COMPSCI 250: Introduction to Computation

Marius Minea and Swarna Reddy

Spring 2019

Topics: COMPSCI 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. This course is primarily intended for undergraduates in computer science and related majors such as mathematics or computer engineering.

The two sections of the course will be taught with similar lectures and will have the same assignments, exam, and grade scale.

Basic Information:

• Instructors: Marius Minea (marius at cs), office: LGRC A261, office hours Mon 5:30-6:30 pm and Thu 5-6 pm and Swarna Reddy (skreddy at cs), office: LRGC A259, office hours Tue/Thu 3-4 pm
• TAs: Maham Haroon, Pardis Malekzadeh, Mohammad Mobayenjarihani, Trung Nguyen Ba, Shikang Xu
• UCAs: Janja Kovacevic, Matthew Pearce, Adam Rivelli, Zhong Tang
• Lectures: MWF 1:25 - 2:15, Goessmann 64 (Marius), and Herter 227 (Swarna)
• Discussions: There are six discussion sections, meeting at various times on Friday, as indicated in 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. TAs and instructors will cover the sections, rotating as uniformly as possible.
• Exams:
  Midterm 1: Wed 20 Feb (7-9 p.m., Goessmann 20 and 64) on Lectures 1-11). Exam and Solutions
  Midterm 2: Thu 04 Apr (7-9 p.m., Goessmann 20 and 64) on Lectures 12-27. Exam and Solutions
  Final Exam: Fri 03 May (1-3 p.m., Thompson 102 and 104). Solutions

Homeworks and Quizzes

• Weekly quizzes will be posted in Moodle, due Tuesdays, starting with week 3
• Homework 1, due Thu Feb 7, 11:59pm in Gradescope
• Homework 2, due Thu Feb 21, 11:59pm in Gradescope
• Homework 3, due Thu March 7, 11:59pm in Gradescope
• Homework 4, due Thu March 28, 11:59pm in Gradescope
• Homework 5, due Mon April 15, 11:59pm in Gradescope
• Homework 6, due Mon April 29, 11:59pm in Gradescope

Prerequisites: COMPSCI 187 (programming with data structures) and MATH 132 (Calculus II) are prerequisites though occasionally one of these can be accepted as co-requisite.

Textbook (required): David Mix Barrington, A Mathematical Foundation for Computer Science. This will be available at Collective Copies in Amherst Center. Prior versions of the textbook that were intended for COMPSCI 250 may be used -- the most recent version of the book has some additional explanations (notably on searching), a few new problems and corrections of minor errors.

The course is using Moodle for quizzes and grades, Piazza (sign up here) for discussion and questions, Gradescope for submitting and grading homework, and the iClicker system for in-class questions.

• Course Requirements and Grading
• Learning Goals for the Course
• Syllabus and Schedule
• Piazza page for the course