CMSC 250: Discrete Structures Syllabus Spring 2004

 

 

For office hours, feel free to see the instructor or any of the 5 TAs.

All of the sections will be covering the same information at the same time.

The TA office hours are all held in AVW 1151.

You must be sure to sign-in on the CMSC 250 sign-in sheet every time you request assistance.

 

Text: Discrete Mathematics with Applications Third Edition by Susanna Epp, 2004. ISBN 0-534-35945-0 

                      
Grading:

- Homework: 15%

- Quizzes: 15%

- 3 Midterms: 10%, 15% and 15% respectively

- Final: 30%

 

Exams will (most likely) be on the dates below during your lecture period. The exam dates may need to shift if we have significant snow or other lost days.  I will shift to make sure the material covered on each exam is appropriate.  This semester unlike past semesters, we will not have evening exam times and this is the first semester we will have three 50 minute periods for exams instead of two hour and fifteen minute periods.  This means that the sample exams posted will have to be used appropriately for the material covered on your exam.  We may need to find an alternative location for the exam at that time if we determine there will not be enough seats to spread out appropriately.  If you cannot take the exam at the scheduled time, you must bring a documented university-approved excuse, and you should contact the instructor before the time of the exam. You must bring documentation that contains dates of incapacitation and contact information so that I can verify that you had a legitimate excuse.  With a legitimate excuse, your grade will be calculated as if there was no exam that day (the average for your other hourly exams and final exam will replace the grade for the missed exam).  If any student misses more than one hourly exam with appropriate documentation, the instructor will create a comprehensive exam over all material missed to count as the exam grade for all missed hourly exams. If you have a conflict during the final exam, you must contact your instructor at least two weeks before the final exam to arrange a makeup final.  All students must take the final exam, there is no excused absence allowed for the final. You will not be permitted to use calculators or any other aids on the exam, but you will be provided with reference material as announced before the exam.

 

Documentation for excused quizzes and exams and for extended time on homework assignments:  The absence must be documented to prove that you were unable to attend the class or lab period corresponding to the quiz, homework or exam.  If it is a medical excuse it must state the dates you were unable to attend class and it must give contact information for the medical professional so that I can verify the incapacitation.  The small form from the health center is NOT sufficient for the documentation of an excused illness- It must state dates of incapacitation. The excuse must indicate the specific dates when you were unable to attend class.

     Anticipated Exam Dates

• Exam 1:  Friday, October 1, 2004. Location TBA
• Exam 2:  Friday, October 29, 2004. Location TBA
• Exam 3:  Friday, December 3, 2004. Location TBA
• Final Exam: Wednesday, December 15, 4-6 pm with location TBA

WebPage, Posting, Homework, Quizzes and Worksheets

Class Webpage: The class webpage will be located at http://www.cs.umd.edu/class/fall2004/cmsc250.  The website will have all of the homework assignments on it, and you will be expected to visit the class webpage regularly for updates on course information. You will also have the option of printing using the UNIX posting account ~jp250001 to get printouts of things using the postscript format.

Homework: Homework will be handed out on Wednesday, and will be collected the following Wednesday. Homework is due at the beginning of the discussion section that you are registered for on Wednesday as indicated on the homework assignment. (In the beginning means that it must be turned in within the first 10 minutes - before the quiz for that day starts).  Because of the early start time for labs, I will allow you to submit the homework up until the start time of your lecture section that same day, but it will be worth at most 50% of the points possible.  If you are submitting it after that beginning of lab time, it must be handed directly to your teaching TA or to your instructor - it cannot go to another TA or in a mailbox or anything like that.  Submitting it any later without valid documentation will result in a 0 for that homework. You must work alone on your homework, and homework answers must be written legibly, single-sided on your own paper with the answers clearly labeled and in sequential order as assigned (read further rules on homework description). You must put your name, your student/university ID, and the name of your TA and the time of your lecture and discussion section in the upper right-hand corner of your homework sheet. If you have multiple pages, staple them together, and be sure that your name is on every sheet.

Quizzes: Quizzes will be given every Wednesday during your discussion section. Makeup quizzes will not be given, but if you provide a valid documented excuse, your quiz grade will be calculated using only your other quizzes. Your one lowest quiz grade for the semester will be dropped - if you oversleep once you are still fine, don't make a habit of it.

1.        Chapter 1 and 2. Propositional and Predicate Logic and Circuits. (approx. 4 weeks)

2.        Chapter 3. Elementary Number Theory. (approx 2 weeks)

3.        Chapter 4. Summations, Recurrences, Mathematical Induction. (approx. 2 weeks)

4.        Chapter 5. Sets, Venn Diagrams, Cartesian Products, Power Sets. (approx. 11/2 week)

5.        Chapter 6. Counting and Combinations (approx. 1 1/2 weeks)

6.        Chapter 7. Functions, Pigeonhole Principle. (approx. 1 1/2 weeks)

7.        Chapter 10. Relations, Reflexivity, Symmetry, Transitivity. (approx. 1 week)

8.      Chapter 11. Graph Theory. (approx. 1 weeks)