Discrete Math for Computer Science

CSE20S24

In this class, you will use careful mathematical modeling, problem solving, and clear and precise communication to explore key questions in Computer Science. (1) How do we decide (and prove) what's true? (2) How do we use mathematics to give multiple representations of data and computation?

Syllabus

Pre-class survey: Please fill out the pre-class survey on Canvas labelled #FinAid ( http://canvas.ucsd.edu).
Notes and resources: Use our Calendar to get links to class times and notes. Lecture material is available in PDF, tex, and html formats so you can download and annotate or print it if you'd like. In class, we'll explore concepts and work through examples. There will sometimes be some pre-class reading (listed on the notes PDF) to help you prepare for class. The reading is often just a few lines of text or an example in the book or notes and will be very helpful so we can jump into problem solving in class. You can also watch the posted supplementary videos listed with many weeks.
Learn by doing: After each class, you'll work on review quizzes to track and confirm your understanding of the concepts and examples we covered in class. Quizzes can be submitted on Gradescope as many times (with no penalty) as you like until the quiz deadline: the quiz questions for each week's material are due Friday (with no penalty late submission open until specified date). Open-ended (group-optional) homework assignments will stretch your understanding and will ask you to put together complete, coherent, convincing explanations. There will also be a project and two (in person, synchronous) tests, with two opportunities to take versions of each of the two tests (in class and during Finals week). In each of these assessments you will practice using precise tools to represent and solve technical problems and to communicate your solutions, and you will get feedback on your work.
Collaborate: In-class, in office hours, and on the online discussion board, we encourage you to discuss the course concepts and examples. Review quiz questions are open to collaboration with everyone in CSE 20. To get the maximum benefit from working on homework assignments, we encourage you to find a group to work with. Students in previous versions of the class often found group conversations helped them learn the material more deeply, and were fun (and also an evidence-based practice for learning). To find group members: reach out to people sitting around you in class, in discussion section, or during office hours; you can also use the "find teammate" tool on Piazza. The pre-survey asks if you want help finding group members: the CSE 20 instructional team can help you connect with other students. We highly recommend meeting synchronously so that your group can work through the homework problems *together* ( in person or online). Questions in homework assignments that are labelled "graded for correctness" (rather than for "fair effort completeness") should only be discussed with your group members and the CSE 20 instructional team. The project is an individual assignment and should be completed independently.
Ask for help: Reach out to the CSE 20 team if you have questions. The CSE 20 instructional team this quarter is one instructor (Mia Minnes), two TAs, and ten tutors. On our Canvas page, select "People" and filter by "Roles" to see our names, contact information, and brief profiles. This term we will be using Piazza for class discussion; you can access Piazza through our Canvas site (the Piazza roster is synced to the Registrar class list and waitlist). Drop-in (in person and Zoom) Q&A times are listed on the office hours page. You can also reach out to your instructor directly by email: minnes@ucsd.edu . To address me, please use Prof. Minnes, Dr. Minnes, and/or Mia (with pronouns she/her), as you feel comfortable. Please do not use the title Ms./ Mrs. for me.

Resources

Textbook and lecture resources

Lecture material is available in PDF and html formats so you can download and annotate or print it if you'd like. If you would like a hard copy of the notes and don't have access to a printer, please let your instructor know (minnes@ucsd.edu).

We will provide all required material for this class on this website. There is no required textbook for this class. Lecture material is available in PDF and html formats so you can download and annotate or print it if you'd like. In class, we'll work through examples. Some of these examples will have multiple choice questions so you can test and deepen your understanding. Other examples will be open-ended problems to practice the critical thinking and communication skills we are developing in CSE 20.

Previous versions of the course used reference textbooks, including Discrete Mathematics and its Applications by Kenneth Rosen, which has online self-assessments and extra examples.

Typesetting (LaTeX) Resources

All submitted homework for this class must be typed. Diagrams may be hand-drawn and scanned and included in the typed document. You can use a word processing editor if you like (Microsoft Word, Open Office, Notepad, Vim, Google Docs, etc.). You might find it useful to take this opportunity to learn LaTeX. LaTeX is a markup language used widely in computer science and mathematics. The homework assignment prompts are typed using LaTeX and you can use the source files as templates for typesetting your solutions (click the "LaTeX" button at the top of each assignment on the Assignments page to download the source files).

If you have never used LaTeX, we recommend cloud resources that don't require you to download and install LaTeX on your local machine. A good example is Overleaf, which has lots of documentation. Overleaf works similar to Google Docs in that all members can edit the file in parallel and changes are updated in real time. There is a way to directly invite group members to your document, but the free version of Overleaf only allows two people to work at the same time. If your group has 3 people, you can turn on link sharing: Click on “Share” in the top right, Click “Turn on link sharing”, Copy the displayed link and share it with your group members. To export your work, click on the “Download PDF” button on the right-hand side. If you want to export the raw source files, click on the "Menu" button in the top-left, then click on "Source".

This open source LaTeX reference can be helpful when getting started, and you can use the .tex source of all the files we use in class as templates.

Alternatively, you can use Google Docs, which is available through your @ucsd.edu account. You can create documents and then share them with your group members with manual invites or a shareable link. Google Docs has a LaTex add-on that lets you type formulas in a math typesetting environment: search for "Auto-LaTeX Equations" if you want to try this option. You'll need to use the display environment (start and end with $$) for all the portions you want rendered with LaTeX.

Grading and academic integrity

Grades in this class are designed to reflect your work and to document evidence of your learning this core material. Please reach out to your instructor (minnes@ucsd.edu) if you face extenuating circumstances that you think will impede your ability to participate in the planned CSE 20 activities; I'd like to work out a solution together.

The graded components for CSE 20 will be assignments and tests.

Assignments: Homework assignments are due every week or two. There is also one project.

To warm up for the assignments, a review quiz will be posted on Gradescope corresponding to each week's class material. These quizzes help you track and confirm your understanding of the concepts and examples we work in class and give you immediate feedback. The last question of each quiz is an optional open-ended prompt for you to ask clarification questions about the material or the course. We will respond to those questions in the Gradescope comment box so make sure to re-open your assignment to read these responses. Quizzes can be submitted as many times (with no penalty) as you like until the quiz deadline. You may (and are encouraged to) collaborate with other CSE 20 students on review quizzes and you can ask questions about them in public posts on Piazza and in office hours.

The homework and project specifications all listed on the assignments page.

Homework assignments give you practice with the main concepts and techniques of the course, while getting to know and learn from your classmates. These homework assignments may be done individually or in groups of up to 3 students. You may switch HW partners for different HW assignments. Please ensure your name(s) and PID(s) are clearly visible on the first page of your homework submission, start each question on a new page, and upload the PDF to Gradescope. If you're working in a group, submit only one submission per group: one partner uploads the submission through their Gradescope account and then adds the other group member(s) to the Gradescope submission by selecting their name(s) in the "Add Group Members" dialog box. You will need to re-add your group member(s) every time you resubmit a new version of your assignment. Each homework question will be graded either for correctness (including clear and precise explanations and justifications of all answers) or fair effort completeness. You may collaborate on "graded for correctness" questions only with CSE 20 students in your group; if your group has questions about a problem, you may ask in drop-in help hours or post a private post (visible only to the Instructors) on Piazza. For "graded for completeness" questions: collaboration is allowed with any CSE 20 students this quarter; if your group has questions about a problem, you may ask in drop-in help hours or post a public post on Piazza.

The review quizzes can also be used to demonstrate your achievement with relevant concepts even after the homework is due: if you get most of the questions of the review quiz(zes) relevant to a homework assignment correctly, your grade on that assignment will go up by one letter if possible. For example, if your homework assignment earned a grade of B and you answer most of the review quiz questions on the relevant quiz(zes) correctly, then that assignment will be recorded as an A. This means that it's worth attempting and submitting every homework. If there are extenuating circumstances that prevent you from submitting a homework please use this form to let us know:
https://forms.gle/qZAcC1UfyBj468a59

In the project you'll go deeper and extend your work to explore an application of your choosing. The project is an individual assignment.
Tests: There are two tests in the course. The first opportunity to take each of these tests is in week 5 and one in week 9, (in person and synchronous) during the Friday class time. The scheduled final exam time during finals week will give you an opportunity to retake an equivalent version to one or both of these tests if you miss them or get low scores. There are no make-up tests for the tests during the quarter. If you miss an in-class test, you can regain credit for it from that part of the final exam. This policy is designed to encourage you to treat the in-class tests as learning opportunities so that you can study any mistakes you make and re-apply that knowledge on the final. In addition, if you score high enough on the tests during the quarter, you can skip the final exam with no penalty and just have the test grades applied to your grade.

At the end of the quarter, grades will be assigned according to the following standards:

A: A on one test and B or above on the other test; And:
A on at least 4 homeworks, B or above on at least one homework, any grade on remaining homework; And:
~~B or above~~Passing grade on the project.
B: B or higher on both tests or A on one of the tests and C on the other; And:
B or above on at least 4 homeworks, C or above on at least one homework, any grade on remaining homework; And:
~~C or above~~Passing grade on the project.
C: C or higher on both tests; And:
C or above on at least 3 among the homeworks and the project, any grade on rest of assignments. Note: you do not need to pass the project to pass the class if you earn passing grades on at least three assignments (after review quiz credit is factored in).

The assigned letter grade will be the highest grade for which the standards are met. The project is also used to add +/- modifiers at the end of the quarter. We may adjust the above scale to be more lenient, but we guarantee that we will not adjust the scale to make it harder to get a better grade.

The UC San Diego Academic Integrity pledge is here. Academic integrity violations will be taken seriously and reported to the campus-wide Academic Integrity Office. Key facts about academic integrity related to CSE 20:

✓ Use only resources explicitly allowed for each assignment. Resources not affiliated with this quarter's version of the class may use inconsistent notation or definitions. If you need help, please reach out to the instructor, TAs, and tutors.

✓ Do not share written solutions or partial solutions for homework with other students in the class who are not in your group. Doing so would dilute their learning experience and detract from their success in the class.

✓ Before and during taking any individual assessment, do not attempt to obtain information about the contents of the exam from students who have already taken it or from any nonauthorized source.

✓ You may not ask for help from anyone while taking individual assessments since they are intended to reflect your own mastery of the material. In particular, you may not collaborate on exam questions with other students in the class and you may not post any portion of the exam on forums where others may assist you.

✓ After taking atest, do not discuss its contents with anyone in the class who has not yet taken it. Do not post information about it or share information about it with others who haven't taken it.

UC San Diego has fantastic resources to support your learning, with integrity. Of course, the instructional team for CSE 20 is here to help you navigate the course content. The Jacobs School of Engineering IDEA Center organizes group study sessions and can connect you with student organizations. The Teaching and Learning Commons continues to offer their full suite of student success programs, including learning strategies coaching.

Sometimes, circumstances beyond a student's control prevent them from completing a class even once they have completed the majority of the coursework at a passing level. UCSD has a process in place for you to request an Incomplete (I) if this happens to you. Here is the campus policy about the Incomplete grade: https://senate.ucsd.edu/Operating-Procedures/Senate-Manual/Regulations/500 and some information about it: https://students.ucsd.edu/academics/exams-grades-transcripts/grades/request-remove-incomplete.html

Policies

Regrades

The window for requesting regrades once assignment feedback has been published will be set in Gradescope and will typically be 2-3 days. If you submit a regrade request, please include a brief but detailed explanation of why you think there was an error in the grading. A regrade request may lead to us reviewing the entire assignment and may lead to the score being adjusted up or down depending on any errors found in the original grading. All regrades will be considered once the regrade window closes; thank you in advance for your patience while we carefully look through them.

Accommodations for students with disabilities

We would like to work with each of you to make this course accessible and approachable. All course material is available in multiple formats to improve support for screen readers. Videos will also be captioned (to the best of our abilities). We need and want to hear from you if additional accommodations would improve your experience in the course. If you have documented need for accommodations because of a disability, please work with the Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) to get a current Authorization for Accommodation (AFA) letter. The office is located in University Center 202 behind Center Hall and also provides the OSD Student Portal. We ask that you work to organize the AFA and to let us know about it as early in the quarter as possible so that we can best support your needs. For more information, see Disability Resources at UCSD.

Class material and intellectual property

Our lectures and course materials, including videos, assignments, and similar materials, are protected by U.S. copyright law and by University policy. We are the exclusive owner of the copyright in those materials we create. We acknowledge the cumulative contributions to this course material of previous CSE 20 instructors, TAs, and tutors, as well as contributions to the class structure from colleagues in CSE and at UCSD.

You may take notes and make copies of course materials for your own use. You may also share those materials with another student who is enrolled in or auditing this course. You may not reproduce, distribute or display (post/upload) lecture notes or recordings or course materials in any other way — whether or not a fee is charged — without our express prior written consent. You also may not allow others to do so. If you do so, you may be subject to student conduct proceedings under the UC San Diego Student Code of Conduct.

Similarly, you own the copyright in your original work. If I am interested in posting your answers or papers on the course web site, I will ask for your written permission.

Solicitation

Individuals are not permitted to approach students to offer services of any kind in exchange for pay, including tutoring services. This is considered solicitation for business and is strictly prohibited by University policy.

Learning goals

You can find the learning outcomes for CSE 20 in this overview page.