Students are expected to be familiar with all of the information below. They should read it fully and carefully.
You should regularly check the class web site and EdStem for announcements and other information, including the most up-to-date information on problem sets and errata. The class web page will also have the schedule of topics to be covered and links to other class materials, including slides (after lecture) etc. If you have any personal questions, please email the instructors directly. Any other non-sensitive questions about course content should be posted on our discussion forum. The discussion forum also allows posting privately that are visible only to the course staff.
The goals of this course are to:
The formal prequisites of this course are MATH 126 and CSE 123/143. Informally, we will assume familiarity with basic mathematical objects like integers and functions and with the basics of how computers perform calculations. For example, we will assume students are familiar with how non-negative integers can be written in binary.
The course content can be grouped into three parts:
There is no required text for the course. For the first 6-7 weeks of the course, the following textbook can be useful: Rosen, Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications, McGraw-Hill. It should be available through the bookstore and on short-term loan from the Engineering Library.
Lectures will be given in person, at the locations and times shown on the time schedule. They will be recorded for later review but this ability should not be used to substitute for in-class attendance. Experience with prior classes has shown that there is a strong correlation between attendance in class and overall course grades.
Each week includes a TA-led quiz section. These will not be recorded, but the printed material used will be posted on the section list and calendar.
Each quiz section will be focused on preparation for the next homework assignment. A substantial portion of the time will be spent on practice problems similar to those appearing in that homework. It is very important that students take the time to work through the practice problems before attempting the homework, not only to make sure they understand how to solve them but also to understand how to communicate their solution in writing in a way that will be clear enough to receive full credit.
Past experience indicates that section attendance is extremely important for being successful in the course. For that reason, participation in section will be included as part of the course grade. Those who are sick or otherwise unable to attend can complete the practice problems on their own and submit their solutions by emailing their TAs by 8pm on Thursday.
There are 8 sections this quarter, and in order to get full credit, students must attend at least 7 out of the 8. Those who are sick or otherwise unable to attend can complete the practice problems on their own and submit their solutions by emailing your section TAs by 8 pm on Thursday.
| Problem Sets (8) | 45-50 % | ||
| Midterm | 15-20 % | ||
| Final Exam | 30-35 % | ||
| Quiz Section Participation | ~5% |
When working on solutions with others, we require that:
Since you cannot list "The Internet" or "chatGPT" as one of their collaborators, students may not consult the Internet or AI models for problems or key-phrases. This includes Google, MathOverflow, reddit, and any other website. However, students may consult the internet for ideas, definitions, and understanding general concepts. Googling resources about problems is allowed, but Googling problems themselves are not allowed
Each student should keep their own solution (the one they plan to or have submitted) private until after the assignment due date. Under no circumstances should they give a copy of their solution to another student, as that would clearly violate the rules listed above. Attempting to misrepresent another student's solution as their own would be unfair to the other students in the course and constitute academic misconduct in violation of the Allen School policy and any such violation will be reported to University. If a student is ever unclear about whether their collaboration went over the line, they should (a) ask and (b) describe their collaboration clearly on their assignment. If they do, the worst that will happen is losing some points. That is much better than the alternative.
You must be able to explain your answer if asked to do so. We may do some spot checks in which we ask students to explain one of their solutions (or solve a slight variant of the problem they solved on the homework) in person.
Homework assignments will sometimes have extra credit problems. They will be scored separately from the regular problems, and they will have little to no impact on course grades. The main incentive for doing the extra credit problems is for the additional challenge.
Students are not required to type their homework solutions. However, solutions are required to be legible, and typesetting is one way to ensure that they are easy to read. In future courses typesetting might be required so 311 gives a great oportunity to practice it now
Students who would like to try typing their solutions (especially useful if you take other classes that involve a fair amount of math or plan to write research papers) can see the resources page for advice on how to do so. However, students should be warned that the software is not always easy to use.
If grading mistakes occur, regrade requests are due on Gradescope within one week of grades being published (with no exceptions). While regrades can (and should) be used to fix mistakes where a correct solution is mistakenly marked incorrect, they cannot (and should not) be used to request changes to amounts of points deducted for errors. Deductions are applied consistently to all students. We will not give one student a smaller deduction than others who made the same (or very similar) mistakes, so do not ask us to do so.
Each member of the course staff will have at least one office hour every week, where students can get one-on-one help. See the staff page Course Staff Page for times and locations.
Students can also ask questions at any time on the message board. During normal working hours, they should receive a response within a fairly short period of time.
We will also have 1 on 1 meetings that you can have with TAs in order to help with concepts or past homeworks
Students should expect and demand to be treated with respect by their classmates and the course staff. All students belong here, and the staff is here to help them learn and enjoy a challenging course. If any incident occurs that challenges this commitment to a supportive and inclusive environment, students should please let the staff know so the issue can be addressed.
As noted above, even when students work together to initially solve a problem, we expect each student to write their own solution, independently and unassisted. Attempting to misrepresent another student's solution as their own would be unfair to the other students in the course and constitute academic misconduct in violation of the Allen School policy. Any such violation will be reported to University.
If a student is ever unclear about whether their collaboration went over the line, they should (a) ask and (b) describe their collaboration clearly on their assignment. If they do, the worst that will happen is losing some points. That is much better than the alternative.
Start each homework assignment early. As noted above, it is hard to know how long any assignment will take you, so you need to leave time available in case the problems are more difficult than you expected. We strongly encourage you to consider a schedule of completing one problem a day, rather than all the problems in one or two days.
Prefer the message board to office hours. Office hours get very busy, especially in the last 48 hours before assignments are due. (Yet another reason to start early is that you can attend office hours that are less busy.) Even just before assignments are due, however, questions on the message board are usually answered within a short period of time.
Do not skip class to work on homework, not even late in the quarter when you are more tired and busy. Doing so often seems like it will save you time in the short run, but it will cost you time (and learning) in the long run.
Remember that your grade in this course matters much less than how much you learn. Your success in future classes (and job interviews) will depend on how well you learned the topics we cover, not what grade you received. (Employers, in particular, do not care that your instructors say, via your grade, that you learned the material. They want to see you demonstrate your knowledge directly in the interview.)