CSE 20: Discrete Mathematics, Fall 2010

Course Webpage: http://www-cse.ucsd.edu/classes/fa10/cse20/ [Section ID 692192]

Course Description: Basic discrete mathematical structures: sets, relations, functions, sequences, equivalence relations, partial orders, number systems. Methods of reasoning and proofs: prepositional logic, predicate logic, induction, recursion, pigeonhole principle. Infinite sets and diagonalization. Applications will be given to digital logic design, elementary number theory, design of programs, and proofs of program correctness.

(*) Email should be used only for questions that require individual attention (e.g., exam regrades, etc.). For technical questions (e.g., about homeworks, material presented in class, etc.) you should use the CSE20FA10 QuickTopic discussion board so that everybody can benefit from the answer. If you send email to the instructor or TA please include the string CSE20 in the subject line (anywhere, possibly within a more descriptive message). Also, your email messages should be in plain text format and include valid sender and return addresses. Emails not following these rules risk to be automatically deleted by spam filtering program and never reach the instructor/TA.

Textbooks: The main textbook for the class is Essentials of Discrete Mathematics by David J. Hunter.

This is a math course. Still, computers can be used to explore many topics related to the course material, and reinforce your learning. For example, all mathematical objects studied in the course can be easily implemented using a high level programming language, and this allows you to write programs that operate on these mathematical objects, and experiment with them. A good reference about how to do that is the book Discrete mathematics using a computer by O'Donnell, Hall and Page, which you can access on-line through the UCSD library. (If you like the book, you can also buy it at a discount price.)

Announcements: Course announcements will be made through this course web page. (Announcements are in reverse chronological order, most recent announcement on top.) You are responsible for checking the webpage regularly for announcements.

• This is just a reminder that final is scheduled on Friday, at 9am-11am, in the usual classroom. Notice, final starts at 9am (and not at 8am as listed on triton link). Daniele will hold office hours on Thursday as usual during final week, just in case there is something you want to discuss at the last minute, or you want to pick up some old homeworks before the final.
• Homework 6 is due Fri. Nov. 19 at the beginning of class. (Solutions)
• On Mon. Nov. 8, Albert will hold office hour at 12pm instead of 11am.
• Homework 5 is due Wed. Nov. 10 at the beginning of class. (Solutions)
• Homework 4 is due Wed. Nov. 3 at the beginning of class. (Solutions)
• On Thu. Oct. 21, Daniele will hold office hour at 12pm rather than 10am.
• Reading assignment: You should have read all of chapter 1 by now. We also started covering proofs by induction which you can find in section 3.4 of the book.
• There will be no office hours on Monday, Oct. 18.
• If your HW is over 2 pages, make sure the pages are stapled, not folded at the corners. Unstapled HWs will be penalized.
• Homework 3 is due Wed. Oct. 20 at the beginning of class. (Solutions)
• Homework 2 is due Wed. Oct. 13 at the beginning of class. (Solutions)
• Homework 1 is due Wed. Oct. 6 at the beginning of class. (Solutions)
• No TA office hours on Sep 27, 28. Daniele will hold regular office hours on Sep 30
• We will use QuickTopic CSE20FA10 as our discussion board.

Course Schedule

Course requirements and policies

Class members are expected to do all of the following in order to satisfactorily pass this class:

• Attending lectures
• Studying relevant chapters of the textbook, as covered in class, and additional study material posted on this webpage
• 6 or 7 Homework assignments
• 2 (in class) quizzes exam
• 1 final exam

Grading: Homeworks and exams will contribute to your course grade as follows: homeworks (30%), Midterms (30%) and final (40%). The lowest homework score will be dropped. Grades will be available through GradeSource. If you are enrolled in the class you will receive an email from gradesource with instructions and a secret number to access your grades. Grades will NOT be assigned on a curve. You will receive a grade based on your own performance. If everybody does well, everybody will get an A! Final grades will be based roughly on the following scale: A=90%+, B=80-89.9%, C=65-79.9%, D=50-64.9%, F ≤50%. Plus and minus will be assigned to the instructor's discretion. This includes but is not limited to: improvement over the course of the quarter, class participation, and natural "breaks" in the distribution of scores.

Policies: No late homework submissions will be accepted. Dropping the lowest homework score will take care of exceptional situations under which you may miss an assignment, without being penalized. There will be no make up midterm or final exams. The midterm is during regular classroom time, and everybody is expected to attend. If you don't show up at the midterm or final, you will receive 0 grade, unless you missed the exam due to a demonstrated medical problem. Both the midterm and the final exam will be closed books, closed notes. You can take 1 double sided sheet of notes to each exam, but the notes must be your own.

Academic honesty: All students are expected to be familiar with and abide by the rules of UCSD Policy on Integrity of Scholarship as described in the UCSD General Catalog. In case of cheating, such policy will be enforced. This means an F grade in the course, and action by the Dean of your college (probation or suspension from UCSD). You are encouraged to form study groups to discuss the material presented in class and the homework assignments. However, you should write the solutions to the homeworks on your own. If you collaborate with other students on the solution of the problems, you should also clearly aknowledge that, and give the names of your collaborators at the beginning of your homework solutions. (If appropriate, you should also describe the nature of the collaboration.) You can use Internet, additional textbooks, and any material you find useful as a study tool. However, the use of any such resource in the solution of homeworks assignments should be clearly aknowledged in your solutions. No form of collaboration is allowed during quizzes/midterms and final exam.

Regrade requests on any exam or assignment are only accepted within a week after the graded object has been returned. Do not modify your solutions after they are returned to you. If you alter the your solutions, you loose any right to request a regrade of that exam. Modifying the exam and then bringing it back to ask for a regrade will be treated as a violation of academic honesty rules, and so prosecuted.