Links: Assignments Textbook web site CSC home page
| CSC317A | DISCRETE STRUCTURES | Spring 2001 |
Welcome to the CSC317 home page. It contains important information about the course.
| Instructor | Lonnie Fairchild | Office: Redcay 147 | 564-2783 | |
| email: lonnie.fairchild@plattsburgh.edu, | SPLAVA::fairchlr | |||
| Office hours | Mon. 11 - 12 | Tues. 11 – 12 | . | |
| Wed. 3 - 4 | Thurs. 3 - 4 | |||
| Fri. 11 - 12 | ||||
| These times will not be convenient for everyone. Students are welcome (and encouraged) to make appointments for other times. |
| Meeting Time and Place | Tues., Thurs. 1:30 - 2:45, Hawkins 153C |
Course Description This course focuses on concepts and techniques of discrete mathematics (in contrast to continuous mathmatics -- the kind studied in calculus) that are important in computer science. This material is used by computer scientists in developing and analyzing programs and computer systems, and also in studying the theoretical foundations of computation. The applicability of the mathematics to computer science will be given considerable attention. The course will cover topics in logic and reasoning, combinatorics, relations, graphs, trees, grammars, and automata. |
| Overall, including classes and homework, this course should require about 9 hours per week of your time. |
| Prerequisite: MAT231, Sets, Functions, and Relations, must be completed before you can take this course. |
Textbooks Required: Rosen, K.H., Discrete Mathematics and its Applications, Fourth Edition, McGTraw Hill, 1999 Optional: Rosen, K.H., Student Solutions Guide for Discrete Mathematics and its Applications, |
| Quizzes and Assignments | 50 % | |
| Hour tests (2/22 and 4/12) | 25 % | |
| Final exam | 25 % | |
| Class participation | up to 10 % | |
| (can raise grade) |
Quizzes and Assignments: There will be a quiz every Thursday, except for
2/15, 2/22, and 4/12. Homework exercises will be assigned on a daily basis. As
part of a quiz, you may be asked to hand in one or more homework problems selected from
those assigned during the week preceding the week of the quiz.
Attendance Policy and Academic Responsibility:
Students are expected to attend all classes and are
responsible for all material discussed in class. Students who miss a class are expected to
make up the work by the next class. The instructor is glad to help anyone who needs to
make up work due to unavoidable emergencies (illness, etc.). Quizzes cannot be made
up. A student who misses a quiz due to an unavoidable emergency should consult with
the instructor about how this will be handled in grading.
All work submitted on tests and assignments is to be your own.
Cooperative study and mutual aid are healthy learning methods and are strongly
recommended. Plagiarism is copying someone's work and presenting it as yours or allowing
someone else to copy or use your work. An assignment or test that shows evidence of
plagiarism will result in a grade of 0, and the course grade will be lowered by one full
letter grade. A second instance of plagiarism will result in a grade of E in the course.
Schedule of Topics
This schedule is tentative ans will
be updated as the course progresses. Assignments for each topic will be given in
class when that topic is begun. This will permit the pace of the course to be
adjusted to class progress. Reading assignments and homework problems are essential
and must be completed on time.
| Logic and mathematical preliminaries | Chapters 1 and 2 | approximately 2 weeks |
| Induction and recursion | Ch. 3 | approximately 1 week |
| Counting | Ch. 4 and 5 | approximately 3 weeks |
| Relations | Ch. 6 | approximately 1.5 weeks |
| Graphs | Ch. 7 | approximately 1.5 weeks |
| Trees | Ch. 8 | approximately 1.5 weeks |
| Modeling Computation | Ch. 10 | approximately 2 weeks |
| Boolean Algebra (maybe) | Ch. 9 | approximately 1 week |