• The course is online, and officially asynchronous: By admin design, there are no synchronous lectures or recitations. But I will plan certain recitation hours, several times per week. Refer to the schedule in EdStem.
• Recitations will be held on Zoom, using the same link that I have for my office hours, posted in EdStem.
• In order to learn the material you will rely primarily on pre-recorded videos and corresponding course notes. They are found on the Resources page.
• You may watch videos when convenient, and then ask questions in EdStem or office hours. Don't worry about missing out if you don't attend recitations. Recaps will be posted in EdStem.
• A general schedule can be found on this website's Schedule page. Updates and details will be provided in EdStem.

Textbook: We will not rely on one particular textbook. I developed my course notes using "MCS", "Scheinerman", and "Rosen". See resources.html#references

Prerequisites: Officially there is no prerequisite, but some mathematical background is needed. I'll assume that you know a thing or two about polynomials and logarithms, and have seen the concept of a function. If you haven't, we can catch up in a recitation but we should probably also discuss your mathematical background.

Topics: To see what is taught in this course, please visit the Resources page.
Not all discrete math courses cover the same topics. Some topics seem to be common to all courses, but the amount of coverage can still vary significantly. Other topics that are considered irreplaceable by one professor might be left out by another. To properly cover all topics contained in some discrete math textbooks, we would need at least two full semesters.
In particular, this section is not correlated to on-campus sections of CS-1800.
The objective is to prepare you for an introductory course on Algorithms, and along the way also go over some other fundamental discrete math concepts. Ultimately this course is meant to help you enhance your critical thinking skills, and mathematical maturity.

• In Canvas you will find an invitation to our EdStem site. Your name in EdStem should match your name in Canvas. Feel free to add a nickname as well, but your official name should be there too.
• Before posting a message in EdStem, please make sure that it hasn't already been answered (either in EdStem itself, or on the course website).
• If you have a question that does not affect other students, or that may reveal answers to homework or practice questions before solutions are posted, please use my course email address instead. Do not post questions like "I'm trying to solve homework X like this but I'm not sure it's correct". That kind of question should be asked during office hours, or by email.
• In general, do not use EdStem as a substitute for sending me private messages that relate only to your own situation.
• I strongly recommend setting EdStem email preferences so that you receive notifications instantly, or at least relatively frequently. It is your responsibility to be aware of any announcements that I make there. You should also check your email at least daily.
• Zoom links for all office hours (or any online session that might take place) can be found in EdStem.

Grading

• Exams will be worth 70% of the final grade. Homework will be worth 30%.
• We will have 4 exams. Each will last at approximately (and no less than) 65 minutes. They will be weighted equally.
• Exam dates are posted on the Schedule page.
• We will have 12 homework assignments. They will be weighted equally.
  
• I am not a fan of preset mappings between exam / homework scores and letter grades (e.g., 90 and up is an A, etc). Instead, after every exam (or every couple of weeks) I will provide information about the overall performance distribution and an estimate of letter grades. If you are concerned about this or about the prospect of receiving low numerical scores (that will be generously mapped to letter grades), please contact me.
• Any form of academic integrity violation on exams will result in an F in the course and a report to administration. Plagiarism or use of AI software on homework will also have severe consequences (more than just a zero on the assignment).
  

• If you have a serious reason for not taking an exam, you should notify your academic advisor and/or Health Services, and of course you may CC me as well if you like. This needs to be done before the exam if at all possible.
• I cannot arrange a makeup exam if you have a predictable conflict that could be reasonably avoided. Check the exam schedule before making plans.

• There will be no extra credit options, and no changes to the grading system after the semester begins.

Gradescope: How to submit homework and take exams

• All homework (and extra problem sets) will posted in EdStem. Solutions will be posted there too. Exams will appear directly in Gradescope, precisely at the announced start time.
  
  
• Homework must be submitted in Gradescope. The access code can be found in EdStem and Canvas. It is up to you to sign up to Gradescope, using your full name as it appears in Canvas. Feel free to add a nickname in parentheses as well, but your official name should be there too.
• When submitting homework in Gradescope, there is a straightforward way to tag your pages. You must tell Gradescope which pages of your uploaded file relate to each problem. If you don't do this, we will not evaluate your work. Pages should appear in order and should not be rotated. Leave enough space so we can provide comments. Don't submit pages with unusual dimensions; they should be roughly US-letter sized. Don't use tiny font. Each problem should be on a different page (but subproblems should appear without breaks). Do not submit blank pages if you haven't solved a problem. If you don't follow these instructions, it will be clear that you haven't read this info page, and your submission won't be evaluated.
• Ideally your submissions should be typed, but you may also submit exceptionally clear handwritten scanned assignments. In that case you should use a proper scanner, or at least an app on a smartphone, that is capable of eliminating the background and fixing contrast issues. If your work is not clear, you will be asked to type the rest of your assignments. Typing assignments doesn't mean that you can't include figures; in fact you are encouraged to do so. If the figures are photographs or scans of work done on paper, it is your responsibility to make sure that they are clear, with proper contrast and resolution.
• There should be no shadows, coffee mugs, pets, body parts, etc, visible on your submitted work.
  Summary: please respect the effort that your graders will put into grading your work; submit something presentable if not professional looking.
  
  
• Exam format: online in Gradescope, open book.
• All of your answers will be typed, directly into Gradescope. I expect you to become familiar with some basic LaTeX commands, so that you can produce nicely formatted formulas (only applicable for certain topics). Using LaTeX will make things look much nicer, and could help you catch little bugs in your derivations. Assistance for LaTeX will be given.
• During exams you may refer to my course notes and videos, and generally any resource that I have provided. You may not use the internet in any other way. This also means that you may not refer to your own notes if they were based on sources that I did not provide.
• On exams you will need to apply techniques learned from course notes and videos. You will also need to be familiar with homework problems and other practice problems that are handed out. Occasionally there might be questions that require adapting known techniques, using a relatively deeper level of understanding.
• Further instructions for exams will be given when the time comes.
  
  
• You can make regrade requests within Gradescope in a straightforward way, for homework and exams. This procedure is about fixing grading errors, not about resubmitting improved answers.

Tips for doing well in this course, if you find it challenging:

• If applicable: Use the full version of the course notes when studying, not the condensed version. Do not rely only on the notes, use video as well.
• When using the notes or videos, don't rush. Pause frequently. If you don't understand something, go back and think about what got you stuck, before proceeding. If the issue remains then get in touch with me or the TAs (or your classmates), in EdStem or office hours.
• Always try to anticipate what is coming next. Try to re-prove things. Derive on your own, rather than verifying what is written. When you simply verify what's there, it is easy to overestimate what you've understood.
• Don't cram. Don't assume that you can learn the material for an exam in two days. Spend time on this course regularly. Many students underestimate how much time is required to truly understand some of these topics.
• Your main focus should be the course notes and videos. As mentioned above, if you pick up an arbitrary textbook, the emphasis on various topics might be quite different. Notation might be different, etc. Learning from arbitrary online videos or from AI is extremely risky. Not only might the information be incorrect or irrelevant, but your answers on exams might give the impression that you used such tools during the exams.
• Attempt practice problems from textbooks if you have time. Focus on questions that appear to be testing you on material from the course notes, as opposed to other specific notation or concepts.
• As much as possible, don't memorize. Instead, understand. I do realize that some basic memory is required in any case. But if you think you need to memorize everything then you're not approaching this course correctly and should talk to me.
• Pretend that you will have to teach the material that you're reading. Or at least pretend that you're preparing to be a TA. If you had students of your own, they would be asking you why things work, and you should be able to answer correctly.
• Read the homework solutions even if you got a good score. Sometimes graders don't notice subtle mistakes on homework submissions. Reading the solutions might help you avoid repeating such mistakes on an exam. Also, even if your ideas worked, the solutions might have a more efficient idea or description that will end up worth knowing about. In any case, it is your responsibility to be familiar with homework solutions, because they might appear on exams.
• Don't hesitate to talk to me and to the TAs.

Everyone involved in this course is to respect the following:

• Northeastern equal opportunity, non-discrimination, non-harassment policy
• Code of Student Conduct
• Basically, be nice to everyone.

• Northeastern academic integrity policy
• If you cheat on an exam, you will get an F in the course and a report will be sent to administration.
• It is not acceptable to copy solutions from any source or to distribute or receive solutions. Do not use AI products for any reason, including improving grammar or sentence structure.

Disability Resource Center:

• If you are student with a disability who is requesting accommodations, please see the information in this link:
  Northeastern DRC