Comp 211

Discrete Structures

Summer Session II 1997

Instructor: Dr. John G. Del Greco

The Petersen Graph

Course Information

Instructor:
John G. Del Greco, Ph.D.

Office:
Damen Hall, Room 135

Office Hours:
Monday and Wednesday evenings, 5:30p.m.-6:00p.m., and Monday through Thursday, 9:45a.m.-10:15a.m., in Damen Hall, Room 135

Telephone:
Office: (312) 508-3530

E-mail Address:
jdg@math.luc.edu

Math 102 World Wide Web Site:
http://www.math.luc.edu/~jdg/courses/c211/su2_97/syllabus.htm

Class Hours and Location:
Monday and Wednesday evenings, 6:00p.m.-9:00p.m., Damen Hall, Room 339

Prerequisites:
Comp 170 and Math 161

Text:
Discrete Mathematical Structures for Computer Science by Judith Gersting. The text is available at the Loyola University Bookstore in the Granada Centre.

Calculators:
Calculators will be allowed on the tests and final examination.

Mathematical Links on the Web:
There are numerous mathematical resources available on the web. Listed below are some of the instructor's favorite links:

Attendance:
Attendance is not required. Students are responsible for all material discussed in class whether choosing to attend class or not. In addition, handouts will be distributed only once. Students not attending class will have to obtain copies of any handouts from fellow classmates. The instructor will recycle any extra handouts immediately after the class in which they were distributed.

Classroom Ettiquette:
To maintain a proper atmosphere for learning, the following standards of classroom behavior will be observed:
  • Students will be on time for class. The instructor considers latecomers disrespectful of those who manage to be on time.
  • Students will show courtesy to others in the classroom by not talking when the instructor or a fellow classmate is speaking.
  • If a student decides to attend class, he or she will not disrupt class by leaving before the period has ended. There will be a ten minute break during the class.

Summer Mathematics Classes:
The syllabus for Math 102 will be covered over the course of five weeks. (Normally, the same topics are covered over a fifteen-week period during the Fall or Spring semesters.) Consequently, the material will be presented at a very rapid pace. Taking Summer mathematics classes is like drinking from a fire hose. You have to swallow fast! Only the most committed students will be successful in this course. In addition, during the Summer sessions, there is no tutoring services offered by the Department of Mathematical and Computer Sciences. A list of private tutors is maintained in Damen Hall, Room 149.

Grading:
Final grades will be computed according to the following recipe. There will be a final examination worth 32%. The final examination will be comprehensive. In addition, there will be five tests each worth 17%. The lowest test grade will be dropped. Therefore, the tests will be worth 68% of the total grade. Students cannot make up missed tests. Each test will be one half hour in duration, and will be taken at the end of class. Homework problems will be assigned from the textbook and should be completed before the beginning of the next class. The instructor will also pass out additional homework problems. Problems from the text will be announced at the end of class and will also be posted on the web. Homework will not be collected or graded. However, students will have some opportunity to discuss homework problems in class. The final examination will be on Wednesday August 6 from 6:00p.m.-9:00p.m. in Damen Hall, Room 339. The final examination cannot be taken early. Final grades will be assigned according to the following scale:

  • 90%-100%.........................A
  • 87%-89%...........................B+
  • 80%-86%...........................B
  • 77%-79%...........................C+
  • 70%-76%...........................C
  • 67%-69%...........................D+
  • 57%-66%...........................D
  • 0%-56%.............................F

The final average will be computed as follows. If fin is the final exam grade (the final is worth 100 points) and test is the sum of the four best tests (each test will be worth 25 points), then the final average, fin_ave, is given by

fin_ave := .32*fin + .68*test.

The number fin_ave will be fitted to the above scale. No exceptions will be made for students expecting to graduate. In addition, a student's financial arrangements with Loyola University or other funding agencies is his or her own business. No consideration will be given to these matters by the instructor when assigning final grades. The dates of the tests are as follows: Test 1.....July 7, Test 2.....July 14, Test 3.....July 21, Test 4.....July 28 and Test 5.....August 4.

Students can access their grades on-line.

Course Goal:
The goal of the course is to acquaint the student with those results and techniques from discrete mathematics needed for advanced study in computer science.

Important Dates:
Friday July 25 is the last day a student may withdraw from a course with a non-penalty grade of W. Monday August 4 is the last day of class.

Academic Dishonesty:
Prohibited activity includes cheating on a test or examination, using forbidden materials on a test or examination and helping others on a test or examination. A student who violates these rules for the first time will receive a failing grade on the test or examination on which the cheating occurred. A second violation will result in an F for the entire course.

Course Schedule

The following shedule is tentative.

  1. Propositional Logic
    1. Statements
    2. The logical connectives
    3. Truth tables
    4. Logically equivalent statements, tautologies and contradictions
    5. Implication and equivalence
    6. Valid arguments
    7. Propositional logic as a boolean algebra

  2. Proof Techniques
    1. Direct proof
    2. Proof by contraposition
    3. Proof by contradiction
    4. Induction proofs

  3. Sets
    1. Relationships between sets
    2. Set operations
    3. Set identities
    4. The power set as an example of a boolean algebra
    5. Countable and uncountable sets, diagonalization
    6. Functions

  4. Boolean Algebras and Logic Networks
    1. Axioms of boolean algebra
    2. Examples of boolean algebras
    3. Boolean identities and De Morgan's laws
    4. Logic gates
    5. Truth functions, boolean expressions, logic networks and their equivalence
    6. NAND and NOR gates
    7. Arithmetic circuits and other selected combinational circuits
    8. Minimization of boolean expressions: K-maps and the Quine-McCluskey procedure
    9. Structure of finite boolean algebras and the representation theorem

  5. Introduction to the Theory of Computing Devices
    1. Finite state machines and examples
    2. Regular sets and expressions
    3. Kleene's Theorem
    4. Machine minimization
    5. Realizing finite state machines as combinational circuits with memory elements

Course Documents

Homework Problems

Current Course Grades

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