CAS CS 131 - Fall 2017

CAS CS 131 - Fall 2017 - Combinatoric Structures

Syllabus

Official Course Description

Representation, analysis, techniques, and principles for manipulation of basic combinatoric data structures used in computer science. Rigorous reasoning is emphasized. (Counts as a Background Course for the CS concentration.)

What this means in reality: we will train you in the mathematical foundations of CS so that you can make convincing logical arguments (proofs) that programs you write and algorithms you design are correct and run efficiently. The term "combinatorics" is centered on combinations of objects belonging to a finite set -- we will see applications in counting and probability theory. For example, we will teach you things like how to compute the probability of randomly guessing an alphanumeric password, or (similarly) how many Bitcoins you can expect to mine with a given amount of computation.

Course Topics and Assignments Page

Our Piazza page (includes all handouts)
Prerequisites: Basic (high school level) calculus and algebra.

Instructors and Teaching Fellows

Prof. John W. Byers
Homepage: http:// www.cs.bu.edu/fac/byers
Email:    byers @ cs . bu . edu [preferred]
Office Hours: Tues 10:30-12:30 AM (open) and Wed 10-11 AM (by prior appointment), in MCS 295B.
During office hours, if it's not too busy, I'll answer my phone at 617-353-8925. Other times, I generally let phone calls go to voicemail. Please send email instead.

Prof. Charalampos Tsourakakis
Homepage: https://tsourakakis.com
Email:    tsourolampis @ gmail . com [preferred]
Office Hours: Tues 5-6:30 and Fri 9-10:30AM in MCS 292.

Teaching Fellows: Wonyl Choi, Konstantinos Sotiropoulos
Learning Assistants: Ben Lawson, Johnson Lam
Email:    {wonyl, ksotirop, balawson, jlam17} @ bu . edu

Office Hours, held in EMA 302 (or 303) unless otherwise noted:

Tuesday: 12-2 [Johnson]
Wednesday: 10-11:30 [Wonyl] in MCS B24
Thursday: 1-2 [Johnson], 5-7 [Ben], 5-7 [Konstantinos, when homeworks are due the next day], 11 - 1 [Konstantinos, all other weeks]
Friday: 10-11 [Konstantinos], 1:30-3 [Wonyl], 3-4 [Ben]

The class will be co-taught by Professors Byers and Tsourakakis. On any given lecture date, one of the two instructors will deliver the lecture for both the A1 and B1 sections. A two-person team from the TFs and LAs will lead each of the discussion sessions. The objective is to reinforce the concepts covered in the lectures through problem-solving, and to provide some clarifications and guidance on the homework assignments. The purpose of the office hours of the Instructors, the Teaching Fellows and the Learning Assistants is to answer specific questions or clarify specific issues. Your fastest route to get an answer to most questions is via Piazza. Office hours are not to be used to fill you in on a class you skipped or to re-explain entire topics. Office hours are scheduled at times to provide help to students on the homework. Office hours earlier in the week are invariably much less crowded.

Lectures

Lecture A1: Tues/Thurs 3:30 - 4:45 PM, CAS B12.
Lecture B1: Tues/Thurs 2 - 3:15 PM, CAS B12.

We expect students to come to class, and come on time. While the class is large, class participation and questions will be encouraged. Also, while our textbook will be very helpful, it is an imperfect substitute for in-class learning, which is the fastest (and easiest) way to learn the material. If you miss a class, please get the notes and work through the material from a fellow student.

Discussion Labs

Lab A2: Wed 9:05 - 9:55AM, MCS B25
Lab A3: Wed 3:35 - 4:25PM MCS B25
Lab A4: Wed 4:40 - 5:30PM EPC 206
Lab B2: Wed 12:20 - 1:10PM, MCS B33
Lab B3: Wed 1:25 - 2:15PM, MCS B23
Lab B4: Wed 2:30 - 3:20PM, MCS B23

Labs will be an invaluable part of the course typically involving interactive problem-solving sessions and further guidance on homework questions. Attendance is mandatory and will be taken.
There will be no lab on Wed, 9/6. The first lab will be on Wed, 9/13.

Textbook

Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications, Kenneth H. Rosen, 7th Edition. ISBN 978-0-07-338309-5.

Communications:

We will be using Piazza for class discussion. The system is highly catered to getting you answers to your questions fast and efficiently from classmates, the TF, and the instructors. Please do not email questions to the teaching staff -- post your questions on Piazza instead. We also encourage you to post answers to student questions there (but obviously, not answers to problems on the problem sets!). Our class page is located at: https://piazza.com/bu/fall2017/cs131/home. Please go there to sign up today. We will also use Piazza to post announcements and all handouts, including homework assignments and solutions.

Grading and Attendance

The course grade will break down as follows:

Problem sets: 30%
Midterms: 35%
Final exam: 30%
Lab attendance and participation in {lab, lecture, Piazza}: 5%

Last day to drop without a W: Oct 10. With a W: November 10. Our midterms are scheduled with these dates in mind.
Incompletes for this class will not be granted.

Exams: There will be two in-class midterms held during the middle of the semester, tentatively Thursday, October 5 and Thursday, November 9. The cumulative final will be held during the normal two-hour final exam slot: Saturday, Dec 16, 3-5PM for students in the 2PM lecture and Tuesday, Dec 19, 3-5PM for students in the 3:30PM lecture. All exams will be in MCS B12. Please make your end-of-semester travel plans accordingly!

Homework Assignments, Submission, and Late Policy: Assignments will typically be due Fridays at 5PM. You must submit a *stapled* hardcopy no later than 5PM in the drop box on the first floor of the MCS building, near the CS department office. From the CS office, walk toward the shorter end of the hallway, and turn right. Drop box is immediately on your right. Assignments must go *in the box*, not on the shelves above. Plan on assignments being due every week, except right after a midterm, tentatively Sep 15, Sep 22, Sep 29, Oct 13, Oct 20, Oct 27, Nov 3, Nov 17, Dec 1, Dec 8.

We will collect assignments and post solutions at 5PM sharp, so homework assignments will not be accepted late. Therefore, do NOT cut it close!!
To compute your homework grade, we will automatically drop the one lowest score from the assignments, so one bad homework grade is not the end of the world. However, we strongly recommend putting forth your best effort on all assignments, as they provide the best preparation for the exams. As you likely already know, assignments requiring substantial creativity can take more time than you expect, so plan to finish a day early.

Regrading Procedure: If, after reviewing the posted solutions, you still believe a portion of your homework was graded in error, you may request a regrade. Please write, on a PostIt, the problem number and a brief description of the incorrect deduction, stick it on your homework, and give it to one of the Professors in lecture. Note that when we regrade a problem, your score may go up or down.

Attendance: It is expected that you will attend lecture and the laboratory section for this course. Attendance will be taken in labs. Often, some material covered in lecture and lab will not be covered by our textbook. We ask that you please arrive to all classes on time, since it is disruptive to have students flowing in throughout the class period. When students are at a borderline between grades, we will factor in attendance and participation before making a final determination.

Tentative Schedule

Lecture	Topic	Readings	Homework Due Dates
9/5	Introduction to Proofs and Logic	Chapter 1.7, 1.1
9/7	Propositional Logic	Chapter 1.1-1.2
9/12	Logic circuits and satisfiability	Chapter 1.3
9/14	Predicates and quantifiers	Chapter 1.4	HW 1 due 9/15
9/19	Nested quantifiers	Chapter 1.5 (& skim 1.6)
9/21	Proof methods and techniques	Chapter 1.7 - 1.8	HW 2 due 9/22
9/26	Basic Structures: espec. Sequences, Sets, Sums	Chapter 2.1 (review) and 2.4
9/28	Intro to Induction	Chapter 5.1	HW 3 due 9/29
10/3	Induction proofs
10/5	Midterm 1, covers lectures through 9/28
10/10	No class (Columbus day turns Tuesday into a Monday)
10/12	Strong Induction	Chapter 5.2	HW 4 due 10/13
10/17	Number Theory Basics	Chapter 4.1 - 4.2
10/19	Number Theory: prime factorization and GCDs	Chapter 4.3	HW 5 due 10/20
10/24	Number Theory -- Congruences and applications	Chapter 4.4 - 4.5
10/26	Number theory -- crypto and coding	Chapter 4.5-4.6	HW 6 due 10/27
10/31	Algorithms, big-O notation	Chapter 3.2 - 3.3
11/2	Recursive algorithms	Chapter 5.4	HW 7 due 11/3
11/7	Recursion and recurrence relations	Chapter 8.1
11/9	Midterm 2, covers lectures through 11/2
11/14	Divide and conquer algorithms, master method	Chapter 8.3
11/16	Counting	Chapter 2.2, 6.1	HW 8 due 11/17
11/21	Counting	Chapter 6.1, 6.3

11/23	No Class (Happy Thanksgiving!)
11/28	Counting	Chapter 6.2
11/30	Counting	Chapter 6.4	HW 9 due 12/1
12/5	Probability	Chapter 7.1-7.2
12/7	Probability	Chapter 7.2	HW 10 due 12/8
12/12	Probability	Chapter 7.3

Academic Conduct

Academic standards and the code of academic conduct are taken very seriously by our university, by the College of Arts and Sciences, and by the Department of Computer Science. Course participants must adhere to the CAS Academic Conduct Code -- please take the time to review this document if you are unfamiliar with its contents.

Collaboration Policy

The collaboration policy for this class is as follows.

You are encouraged to collaborate with one another in studying the textbook and lecture material.
As long as it satisfies the following conditions, collaboration on the homework assignments is permitted and will not reduce your grade:
1. Before discussing each homework problem with anyone else, you must give it an honest half-hour of serious thought.
2. You may discuss ideas and approaches with other students in the class, but not share any written solutions. In other words, the writeups you submit must be entirely your own work. You must also acknowledge clearly in the appropriate portion of your solutions (e.g., at the top of your writeups) people with whom you discussed ideas for that portion.
3. You may get help from TFs and undergrad assistants for the class for specific problems. Don't expect them to do it for you, however.
4. You may not work with people outside this class (but come and talk to us if you have a tutor), seek on-line solutions, get someone else to do it for you, etc.
You are not permitted to collaborate on exams.

The last point is particularly important: if you don't make an honest effort on the homework but always get ideas from others, your exam scores (accounting for the majority of your grade) will reflect it.