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Welcome to Paul Artola's
CMSC 203
Home Page!


Grades are done! Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!


Computer Science 203, Discrete Structures, is a required course for Computer Science Majors. The class covers proof techniques, counting methods, and problem-solving strategies through topics such as logic, sets, numbers, functions, relations, combinatorics, modular arithmetic, summations, and recurrences.

Proof techniques including direct/indirect, contradiction, counterexample, counting/Pigeonhole Principle, and strong and weak mathematical induction will be covered, as will counting methods including the fundamental principle of counting, permutations, combinations, k-permutations, permutations with repeated elements, principle of inclusion/exclusion.


Important note about exam material and scheduling to make up a December 5 snow day is here.

Class-related materials available here are:

Thanks to Prof. Marc Pomplun of the University of Massachussets, Boston, for the slides!

  • Course Syllabus (in Acrobat format)
  • Course Lecture Notes: Entire collection in PowerPoint or Acrobat format.
  • Course Lecture Notes in presentation order (PowerPoint97 format):
    Introduction: Introduction,
    Chapter 1: Logic, Sets, Functions, Sequences.
    Chapter 2: Algorithms/Complexity/Big-O, Number Theory.
    Chapter 3: Mathematical Reasoning, Induction, Recursion.
    Chapter 4: Counting.
    Chapter 5: Recurrence Relations.
    Chapter 6: Relations.
    Chapter 9: Boolean Algebra.
  • Homework Assignments (in Acrobat format): Assignment1 - Assignment2 - Assignment3 - Assignment4 - Assignment5.
  • Homework Assignment Solutions (in Acrobat format): Assignment1 - Assignment2 - Assignment3 - Assignment4 - Assignment5.
  • Sample Exams (none available from Spring97 or Spring00) (in Acrobat format):
    Exam 1: Exam 2: Exam 3: Final:
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  • Exam Answer Keys (in Acrobat format): Exam 1 - Exam 2 - Exam 3 - Final
  • Study Aids
    Sets, Logic, & Proofs Cheat Sheet (345K in Acrobat format)
    Table of Combinatorics Formulae (25K in Acrobat format)
    The Combinatorics of Poker (60K in Acrobat format)
  • Class newsgroup (only readable from within the "umbc.edu" domain) (umbc.course.cs203)
  • Other math and computer science related materials:

  • A math-related web server at http://www.csc.fi/math_topics/General.html
  • The sci.math newsgroup
  • The UMBC CS/EE homepage

  • Paul Artola, artola@umbc.edu