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C M S C   2 5 0   S y l l a b u s
I n t r o d u c t i o n   t o   D i s c r e t e   S t r u c t u r e s

Spring 2001

Corequisite: MATH 141. However, we highly recommend that students take CMSC 250 after completing MATH 141. MATH 141 will be a prerequisite for CMSC 250 starting in Fall 2001 semester. A systematic study of mathematical concepts that are fundamental to Computer Science, with applications.

Instructors

Name Brian Postow Charles Lin
Email bpostow@cs.umd.edu clin@umd5.umd.edu
Phone 405-6713 405-2755
Office AVW 3223 AVW 1123
Office Hours 10-11 AM Tuesday
10-11 AM Thurssday 		4-5 PM Tuesday
2:30-4:30 PM Friday

The instructors will hold office hours in A. V. Williams Building at the times listed above. You may also arrange to meet your instructor outside of office hours, by appointment. Please use email to contact your instructor, and only call during emergencies.

Lectures

Section Day Meeting Times Location Lecturer
010x MWF 9-9:50AM CSS 2324 Postow
020x MWF 10-10:50 AM CSS 2324 Postow
030x MWF 11-11:50 AM CSS 2324 Postow
040x MWF 1-1:50 PM JMP 3201 Lin

Discussions

Discussion sections meet on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Section Meeting Times Location TA
0101 10-10:50 PM CLB 0109 Seungjoon Lee
0102 11-11:50 PM CLB 0109 Rachel Green
0201 10-10:50 PM CSS 2330 Eric Johnson
0202 11-11:50 PM CSS 2330 Dan Levy
0301 10-10:50 PM CSS 2352 Bo-Hyung Han
0302 11-11:50 PM CSS 2352 Bo-Hyung Han
0401 10-10:50 PM CLB 0102 Larry D'Anna
0402 11-11:50 PM CSS 2352 Bill Woessner

Teaching Assistant Office Hours

Note: All TA office hours are in AV Williams, Room 1151.

Office hours and TAs to be announced at a later time. Office hours will begin on Wednesday, September 6 (there are no office hours that day, so office hours begins on Thursday).

Webmaster

Bill Woessner.

Text

Discrete Mathematics with Applications by S. Epp, Second Edition

Grading Scheme

The percentages listed below may be subject to change.

  • 2 Midterm Exams: 25% each
  • 1 Final Exam: 30%
  • Homeworks: 10% (total)
  • Quizzes: 10% (total)

Exams

Exams will be given on a weekday evening, and they will be an hour and a half long--see dates below. If you miss an exam but have a documented excuse and you contact us on the day of the exam (or earlier) then you will be given a makeup exam. You must bring either contact information for your employer, teacher, etc. or a doctor's note (or we must verify that you have a course that meets at the same time as the exam). If you have a conflict with the final due to another exam, you must contact your instructor at least two weeks prior to the final exam to arrange a makeup final.

Verification of Visit forms from the health center are NOT sufficient. A valid excuse must indicate the dates which you were unable to attend classes. Once you take an exam you CANNOT later claim that you were sick.

Students will not be allowed to use calculators on the exam.

Approximate Exam Dates (Subject to Change)

Exam 1: March 1: 6:00-7:30 PM
Exam 2: April 5: 6:00-7:30 PM
Final Saturday May 19, 4-6 pm.

The location of the exams will be announced in class and on the webpage.

Class Webpage

The CMSC 250 webpage will be located at: 
http://www.cs.umd.edu/class/spring2000/cmsc250/

The website will include all of the homework assignments that have been given out. TAs and instructors will NOT have extra copies of the HW since you are expected to get them from the web if you lose them. You are expected to check the class webpage on a regular basis regarding information concerning the course.

Homeworks

Homeworks will generally be handed out Wednesday in discussion section and will be due the following Wednesday AT THE BEGINNING of the discussion section which you are officially registered for. You may discuss homework problems with other students, but it is expected that the solution you submit for grading will be written by you alone. Homeworks should be submitted on a separate sheet of paper. ALWAYS put your name and student ID number on your homework!!! Also, staple your homework sheets together if there are multiple pages. Homeworks should be written NEATLY! We will not accept late homeworks without valid, documented excuse.

Challenge problems count towards LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION, not towards grade. Please turn them in on a separate sheet of paper stapled to your homework.

Quizzes

Quizzes will be held every week on Monday during recitation (unless there is an exam scheduled on that Monday). You may be excused from a quiz if you provide a valid documented excuse to your instructor as soon as you are able. Medical excuses must indicate that you were unable to attend classes on the date of the quiz. If you provide a valid, documented excuse, your final quiz grade will will be computed by averaging the other quiz scores.

Course Outline

  1. Chapter 1 and 2. Propositional and Predicate logic, circuits. (4 weeks)
  2. Chapter 3. Elementary Number Theory. (1 2/3 weeks)
  3. Chapter 4. Summations, Recurrences, Mathematical induction, (2 1/3 weeks)
  4. Chapter 5. Sets, Venn diagrams, Cartesian products, power sets. (1 week)
  5. Chapter 7. Functions, pigeon-hole principle, Cardinality. (2 weeks)
  6. Chapter 10. Relations, reflexivity, symmetry, transitivity. (1 1/3 weeks)
  7. Chapter 12. Graph Theory. (2 weeks)

    Additional Info

    All material on this syllabus is tentative, and given due notice to the student, the instructors reserve the right to change it at any time.