CMSC 203: Discrete Structures
Spring 2013

Last revised 1/21/13

Class Time and Location

Tuesday and Thursday, 5:30 p.m. to 6:45 p.m., ITE 233.

Course website: http://www.csee.umbc.edu/courses/undergraduate/203/Spring13/winner/

Course Staff

Instructor

Kevin Winner
winnerk1@umbc.edu
ITE 301
Office Hours: Mon 1-2pm, Thurs 4-5pm

Grader

TBD

Schedule

This course schedule is subject to change. We will follow the Rosen textbook fairly closely, while centering on the material laid out in the (rather outdated) 203 standard syllabus.

Course Description

This course is intended to provide students with the mathematical concepts necessary to perform analysis in computer science. We will cover several core concepts such as proofs, set theory and logic as well as many other mathematical techniques useful to computer science theory. While this is likely the most mathematically intense course listed under CMSC, the overall goal is to equip students with a working knowledge of a large library of techniques which will be expanded up as necessary in later classes. As a result, the actual mathematic intensity of this course is likely lower than most middle to upper level MATH courses.

Prerequisites

C or better in MATH 151 (Calculus and Analytic Geometry I) or MATH 140 (Differential Calculus). As stated, this course is math heavy and the major prerequisite is that you be comfortable with advanced mathematics.

Textbook

Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications, 7/e, Kenneth H. Rosen. McGraw-Hill, 2011.

The website for this book contains some useful supplemental material (extra exercises, online resources, etc.)

Communication

As you will learn, I am a strong believer in two-way communication. I expect all students to participate in classroom discussions, both by asking questions and by expressing opinions. In return, I will make myself available to answer questions, listen to concerns, and talk to any student about topics related to the class (or not).

This is only my second semester teaching, so any feedback on the class/my teaching is very helpful. If you have criticisms, but fear retaliation, send it to me anonymously. I would rather hear your opinion early enough to make a difference.

In addition to regular office hours, I maintain a semi-open-door policy: you should feel to stop by to ask questions, or just say hello, whenever my door is open (which it generally will be unless I am out of the office, in a meeting, or deep in thought). If the door is partially ajar, feel free to interrupt if you have a pressing concern. If the door is closed, please do not knock unless it is a genuine emergency. (Also, I'm not that great at remembering names, so please don't be offended if I ask you several times to re-introduce yourself!) I will also make a concerted effort to answer e-mail within 24 hours (or on Monday for email sent over the weekend).

p.s. I'll be giving extra credit on HW1 to any student who stops by my office hours during the first week and has a chat with me (this really helps me remember your names!)

Grading

Course grades will be based on the following work.
Exam 1 12.5%
Exam 2 12.5%
Final exam 20%
Homework 50%
Participation 5%

I'm a big fan of extra credit, and will also be offering various extra credit opportunities as the semester goes on. If you have an idea for an individual project you'd like to tackle that you think is relevant to our course material, come talk to me, I'll probably be willing to award some extra credit for it.

As an example, a lot of the projects on Project Euler are great programming projects for topics we're discussing this semester and would be great for some extra credit.

Homework

There will be eleven homework assignments, each of which is worth ~4.5% of your final grade. Each homework will consist of ~2 hours of problems, most of which will be drawn from exercises in the book.

Late Policy

Homework is due during class on the assigned due date. If you cannot attend class for whatever reason, you must arrange for your homework to be there. Every student gets one free late and one not-free late per semester, no questions asked. Any future late homework will not accepted except in the most extraordinary of circumstances.

Late homework is due at the beginning of class the Tuesday after the regular due date. Homework will not be accepted later than this for any reason, as I plan to go over each of the homeworks in class on Tuesdays. Your first late homework will be assessed no penalty, but your second late homework will lose 50% of the earned points.

Exams

There will be two in-class exams and one final exam. The first exam will cover classes 1-10, the second exam will cover classes 11-19, and the final will be cumulative (classes 1-27). The material covered by the exams will be drawn from assigned readings in the text, from lectures, and from the homework. Material from the readings that is not covered in class is fair game, so you are advised to keep up with the readings. Material from class that is not covered in the slides is also fair game.

Academic Honesty

This course adheres to the Provost's statement on academic integrity:

"By enrolling in this course, each student assumes the responsibilities of an active participant in UMBC's scholarly community in which everyone's academic work and behavior are held to the highest standards of honesty. Cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, and helping others to commit these acts are all forms of academic dishonesty, and they are wrong. Academic misconduct could result in disciplinary action that may include, but is not limited to, suspension or dismissal. To read the full Student Academic Conduct Policy, consult the UMBC Student Handbook, the Faculty Handbook, or the UMBC Policies section of the UMBC Directory."

Cheating in any form will not be tolerated. In particular, examinations are to be your own work. You may discuss the homework assignments with anyone. However, any help you receive must be documented. At the beginning of your assignment or program, you must explicitly indicate the sources you used while working on it (excluding course staff and text), and the type of help you received from them. If you do not include such a statement, the course staff will assume you worked entirely independently. Any indication of collaboration with other students in this case will be considered a violation of the academic honesty policy.

Written answers on essay questions for homeworks and exams must be your own work. It is entirely acceptable to discuss the homework assignments with other students, but the actual answers should be your own answers, not group answers that are copied down. If you wish to quote a source, you must do so explicitly at the point of the quotation, with proper citation. Plagiarism of any source, including another student's work, is not acceptable.

Any violation of the academic honesty policy will result in a minimum penalty of a zero grade for that assignment. Additional penalties, depending on the severity of the offense, may include a reduced or failing grade for the class.

As a new instructor, rest assured that my advisor, Dr. Marie desJardins, will be alerted if am even slightly suspicious of an integrity violation. She is not known for being lenient in these matters.