MAT/COM 1504: Discrete Structures

Abstract

Prerequisite Three years of high school mathematics (exposure to proofs at an informal level, real numbers, integers, rationals, complex numbers, vectors, functions, divisibility, primes, factoring) and an interest in theoretical mathematics. Description The course will introduce students to a variety of topics in higher mathematics that are “discrete” in the sense that they are not dependent on limits and approximation. Discrete mathematics is useful in proving the correctness and deriving the complexity of algorithms and data structures. The subject coverage spans the following core subjects: logic and proofs; sets, functions, sequences, sums, and matrices; number theory; induction; counting; relations. On completion of this course, students will master the fundamentals of discrete mathematics. In subsequent courses, they will apply the basic methods of discrete mathematics to Computer Science (design and analysis of algorithms, computability theory, computer systems, etc.).