Welcome to COMSW3203-001 🎉 🎉 🎉!
This course will cover topics in logic, formal proofs, sets, functions, and mathematical induction; we will also introduce number theory, combinatorics, discrete probability theory, and graph theory.
The textbook for the class is Discrete Mathematics and its Applications, 8th Edition, McGraw-Hill (2019) by Kenneth H. Rosen. We strongly encourage you to do the assigned readings ahead of the lectures.
We will cover selected sections from the following chapters of the textbook:
Lectures are Mondays and Wednesdays 4:10pm - 5:25pm in Mudd 833. Starting the second week, TAs will hold weekly recitations. Attendance for both the lectures and the recitations is encouraged but not required. Lecture recordings will be available under the “Video Library” section on CourseWorks.
We will use Ed Discussion. If you have questions about anything related to the course content, a faster response should be expected for questions posted on Ed Discussion; if you have individual concerns that you need to discuss, you can make private posts to the instructor or instruction team.
Weekly homeworks are released on Mondays by noon and due on Sundays 11:59pm; the solutions for that homework will be released the following Wednesday. You are encouraged to work on the problems in study groups; however, you must always write up the solutions on your own.
All homeworks need to be typed in LaTeX and converted to PDF; only the PDF file should be submitted to Gradescope. You can use an online LaTeX editor such as Overleaf, where you can also find tutorials to LaTeX. If you get stuck, Stack Overflow may be one of your best friends.
Your grade will be calculated as follows:
We have a zero-tolerance policy for cheating. Receiving or giving assistance on exams from another person or from a web resource that provides answers to questions interactively would be considered as cheating. Copying or sharing solutions, in whole or in part, from other students in the class (or any other source without acknowledgment) also constitutes cheating. Evidence of cheating, such as clearly copied answers, will result in negative points for the corresponding assignment, a failing grade in the class, and/or possible referral for other disciplinary action. Please familiarize yourself with these university and department policies:
In order to receive disability-related academic accommodations for this course, students must first be registered with their school Disability Services (DS) office. Detailed information is available online for both the Columbia and Barnard registration processes. Refer to the appropriate website for information regarding deadlines, disability documentation requirements, and drop-in hours (Columbia)/intake session (Barnard).
For this course, students registered with the Columbia DS office can refer to the “Courses that do not require professor signature” section of the DS Testing Accommodations page for more information about accessing their accommodations.
You deserve a University community free from discrimination, harassment, and gender-based misconduct including sexual harassment, sexual assault, domestic and dating violence, stalking, and sexual exploitation. It is therefore University policy to require Columbia faculty and staff to report to EOAA any instance or allegation of prohibited conduct involving any undergraduate or any graduate student that is disclosed to, observed by, or otherwise known to that employee. This requirement to report is in place to help ensure that students are provided appropriate resources and to allow the University to mitigate harm to our community.
There are confidential resources on campus who do not have a Duty to Report, including:
University employees working in a confidential capacity will not report information shared with them.