CS170: Discrete Methods in Computer Science (Summer 2022)

Basic information

Lecture: MWF 1:00pm-3:05pm in GFS 116
Instructor: Shaddin Dughmi
- Email: shaddin@usc.edu
- Office: SAL 234
- Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays 3:15pm-4:15pm
Discussion Section: Thursdays 1:00pm-3:05pm in GFS 116
TA: Serban Stan
- Email: sstan@usc.edu
- Office Hours Time: See Piazza
- Office Hours Location: See Piazza
Course Producers: Ram Deo-Camo Vuong (rdeocamp@usc.edu) and Andy Kim (hyunmink@usc.edu)
- Office Hours Time: See Piazza
- Office Hours Location: See Piazza
Course Homepage: viterbi-web.usc.edu/~shaddin/cs170su22

Announcements

July 12: All homeworks and solutions can be found here. Homeworks will be announced by email.
June 28: Course Website is up!

Schedule by Week

This schedule is tentative and subject to change throughout the semester.

Week 1: Introduction, propositional logic (Chapter 1,9,10)
- Additional reference: Rules of inference for propositional logic. (Courtesy of Aaron Cote)
Week 2: Proofs (Chapters 2-4)
Week 3: Order notation, runtime analysis, Sorting (Chapter 21)
- Additional reference: Additional notes on sorting from David Kempe's CSCI104. Chapter 17
Week 4: Sets, relations, functions (Chapters 5-8)
Week 5: More Logic (Chapters 9-12)
Week 6: Graph Theory (Chapters 13,14,16,17,18)
- Additional reference: Additional notes Graphs and Graph Search from David Kempe's CSCI104. Portions of Chapters 20,21, and 23.

Course Description

This course covers the mathematical topics that are most important for computer science. We will be concerned with both discrete mathematics and the basics of logical reasoning (as encapsulated by proofs). Discrete mathematics, unlike continuous mathematics topics such as calculus, is concerned with disconnected, non-smooth objects such as booleans, integers, graphs, trees, etc. This is the sort of mathematics that is most relevant to computers and to algorithms. A proof is an airtight argument which starts with a set of assumptions or facts (known as axioms or premises), applies self-evident rules of logic in a clear and stepwise manner, all to establish the truth of a precise mathematical or logical statement.

Requirements and Grading

There will be 4-5 homeworks. You can expect one once per week, due about a week later. There will also be a midterm on Thursday July 21 during discussion section, and a final on Thursday 8/11 from 1pm-3pm. Homework will count for 50% of your grade. The midterm will count for 20%, and the final for 30%.

Late Homework Policy: Since this is an accelerated summer class, there will be no late homework allowed. However, to accomodate unforeseen circumstances, I will discount your lowest homework grade by 50%. In other words, your lowest homework will count half as much as the rest of your homeworks.

Collaboration and Academic Integrity Policy: You may discuss informally with other students, but you should not write anything down during discussions. You may not refer to outside sources, on the web or otherwise. Anything that is copied directly from another student or from an outside source counts as cheating. We won't purposely look for cheating, but we will have a zero-tolerance policy if we run across it --- suspected violations of academic integrity will be referred to SJACS without exception.

References

The main textbook will be Essential Discrete Mathematics by Lewis and Zax. A useful secondary reference, for those of you interested, is Discrete Mathematics and its Applications by Kenneth Rosen.