Course syllabus

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This page gives a basic overview of CS225 for Semester 1 2021. All course material is in Modules.

Course Overview Digital Course Outline Staff
Class Representatives Meeting Times Course Resources
Assessments Course Expectations Getting Started

Course 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, trees, 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.

Digital Course Outline

A full overview of the course is provided in the Digital Course Outline

Staff

Lecturers

 Online office  hours:

21 June 10am -1 pm

24 June 1pm-2pm

Join Zoom Meeting
https://auckland.zoom.us/j/3554909156

Meeting ID: 355 490 9156

 

 

In person office hours: 

25 June 10am-1pm 

 

Office hours:

Thursday 17 June 1130am-1pm

Wednesday 23 June 11.30am - 12.30 pm

Thursday 24 June 11.30am - 1pm

Tutors

1) Alex Elzenaar (weeks 2-5)

2) Oliver Li (weeks 6-12)

3) Elisa Yansun (weeks 2-12)

Class Representatives

Class reps can act as an intermediary between students in the class and the lecturers and tutors. You can share with them any suggestions/complaints/remarks about the lectures. The class reps are not a part of the teaching team.

Meeting times

We have three lectures per week and one drop-in help session per week. We strongly recommend you attend these in person wherever possible.

Check SSO for room times

 

 

Tutorials

There will be no standard tutorials this semester. Nevertheless tutorial questions will be posted every Monday. You are welcome to attend our drop-in sessions where you can ask questions and ask for help with tutorial problems. There are two sessions each week starting from week 2.

Monday: 2-3pm, 260-325

Wednesday: 2-3pm, 302-G20

 

Course Resources and Getting Help

Piazza: Piazza is the main forum we will be using for asking and answering questions. In a large class like this it works well so you are encouraged to participate asking and answering questions there.

The course follows the coursebook closely. The coursebook is available to purchase for $10 for the Science Student Resource Centre and you are strongly encouraged to buy it. The book is freely available for download - see Getting Started in the Modules Page.

Assessments and Pass Requirements

55% final exam; 30% written assignments; 15% midterm test. There is no computer programming needed in this course. There are 4 assignments. All assignments should 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. The assignments will be available one week before the due date. See Course summary below for due dates.

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, 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.

Getting Started

The course material is arranged in Modules. First up, have a look at the Getting Started module.

 

 

Course summary:

Date Details Due