University of Toronto

St. George Campus

CSC238: Discrete Mathematics For Computer Science

CSC238

Fall 1999

Course Information

Instructor: James MacLean

Office: D.L. Pratt Bldg. 290F Telephone: 978-6277

Office Hours: Tuesdays, 5–6pm, or by appointment

Email: maclean@cdf.utoronto.ca (include "CSC238" in subject line)

Website: http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~maclean/csc238/Fall99/

Newsgroup: ut.cdf.csc238 (post by sending mail to ut.cdf.csc238@cdf.toronto.edu)

Tutors: Grzegorz Kondrak (MP202, A–Gl)
Mohammad Mahdian (MP118, Gr–Lu)
Yongmei Liu (LM157, Ly–Shen)
Daniel Mayost (LM155, Sho–Z)

Meeting times:

Lectures: Tuesday 7–9pm MP202

Tutorials: Tuesday 6pm

Course requirements: There will be 5 homework assignments, a midterm exam and a final exam.

Late homework policy: 20% will be deducted each day for two days (ending at 5pm each day), and 100% will be deducted thereafter.

Policy on collaboration in homework assignments: Limited collaboration in thinking through solutions to homework problems is allowed. No collaboration is allowed in writing up solutions. You may only collaborate with up to two other students; you may not collaborate with people who are not currently taking the course. Allowed forms of collaboration include brainstorming and discussing general approaches to the problems. After you are done with the talking, however, you must write up your solutions alone. What you hand in must be your own work; if challenged, you must be able to reproduce and explain it by yourself. You may not check your solutions against those of other people, including those you collaborated with. If you realise that a solution you discussed with others is incorrect, you may alert them to that fact but you may not tell them what the correct solution is. If you have collaborated with others on homework, you must list their names on your homework. You will not be penalised for doing so; you may be penalised for not doing so. Violation of these rules constitutes a serious academic offence. In the past such violations have resulted in penalties ranging from receiving zero on the homework to suspension from the university.

Marking scheme:

Homework 40%
Midterm exam 20%
Final exam 40%

To pass this course you must get a grade of 35% or better on your final exam. All homeworks will be weighed equally.

Textbook: Custom-published lecture notes available at the bookstore.

Course goals: Mathematics is the science of precise reasoning and, as such, provides an indispensable tool for computer science. This course is an introduction to the methodology and techniques of mathematics that are most useful to computer scientists.

Prerequisites: CSC148 or equivalent; high-school mathematics.

Tentative Syllabus:

INDUCTION

PROGRAM CORRECTNESS

RECURRENCES

PROPOSITIONAL LOGIC

PREDICATE LOGIC

REGULAR EXPRESSIONS AND FINITE STATE AUTOMATA

Course Calendar:

September 21 Assignment 1 handed out

October 5 Assignment 1 due and Assignment 2 handed out

October 19 Assignment 2 due

October 26 Midterm exam

October 26 Assignment 3 handed out

Friday, November 5 Last day to drop the course from academic record

November 9 Assignment 3 due and Assignment 4 handed out

November 23 Assignment 4 due and Assignment 5 handed out

December 7 Assignment 5 due, last class