Course syllabus

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Course coordinator

Bakh Khoussainov

Contact me about all issues concerning the course, unless they relate to material covered by another lecturer or a tutor, in which case please contact them first. You can also contact me for general advice about how to approach the course.

Teaching staff

Lecturers

Teaching Weeks 1-6.

Office hours:  by appointment.

Teaching Weeks 7-12.

Office hours:

1230-1330 Monday  - in person on campus

1330-1430 Friday     - in person on campus

If you prefer to meet online, email to request Zoom meeting.

Please contact the relevant lecturer if you have questions about lectures or assignments in their part of the course.

Tutors

All tutorials are conducted in person on campus. Below are names and times.

Wednesday 16-17
Elisa Yansun  <eyan868@aucklanduni.ac.nz>,
Tuesday 16-17 and Wednesday 11-12
Roger Ru  <rsu050@aucklanduni.ac.nz> 
Monday 15-16
Friday 09-10  
Richard is the senior tutor for the course: contact Richard in the first instance with any queries you have about assignment marking and grades. 
  
Online tutorial for enrolled students who are outside New Zealand
    
Richard hosts one online office hour per week via Zoom. 
This tutorial is for enrolled students who are outside New Zealand
Office Hour: Thursday 4-5pm  Zoom ID is 487 793 2569.
If you have related queries, contact Richard. 

   

Class representatives 

Overview

This is a challenging course that aims at studying discrete structures relevant to  mathematics and computer science. Topics are chosen from the basics of arithmetic, graphs, some important algorithms (e.g. Euclidean algorithm), induction, finite automata, logic, counting and probability, and codes.  The course also introduces proof methods, such as direct proof, and  proof by contradiction, and has a strong proof flavour. We want to understand why algorithms work, not just learn how to execute them.

List of topics

  • Logic and proof techniques.
  • Integers and divisibility.
  • Induction and recursion.
  • Graphs.
  • Sets, relations, functions. 
  • Enumeration.
  • Deterministic finite automata.
  • Codes.

Textbook

A locally made course book will be available for cost of printing from the Student Resource Centre, and students are strongly recommended to buy it and bring to lectures. A free PDF version is available for download. The course will follow this course book closely, but small variations in lecture schedule and topics may occur for good reasons. The course book has been well checked but may contain small errors.

For supplementary reading, we recommend the following:

Lectures

  • Mo  4pm - 5pm in OGGB4/260-073
  • Mo  5pm - 6pm in OGGB4/260-073
  • Fr    4pm - 5pm in OGGB4/260-073

Lecture attendance is strongly recommended. Lecture recordings will be available, but their quality is not high and they may omit important information.

Tutorials

These are strongly recommended. You have signed up for a tutorial stream when you enrolled in the course. 

Assessment

55% final exam; 30% written assignments; 15% midterm test. There is no computer programming needed in this course.

There are 4 assignments. The assignments will be available one week before the due date. See Course summary below for due dates.

All assignments must be submitted through Canvas. You should submit via Canvas a single PDF file containing the answers to the questions. A scanned handwritten submission is acceptable if and only if it is very neatly written. If typing the assignment, do the best you can with mathematical symbols. For exponents, write something like 2^n if using plain text. Use LaTeX if you really want it to look good.

IMPORTANT:

In addition to achieving a passing mark overall for this course, students will need to have at least a 35% mark on the weighted average of their test+exam to pass this class. For example: a student who scored a 40% on the test and a 30% on the exam would have a ((40% * 15) + (30% * 55))/(15+55) = 32.14% weighted average of their test and exam, and thus would be unable to pass the course, regardless of their performance on the assignments.
 
Note that you need to have at least a 35% mark on the weighted average of your test+exam to pass, but it is not sufficient to have a 35% mark if you want to pass. Passing requires both an overall passing mark and at least a 35% mark on the weighted average of their test+exam. To give a second example: a student with a 0% on the assignments, a 60% on the test and a 60% on the exam would have a mark of (0% * 30) + (60% * 15) + (60% * 55) = 42%, and thus still fail the course even though their test+exam average was above the 35% threshold.

The midterm test is on Monday evening, August 31, from 1830-1930. More details about rooms etc will be made available later.

Working together

We have set up Piazza for this course. Many students find it useful. The main purpose of Piazza is for you to interact with other students in the course. The tutor will monitor Piazza and help if necessary. Of course, do not post any solutions! 

Go here to sign up: piazza.com/aucklanduni.ac.nz/semester22020/compsci225

Information regarding university policies and technical support

1330-1430 Fri in teaching weeks.

 

Course summary:

Date Details Due