I'm currently a CS double-major in an American university. We learnt algorithms with Sedgewick's books (available for C and Java) and patterns with the Gang of Four book. I find that I rarely use the algorithms for web programming, but do use some patterns (MVC, Observer).
As for latest advances, there are many languages on the cutting edge, such as Haskell, OCaml and Erlang that would be worthy to study just to expand your horizons. These languages ARE many of the latest advances in CS. I'm currently diving into Lisp, and have found that some concepts are timeless (code as data, macros).
As for latest advances, there are many languages on the cutting edge, such as Haskell, OCaml and Erlang that would be worthy to study just to expand your horizons. These languages ARE many of the latest advances in CS. I'm currently diving into Lisp, and have found that some concepts are timeless (code as data, macros).