There are many interesting papers, many of which do not assume too much background, and others which are more difficult but perhaps we can decide
on a subset of the paper which is reasonable present.
Here are some examples, but there are many others that would
be good candidates.
Some papers are "classics" and other
point to interesting and active research directions.
I have also included a few papers on the related topics of
streaming algorithms and compressed sensing.
In addition to the papers below, I would be happy to suggest others according
to your specific interests.