CS173 Summer 1996
Course Information
Staff
Professor:
Leonard Pitt ,
2103 DCL, 244-6027,
pitt@cs.uiuc.edu
Office Hours: Tu, Th 11:15am - 12:15pm, and by appointment.
Office hours begin in the classroom after class.
TA:
Amy Ryan,
1214 DCL 244-5969,
eighmi@uiuc.edu
Office Hours: Mon 2pm - 3pm, Wed 11:15am-12:15pm,
and by appointment.
Textbook
The course text is
Discrete Mathematics and its Applications (third edition),
by Kenneth H. Rosen, published by McGraw-Hill.
Copies of this text, and of the
Student Solutions Guide , a companion book,
are on reserve in the Grainger library across the street.
While the main text contains answers to odd-numbered problems,
the Student Solutions Guide presents the same solutions
in greater detail, and also provides sample crib sheets, exams,
and solutions, for each chapter. You may wish to obtain your own copy of the
Student Solutions Guide through the bookstore.
Course Web-info and Newsgroup
The class homepage is
http://www-courses.cs.uiuc.edu/~cs173/
.
Virtually every handout will be distributed electronically,
and important information will be posted there.
Consequently, it is important that you become comfortable
immediately using some WWW browser.
Refer to the handout ``Getting started with Netscape''
that was distributed on the first day of class.
On-line questions and discussions will occur in
the newsgroup uiuc.class.cs173
(There is a link to the newsgroup from the class home page.)
Please read it regularly for important information and announcements.
Note: no solutions or hints to problems should be posted by students
on the newsgroup. Only the instructors may post solutions or hints.
Lecture Notes
With any luck (read: "don't hold your breath")
copies of lecture notes should be available on an ongoing basis
on the web. For the less optimistic, a physical copy
of the lecture notes are on reserve in the Grainger library,
and they will be made available at a local copy shop
as soon as possible.
Course Themes
Discrete mathematical structures arise throughout every area of computer
science, and provide tools that allow us to reason about computation.
In this course we have two main goals:
- To learn about a number of different discrete structures (e.g.,
sets, relations, graphs, trees, grammars, finite state machines, etc.)
that provide the mathematical formalizations for many computational
problems.
- To gain more experience with mathematical arguments and proof
techniques, which are essential in reasoning about computation.
Tentative Topic Outline
We will likely cover much of the following material:
Chapters 1, 2.1 -- 2.2, 3, 6, 7.1 -- 7.4, 8.1 -- 8.4, and 9.
Requirements
There will be short homeworks, long homeworks, one mid-term exam,
and final exam (times and dates of the exams to be announced soon).
You are responsible for all material covered in lectures, homeworks,
and assigned readings.
In order to receive
credit for the course you must do sufficiently well on both homeworks
and exams. In particular, since doing the homeworks is perhaps
the best way to learn the material of the course, no credit will be
given to those who skip many homeworks and rely on high exam scores.
Grading Policy
The Tentative weighting scheme:
| Short homeworks |
20% |
| Long homeworks |
20% |
| Midterm Exam |
25% |
| Final Exam |
35% |
We will drop your lowest long homework, and your two lowest
short homework grades. As the course progresses,
grade information will be updated regularly.
Homework Policy
To keep you from falling behind (which would be unfortunate
in a fast-paced summer course), we'll assign short homeworks
(about 3 problems) on Tuesday and Wednesday, due Wednesday and
Thursday, respectively. A longer homework will be
assigned on Thursday, and due the following Tuesday.
Problems will range from straightforward to somewhat difficult.
Due to time constraints and few grading resources,
your short homeworks will not be assigned numerical scores.
Rather, you will receive credit for each problem for which
you make a decent attempt at solving.
For the weekly longer homeworks, a random selection of the
assigned problems (usually 3 of the 9 or so) will be assigned
numerical scores, and feedback given.
Late homeworks
Because the course is at double-speed and we want you to stay
on track, no late homeworks will be accepted.
For the short homeworks, this rule is absolute!
For the long homeworks, {\em if} you have an exceptional
circumstance, {\em and if} the solutions have not been released,
then your homework might be accepted. However, we will
try to release solutions as soon as possible after the due date/time.
Staple your papers
Do not paper clip them. Do not glue them. Do not fold the corner
over 3 or 4 times and then tear the corner in hope that they
will stay together.
Oh yes, and write legibly . Have some pride in your work.
Regrade
If you think your homework has been misgraded,
see the TA. While the professor is willing to entertain appeals,
he has great confidence in the TA.
Own work
A short lecture on doing your own work:
You are NOT to copy solutions
from ANY source (including, but not limited to, books, people, old
class notes or handouts).
Refer to the Campus Code
regarding academic integrity; cheating will
result in a reduced grade, or a grade of "E" for the course.
You may discuss the problems with your fellow students,
but not with anybody outside of the class. If you solve
a problem with somebody, or even have a significant discussion
about the problem, then you must indicate that fact in writing
on your homework, listing the name(s) of the person(s) that you
worked with. It is the responsibility of all parties
to ensure that nobody is getting a ``free ride''.
(If you think you are guilty of copying,
then you probably are.)
A necessary, but not sufficient, method of honest collaboration
is for no party to leave the meeting with any notes }.
How to Get the Most Out of This Course
You are urged to read the text, as it
is quite thorough, with many examples worked out, and with good motivating
discussions and intuitions.
As a warm up to homework exercises, you might solve some of the
odd-numbered problems on your own, comparing your answers with
those given in the back of the text. For further explanation,
read the solutions given in the Student Solutions Guide.
When homework solutions are handed out, read them carefully and
make sure you understand any differences with your answers.
Go to the TA or to the professor to discuss any
misunderstandings you may have.
If you understand all of the homeworks and solutions, then
you will probably do well on the exams.
In preparing for the exams you will
probably find the crib sheets for each chapter, the
sample exams, and the solutions (all in the Student Solutions Guide)
to be useful.
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