TBA Introduction and Rationale Data compression is the computational problem of how to convert an input string of binary digits into an output string having shorter length. Data compression problems are solvable when the class of input string contains statistical redundancies. This is the basic principle of data compression. By using shorter binary codewords to encode more frequently occuring input strings, you reduce the length of the output strings on average. This principle is applicable to many types of data including text, still images, video, audio, and speech.
Data compression is used both for storage and transmission of data.
Any computer memory will eventually be filled with data, and so to use the memory more efficiently one must compress the data prior to storing it. Compression is also important for data transmission, for example, for downloading files from the world wide web. Since the time of transmission depends on the size of the file, one can reduce the waiting time by downloading compressed data rather than raw data. Most computer users are familiar with these issues. The purpose of the course is to teach advanced undergraduate computer science students about the theory and the methods of data compression.