CMPSCI 250: Introduction to Computation

David Mix Barrington

Spring 2018

This is the home page for CMPSCI 250. CMPSCI 250 is the undergraduate core course in discrete mathematics and will deal with logic, elementary number theory, proof by induction, recursion on trees, search algorithms, finite state machines, and a bit of computability.

Instructor Contact Info: David Mix Barrington, 210 CMPSCI building, 545-4329, office hours for Spring 2018: TBA

I generally answer my email fairly reliably.

TA and UCA Contact Info:

TA's Clemens Rosenbaum, Pardis Malekzadeh, and Shikang Xu, office hours TBA.
UCA's Adam Elghazzawi, Vincent Pietropaolo, Adam Rivelli, and Harry Hu.

The course is primarily intended for undergraduates in computer science and related majors such as mathematics or computer engineering. CMPSCI 187 (programming with data structures) and MATH 132 (Calculus II) are prerequisites though occasionally we let in a student who is taking one or the other at the same time as 250.

The course meets for three lecture meetings a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 1:25-2:30, in Bartlett 65. (We have asked for a better room in Thompson but haven't heard yet.)

There is one discussion meeting per week for each of the five sections, at various times Fridays before lecture as indicated on SPIRE. Each discussion will have a written assignment which you will carry out in groups. Discussion attendance is required, so that missing a discussion will incur a grade penalty. The TA's and I will cover the sections in various combinations, so they should be as interchangeable as we can make them.

The textbook is the current draft of my in-progress book, Discrete Mathematics: A Foundation for Computer Science. This will be available at Collective Copies in Amherst Center, starting (probably) on Tuesday 23 January. Prior versions of the textbook that were intended for CMPSCI 250 may be used -- the most recent versions of the book differ only by the correction of some minor errors.

The course is using the iClicker system, and the Moodle course management system. Basic information about the course will be on this site, and specifics of the course will be off of the Moodle main page when it is established soon.

Announcements (18 May 2018):

(18 May) I have posted solutions to the final exam.

(16 May) The text of the final exam is now posted. The scale on the exam was as announced in advance, with A = 110, B = 92.5, C = 75, D = 57.5, and F = 40. The distribution of the 228 scores on the exam was as follows:

120+: 3 (high was 124, followed by 122 and 120)
110-119: 15
100-109: 38
90-99: 42
80-89: 59 (median was 86)
70-79: 35
60-69: 19
50-59: 12
40-49: 4
30-39: 1 (low was 38)

The course totals on Moodle are now accurate and were the basis for letter grades as follows. These include grades for seven students who did not take the final exam.

412-451: A with distinction (unofficial A+, there were eight of these)
379-411: A (19)
345-378: A- (22)
312-344: B+ (33)
279-311: B (40)
245-278: B- (43)
212-244: C+ (40)
179-211: C (14)
145-178: C- (3)
112-144: D+ (6)
79-111: D (2)
0-78: F (5)

(22 April) Solutions are up. The scale was A = 90, C = 60. The mean and median were both about 73. The counts of exams with each grade are as follows:

A+ (93-106): 25
A (88-92): 18
A- (83-87): 21
B+ (78-82): 35
B (73-77): 25
B- (68-72): 28
C+ (63-67): 22
C (58-62): 27
C- (53-57): 10
D+ (48-52): 13
D (43-47): 4
F (14-42): 4

(21 April) The text of the second midterm is posted, the solutions will follow soon, probably tomorrow.

(7 March) The first midterm and its solution are now posted. The scale was as advertised, with A = 95, B = 80, C = 65, D = 50, F = 35. The high was 109, the median 77, and the low 34. The number in each grade range:
- A+ (98-109): 17
- A (93-97): 15
- A- (88-92): 20
- B+ (83-87): 33
- B (78-82): 33
- B- (73-77): 37
- C+ (68-72): 34
- C (63-67): 20
- C- (58-62): 9
- D+ (53-57): 5
- D (48-52): 7
- F (34-47): 9
- (21 January) I'm sending out a Moodle email today to all those registered. If you are still trying to register, it may be possible. Go to the override information pages on the main CICS website (under "current students", then "courses", then the maroon rectangle labeled "override information".)
- (14 January) I am putting up only a preliminary version of the course website today. The full version of last fall's website is available here and has exams with solutions and a full syllabus. The link above is to the lecture slides from the Spring 2014 offering of this course -- our lectures this term will be similar and slides from this term will be posted on Moodle. This offering of CMPSCI 250 will be very similar to my recent ones.
Last modified 18 May 2018