Course Description

This course will cover fundamental mathematical foundations required for computer science, arising in many algorithms, concepts, and techniques.

We will begin with an overview of mathematical notation and the basic concepts of sets, functions, and relations. We will then study logic, proof techniques, combinatorics (counting), probability, and the beginnings of graph theory. By the end of this course, you will have become familiar with a number of discrete structures that are used throughout computer science.

The main purpose of this course is for you to become comfortable with mathematical thinking that allows you to write clean, logical, proofs.

Administrative Information

Instructor

Amit Chakrabarti | Sudikoff 107 | Office hours: Mon 11:00-12:30; Fri 10:00-11:00

Teaching Assistants

Anup Joshi | Head TA | Wed 13:00-14:00; Fri 11:00-12:00 in Sudikoff 214

Prantar Ghosh | Chief grader | Office hours: Tue 16:00-17:00 in Sudikoff 214

Kooshul Jhaveri | Ninja | Office hours: Tue: 19:00-20:00 in Sudikoff 114 ⚠

Runze Liu | Ninja | Office hours: Mon 20:00-21:00 in Sudikoff 214

Christina Long | Ninja | Office hours: Mon 19:00-20:00 in Sudikoff 214

Jessica Teipel | Ninja | Office hours: Sun 16:00-17:00 in Sudikoff 214

Soren Thompson | Ninja | Office hours: Sun 17:00-18:00 in Sudikoff 214

Getting Help

Primary method: piazza

Only under exceptional circumstances: cs30-help@cs.dartmouth...

Textbooks (strongly recommended)

Lehman, Leighton, and Meyer. Mathematics for Computer Science (Dec 2017 revision; Ebook).

Kenneth Rosen. Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications (Seventh Edition).

Work and Grading

Class Plan

This is not your usual lecture-based course. A significant chunk of time in every class will spent on hands-on problem solving. You are urged to understand this thoroughly. The schedule page has further details.

Grading Scheme

Class exercises (15%); weekly homeworks (19%); two evening midterms (36%); final exam (30%)

Homework and Exam Schedule

Nine homework sets, due Wednesday nights (except HW9, due Tue Mar 6) at 22:00:00 (i.e., 10:00pm sharp)

Midterm 1: Fri Feb 2, 16:00-19:00 in Moore Hall B13 (Filene Auditorium)

Midterm 2: Fri Feb 23, 16:00-19:00 in LSC 100 (Oopik Auditorium)

Final exam: Sat Mar 10, 15:00-18:00 in Moore Hall B13 (Filene Auditorium)

Policies

No-Laptop/No-Phone Policy

We have a firm no-laptop/no-phone policy in class. Texting, sleeping or engaging in other activities unrelated to the class is also forbidden. This policy will be strictly enforced so as to encourage active participation by all students and to avoid distracting people that are focusing on the lecture. If you come to class you are expected to obey this policy. A penalty of 5% will be applied to the final grade every time this policy is violated. (Please read this article to better understand this policy.)

Absences and Scheduling Conflicts

If you miss a class, there will be no way to earn points for that day's class exercises. If you have a truly unavoidable academic conflict with one of the scheduled midterms, you must let me know by 23:59 on Jan 19 (firm deadline) and make alternative arrangements. The final exam will be held one time only, at the registrar's appointed time noted above.

Late Submissions

Doing homework on time is crucial to your understanding in this course and being late is strongly discouraged. However, to allow for unexpected and unavoidable issues, you are allowed to be late with a homework submission at most 3 times over the course of the term. On each such occasion, you are allowed to be at most 24 hours late. Any lateness outside these bounds will result in your homework being left ungraded (and earning a score of 0). No exceptions! I urge you to note that being even one second late counts as one of your 3 allowed late submissions: in short, if the Canvas timestamp says you're late, you're late; no exceptions. Homework can only be turned in electronically, via canvas.

Regrading Policy

If you are unsure why you lost points on a homework or exam problem, or feel that the grader made a mistake, you must act before the resolution deadline for that homework/exam. The resolution deadline for a homework is the submission deadline of the next homework. The resolution deadlines for Midterm 1, Midterm 2, and Homework 9 are 22:00 on Feb 9, Mar 2, and Mar 9 respectively. Before the resolution deadline you must first contact the relevant grader(s) and try to resolve the matter with them. If you are unable to resolve the matter at this step, you may (optionally) make a formal regrade request. This must be made within 12 hours of the resolution deadline.
   To make such a request you must email the course staff (cs30-help@cs.dartmouth...) with a subject line that says something like "Formal regrade request for HW4", give evidence of having tried to resolve the matter with the graders, and say why you still feel something is wrong. The professor will then make a final determination. Be aware that if you make a formal regrade request then the professor may regrade your entire homework and the professor typically has stricter standards than the graders.

Academic Integrity

Collaboration during Class Exercises

The class exercises require you to arrive at solutions by collaborating with the other students in your exercise group. You must not, however, collaborate with students in other groups.

Collaboration on Written Homework

When working on homework problems, you may collaborate and discuss with the course staff and other students enrolled in this term's offering of this course (and not with any other persons). However, when you prepare the final draft of your solutions, you must work entirely by yourself and write answers in your own words. At the top of your submission, you must list all people you collaborated with, received help from, or gave help to. If you did the entire homework on your own, you must state that in writing.

Sources

When working on homework problems, you may consult this course's website, any handouts given out in class, discussions on this course's piazza forum, the two recommended textbooks for this course, and your own notes. "This course" means this particular term's offering of CS 30. Consulting any other sources is forbidden, unless the professor has made an exception in writing.

Exams

The exams in this course are closed-book and closed-notes, except that each student is allowed to bring in a one-page "cheat sheet" (you may write/print on both sides of the page). The contents of the cheat sheet must be prepared by you on your own and you must submit the cheat sheet along with the exam. Consulting any other sources is forbidden. Giving and receiving help is forbidden, except that you may ask the course staff for clarifications.

These rules will be strictly enforced and any violation will be treated with the utmost seriousness.