CSE 235 Fall 2003
Introduction to Discrete Structures
Archived Class
Charles Cusack
Computer Science and Engineering
University of Nebraska--Lincoln
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CSE235 Course Information


Lecture Recitation #1 Recitation #2
Time and Day MWF 3:30-4:20pm T 4:30-5:20pm F 9:30-10:20am
Location Ferguson 217 Ferguson 113 OldH 303
Instructor Chuck Cusack Haitham Hamza
E-mail cusack@cse.unl.edu hhamza@cse.unl.edu
OfficeFerguson 108 501 Bldg Room 6.12
Phone 472-2615 472-3485
Office HoursMWF 10:30-11:30 am, and by appointment     T 2:00-4:00pm, F 10:30-11:30am

Schedule The Schedule link gives the details for each class period, including what you should read before each class period, what assignments are due, when tests will be, etc. Since the schedule will change as the course progresses, please refer to it on a regular basis.
Note: Events listed for Tuesday apply to both the Tuesday and Friday Recitation for that week.

Textbooks/ Resources

Course Coverage In this course you will learn many of the mathematical defintions, techniques, and ways of thinking that will be useful in computer science. The course will focus both on the theory and its application to various computer science topics. Not all topics will relate obviously to computer science, but they will provide you with new ways of thinking that will indirectly help you in the future. Specifically, you will learn about
  • Graphs and trees
  • Sets, relations, and functions
  • Propositional and predicate logic
  • Methods of Proof, including mathematical induction
  • Recurrence relations
  • Counting (permutations, combinations, inclusion-exclusion, etc.)
  • Asymptotic notation
The homework assignments will consist of working mathematics problems, writing proofs, and applying the theory by writing programs that do one or more of the following:
  • Implement a discrete mathematics topic
  • Serve as a tutorial for a discrete mathematics topic
  • Use a discrete mathematics topic in an application
See the Schedule for a more detailed description of what we will do when.

Reading the Textbook Before class each day you should read the sections of the textbook listed on the schedule for that day. Be sure the read the introduction to each chapter and the entire section(s) indicated. Each class will start with question you may have about what you read. After clearing up any confusions, we will spend class time doing examples and solving related problems. If you are not doing the assigned readings, you will not get nearly as much out of the course as possible, and it is likely your grade will reflect that.

Suggested Exercises After you read each section, attempt as many of the suggested exercises as you are able. Some suggested exercises will ask you to solve similar problems for different sets of data. If you are certain of how to do the problems after doing a few, you should feel free to skip the similar problems. However, sometimes the other problems will have subtle differences that make the solutions slightly (and sometimes totally) different, so make sure you really understand what you are doing if you skip problems.