ENGG 2440A: Discrete mathematics for engineers

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Fall 2014

• Instructor
  Andrej Bogdanov, andrejb (a) cse.cuhk.edu.hk, SHB 926, office hours Fri 2-4
• Teaching Assistants
  Ken Leung, cyleung (a) cse.cuhk.edu.hk, SHB 117, office hour Tue 1.30-2.30
  Peter Poon, cypoon (a) cse.cuhk.edu.hk, SHB 117, office hour Thu 3-4
  Gary Sham, yhsham (a) cse.cuhk.edu.hk, SHB 117, office hour Wed 2-3
  Chris Williamson, chris (a) cse.cuhk.edu.hk, SHB 117, office hour Mon 1-2
  Hong Zhou (Head TA), hzhou (a) cse.cuhk.edu.hk, SHB 117, office hour Thu 11-12
  

Recent Announcements

• 16 Dec Here are the solutions to the practice final exam.
• 11 Dec The final exam review session will take place on Mon Dec 15 from 6.30 to 8.30 in SC L5.
• 11 Dec In question 4 of the practice final, assume the graph does not have a source. (Updated at 2.10am.)
• 8 Dec A practice final exam is posted. The final exam will have the same format.
• 1 Dec The final exam will be like the midterm but with 8 questions. You can bring in unannotated printouts of the lectures and two sheets of handwritten notes.
• 1 Dec The Final Exam will take place on Wed Dec 17 from 12.30 to 14.30 in the University Gymnasium.

Course Description

This course is about mathematical models and techniques that are helpful for describing, analyzing, and solving problems in computer science. There will be much emphasis on proofs and rigorous reasoning.

To be successful in discrete mathematics, you will need to go beyond "recipes" for calculating answers and learn how to argue convincingly that your solution to a given problem is sensible.

Schedule

	date	topic	readings
	Sep 1	No class, Inauguration Ceremony
1	Sep 2 Sep 8	Logic	LLM §1; notes
	Sep 9	No class, Mid Autumn Festival
2	Sep 15 Sep 16	Proofs	LLM §2; notes
	Sep 22 Sep 23	No class
3	Sep 29 Sep 30	Induction	LLM §3; notes; code
4	Oct 6 Oct 7	Number theory	LLM §4; notes; code
5	Oct 13 Oct 14	Graphs I	LLM §5; notes
6	Oct 20 Oct 21	Graphs II	LLM §5, §6; notes
	Oct 27 Oct 28	Midterm Exam
7	Nov 3 Nov 4	Sums and asymptotics	LLM §9; notes
8	Nov 10 Nov 11	Recurrences	LLM §10; notes
9	Nov 17 Nov 18	Counting I	LLM §7.2, §11; notes
10	Nov 24 Nov 25	Counting II	LLM §11; notes; code
11	Dec 1 Dec 2	Polynomials	notes; code
	Dec 17	Final exam

Tutorials and homeworks

Homeworks will be issued every other week according to the following schedule:

• Tuesday: A homework consisting of 6 problems is posted here. Ten days later in tutorial, you will need to turn in solutions to 4 out of these 6 problems of your choice.
• Friday tutorial: You discuss the homework problems in groups. Feel free to ask your TA for advice and help. You may volunteer to present your solution.
• Next Friday tutorial: The TA will collect homework solutions. Then some of you will be asked to present your solution to the class. Students will be chosen randomly with repetition. This means you may be called to present at any time, and more than once.

Come to tutorial prepared. Your participation and the quality of your presentation will count towards your grade. If you cannot make it on any particular week, let your TA know in advance.

You are encouraged to collaborate on homeworks, but you must write up your own solutions and list your collaborators on the solution sheet. You will hand in the solutions to your TA at the beginning of Friday tutorial. No late submissions will be accepted. Please read the CUHK policy on honesty in academic work.

• Homework 1 (out: Sep 9 | in: Sep 19) |
• Homework 2 (out: Sep 23 | in: Oct 3) |
• Homework 3 (out: Oct 7 | in: Oct 17) |
• Practice Midterm 1 and 2 (out: Oct 21) |
• Homework 4 (out: Oct 28 | in: Nov 7) |
• Homework 5 (out: Nov 11 | in: Nov 21) |
• Homework 6 (out: Nov 25 | in: Dec 5) |
• Practice final (out: Dec 8) |