General information
- Course: MATH 15A (equivalent to CSE 20)
- Course title: Introduction to Discrete Mathematics
- Credits: 4; Credit is not offered for both MATH 15A and CSE 20.
- Course Catalog description: Basic discrete mathematical structure: sets, relations, functions, sequences, equivalence relations, partial orders, and number systems. Methods of reasoning and proofs: propositional logic, predicate logic, induction, recursion, and pigeonhole principle. Infinite sets and diagonalization. Basic counting techniques; permutation and combinations. Applications will be given to digital logic design, elementary number theory, design of programs, and proofs of program correctness.
- Prerequisites: CSE 8A, CSE 8B or CSE 11. CSE 8B or CSE 11 may be taken concurrently with MATH 15A.
- Lectures: Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:30 pm - 4:50 pm in PETER 110
- Instructor: James Aisenberg
Texts
The required textbook for this course is: Essentials of Discrete Mathematics, Second Edition. David J. Hunter. Jones & Bartlett Publishing, 2012.
Students will find the following reference material on reserve in the library: Discrete Mathematics with Applications, Fourth Edition. Susanna Epp. Cengage Learning, 2010.
Grading scheme
Student's cumulative average will be computed by taking the maximum of these two grading schemes:- 20% Homework, 20% Midterm I, 20% Midterm II, 40% Final Exam
- 20% Homework, 20% maximum of Midterm I and Midterm II, 60% Final Exam
Letter grades will be assigned from the cumulative average on the following scale:
- A range: 88% - 100%
- B range: 75% - 87%
- C range: 60% - 74%
- D range: 50% - 59%
- F range: below 50%
If the class median on a test is below 75% (which is expected), then the scores are normalized so that the median is 75%. The scores are normalized by adding a fixed number of points to each score. If the median is above 75%, nicely done!
Exams
- There are two in-class midterm exams on Tuesday, January 27 and Tuesday, February 24.
- The final exam is on Tuesday, March 17th, 3:00 - 6:00 pm.
- Students who have a conflict with the final exam must not enroll in the course.
- There are no "makeup" times for the midterms. No exceptions will be made.
- A seating assignment chart will be posted on the course website prior to the exams.
- Students must bring a bluebook to every exam.
- Students must bring an ID to every exam.
- Students may bring 1 double-sided page of either written or typed notes to every exam.
- No calculators or other electronic calculating devices are allowed to be used during the exams.
Homework
- The homework assignments and due dates will be posted both on the homework page and on Ted.
- Late homework will not be accepted.
- There are two types of homework for this course: short-answer and long-answer.
- All homework is submitted electronically.
- The lowest short-answer grade and the lowest long-answer grade will be dropped when computing the homework average.
- The long-answer homework score is weighted more heavily when computing the homework average by 2:1.
- Short-answer questions
- Students are to work individually on the short-answer questions.
- The short-answer questions are submitted in Ted under Content->Short-answer Questions.
- Long-answer questions
- Students may work on long-answer questions in groups of 1-3.
- Students should work together on all of the questions.
- For each question, one student in the group will be designated as the writer. Each student in a group is responsible for writing up the same number of questions as every other member of the group.
- One student in the group will consolidate the written material, and submit it on Ted using Turnitin. This can be found in Ted under Content->Long-answer Questions.
- The single submitted document should indicate the other members of the group, and for each problem indicate who the writer is.
- Everyone in a group receives the same grade for the assignment.
- Students may change groups throughout the quarter.
Email policy
- When emailing the instructor, please include "MATH15A" in the subject line.
- Emailed questions to the instructor about course logistics should demonstrate that the student has tried to answer the question by reading the syllabus first.
Academic integrity
Academic integrity is very important at UCSD. More information can be found at the webpage of the Academic Integrity Office.