Morphism Enumeration
  (Jakob Lykke Andersen, Daniel Merkle)
• Algorithmic Cheminformatics, Quantum Chemistry, and Stochastic Simulations
  (Daniel Merkle, Jakob Lykke Andersen)
• Data Driven Game Design for VR
  (Rolf Fagerberg, Peter Schneider-Kamp)
• A Password Capability Based System with Integrated Capability based Cryptographic File System
  (Daniel Merkle, Joan Boyar)
• Algorithmic Cheminformatics and Data Science for Water Treatment
  (Daniel Merkle, Jakob Lykke Andersen)
• Choosing Intermediate Representations for a Compiler for an Operating Systems Language
  (Kim Skak Larsen)
• Aspects of Efficiency in Functional Programming Languages
  (Kim Skak Larsen)
• Linear Objective Functions for Online Problems
  (Kim Skak Larsen)
• Ferry Route Optimization
  (Marco Chiarandini, Kim Skak Larsen, Mads Bruun Larsen, Marie Lützen)
• Generation of Safe and Efficient Aircraft Departure Procedures
  (Marco Chiarandini, Kim Skak Larsen, Anders Knudsen)
• Graph Theory and FPT
  (Anders Yeo, Jørgen Bang-Jensen)
• Provably and Experimentally Efficient Multi-Way Trees with Relaxed Balance
  (Kim Skak Larsen)
• Table Reservations in Restaurants and Related Problems
  (Kim Skak Larsen, Marco Chiarandini, Arthur Zimek, Morten Frank)
• Connectivity in Graphs with Relation to the European Electrical Grid
  (Anders Yeo, Marco Chiarandini)
• Decomposition and Evaluation of Graph Transformation Rules - Exploring and Evaluating Reaction Mechanisms
  (Daniel Merkle, Jakob Lykke Andersen)
• Definition and Evaluation of Pressure in the Sport Soccer
  (Rolf Fagerberg, Mikkel Keldmann)
• Gillespie-Simulations for Graph-Grammar Models
  (Daniel Merkle, Jakob Lykke Andersen)
• Graph Canonicalization and Algorithmic Engineering
  (Daniel Merkle, Jakob Lykke Andersen)
• Theoretical and Experimental Analysis of Involved Paging Algorithms
  (Kim Skak Larsen)
• Online Problems with Orthogonal Resource Constraints
  (Kim Skak Larsen)
• Artificial Intelligence in Action Real-Time Strategy Games
  (Rolf Fagerberg, Marco Chiarandini)
• Contributions to Flight Route Optimization
  (Marco Chiarandini, Kim Skak Larsen)
• Designing Data Structures with Relaxed Balance
  (Kim Skak Larsen)
• Query Complexity for Variations of Geometric Problems
  (Kim Skak Larsen)
• Query Competitiveness for Problems with Uncertainty
  (Kim Skak Larsen)
• Computational Complexity and Cheminformatics
  (Daniel Merkle, Rolf Fagerberg)
• DNA-Templated Computing
  (Kim Skak Larsen, Daniel Merkle)
• Online Problems with Buffering
  (Kim Skak Larsen)
• European Football Placement Problems - Complexities and Exact Solutions
  (Kim Skak Larsen)
• Real-Time Fluid Simulation and Rendering in Games
  (Rolf Fagerberg)

Come talk to someone! You can drop by, and we can talk right away, if possible. Otherwise, we make an appointment. You can also send an email and make an appointment that way.