CSE 191 – Introduction
to Discrete Structures
Fall 2005
Syllabus
Section B: Monday,
Wednesday, Friday – 1:00pm to 1:50pm – 220 NSC
Instructor Information:
Adrienne Decker
email: adrienne@cse.buffalo.edu
Office: 130
Tentative Office
Hours:
To Be Announced
and by Appointment
Teaching Assistants
TBA
Recitations
|
B1 |
Tuesday |
1:00pm – 1:50pm |
TBA |
|
B2 |
Friday |
9:00am – 9:50am |
TBA |
|
B3 |
Thursday |
4:30pm – 5:20pm |
TBA |
Where to get information for this course:
Course
Webpage: http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/faculty/adrienne/SP2005/cse191
Textbooks:
Required:
Judith L. Gersting.
2002. Mathematical Structures for Computer Science (5th edition), W
H Freeman & Co, (ISBN: 0716743582)
Recommended:
James R. Bush. 2003.
Discrete Mathematics Workbook, Prentice Hall, (ISBN: 0130463272)
Course Description:
The purpose of the
course in Discrete Structures is to provide the foundational material for further
study of Computer Science. Topics in CSE 191 include sets, relations,
functions, mathematical induction, fundamental counting methods, difference
equations, mathematical logic, linear algebra, and graph theory.
Prerequisites: Working knowledge of a programming
language. Having successfully completed
CSE 115 will suffice for this class.
Grading Policy:
The following table
indicates the grade breakdown which I will use in assigning grades in the
course. I reserve the right to make adjustments to the breakdown if I feel it
is necessary.
15% - Quizzes
10% - Homeworks
15% - Programming Projects
60% - Exams
Attendance
Policy:
Attendance is
required for all lectures and recitations.
Students who do not attend class regularly generally do not do as well
in the course as those who do. If for
any reason you can not attend a lecture, it is the student's responsibility to
make up the missed work. Neither the
Teaching Assistants nor the instructor will take time out of our office hours
to reteach material to students who did not attend class. If you are absent, get the notes from
someone. All handouts, important
announcements, and other printed course material (including this syllabus) are
always available on the webpage, so if you need to be absent, you can get the
materials you missed. Attendance at the
exams is mandatory. From time to time during the semester
attendance may be taken in class and/or recitations. These attendance days may
be announced or unannounced. Attendance may be taken account into your Homework
grade.
Examination Grading:
There will be four
exams given in this class. Three will be held in class during the
semester and one will be held either during final exam week or on the last day
of class. Attendance at exams is mandatory. Selection for the last exam’s
date and time will occur later in the semester.
Exam 1 - Friday, February 11th
Exam 2 - Wednesday, March 9th
Exam 3 - Friday, April 8th
Exam 4 - During exam week OR Monday, May 2nd.
Please note: I do
not control the scheduling of exams during final exam week. Plan on the fourth exam being scheduled on
the last day of exams at the last possible time and DO NOT make any travel arrangements to leave
Please be on time
for the exams. After the first person
completes the exam, turns in the paper and leaves the exam room, no late
arriving people will be permitted to start the exam.
If you do not attend
an exam, you will receive a grade of 0 (zero) for the exam. An exception to
this rule will be made only in the case of a documented medical or family
emergency. You must bring your UB Card to the exams.
In order to receive
a passing grade in the course, you must have a passing exam grade. In other words,
your average over the four exams must be a grade of at least 50% in order for
you to receive a passing grade in the course.
The following table
indicates the number to letter grade mapping I will use to assign final grades
at the end of the course.
|
Percentage Score |
Letter Grade |
|
90 -100 |
A |
|
85 – 89 |
A- |
|
80 – 84 |
B+ |
|
75 – 79 |
B |
|
70 – 74 |
B- |
|
65 – 69 |
C+ |
|
60 – 64 |
C |
|
55 – 59 |
C- |
|
50 – 54 |
D |
|
0 – 49 |
F |
Recitations:
Recitations will be
held weekly at the times scheduled above.
I expect that you will attend your scheduled recitation weekly. If a circumstance should arise that you can
not attend your scheduled recitation for a particular week, you may attend
another recitation. We reserve the right
to take attendance in recitation and count it as part of your Homework grade,
or to give quizzes during recitation that will count as part of your Quiz grade. In recitation, you will be given time to
discuss the current week’s homework problems with the TA and receive assistance
on those problems. There will also be
two or three problems that will be solved in recitation in small groups. These problems will be posted on the course
website before recitation so you can look at them ahead of time.
Homework:
Homework will most
likely be assigned each class meeting.
The problems will be posted on the Homeworks page of the course web
site. Homework for each section will be
due on the date specified on the course website. The problems listed on the web site are those
that will be collected. Homework is not graded on the basis of being
correct or incorrect, but rather just as a complete/incomplete. You are allowed to miss at most one homework
without having a penalty assessed to your grade. Answers to the homework may or may not be
posted. You are expected and encouraged
to get your questions answered during recitation and during office hours. You are encouraged to work on Homework
problems in groups.
In Class Quizzes:
There will be quizzes given during class time. The quiz schedule is posted on the schedule
page. This schedule is likely to change. There may also be unannounced quizzes during
the semester or quizzes given in recitation.
Quizzes can be given at the beginning of class, at the end of class, or
anytime in the middle of class. No make
ups are allowed if you miss one of these quizzes.
Quiz grading and pass requirement:
In order to receive a passing grade in this class, you must also have a
passing average across all your quizzes.
This means that the quizzes averaged together must be a 50% in order for
you to pass this class.
In-class Exercises
Periodically in
class, you may be asked to solve small problems either individually or in
groups. These exercises will be
collected and used towards your homework and/or quiz grade. The grade on the exercises will be based
solely on participation in the exercise.
More details on the grading of these exercises will come throughout the
semester.
Programming Projects and pass requirement:
Throughout the semester, you will be assigned a few small programming
projects that will be relevant to material in the course that we have covered
or will be covering. These projects will
require you to use the knowledge you will gain in this class along with your
programming knowledge. You must make an
attempt to complete each of the assigned projects throughout the semester. Failure to turn in any of the deliverables
will result in automatic failure in the course.
Your program does not necessarily have to be 100% correct, but you need
to submit something for each project.
Course
Policies:
We will follow the
University Policy on Academic Integrity, detailed in the Undergraduate Catalog.
For more information, see Article 5A of the Student Conduct Rules, University
Standards and Administrative Regulations and the UB Teaching and Learning
Resources Student Conduct Rules web page. A good application of these rules to
computer science is given on the department's web page, and this is the policy
we will follow. Please read the policy
and understand the implications.
Anyone caught in violation
of the policies on academic dishonesty on any assignment will immediately be
given a grade of F in the course. For especially flagrant violations, formal
proceedings will be initiated. Such proceedings can call for harsher sanction
including expulsion from the University.
We have recently
acquired access to an electronic means of cheating detection that make it
possible to check the entirety of class submissions with ease. All submissions for this class will be run
through the analyzer. Nearly every
semester, I have seen assignments for which there is strong evidence of
academic dishonesty. There is always
proper sanction taken against these violations.
Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated.
Example Infractions of Academic Integrity
Examples of conduct
considered in violation of the policies on academic integrity include but are
not limited to:
Writing code is a
lot like writing an essay for an English class.
While everyone might have to write an essay on the same topic, each
person would not write a paragraph of the essay and then turn in the resulting
paper. There is a lot of room for
individuality, even when writing on a topic - coding a solution to a problem is
the same.
We will follow the
UB Undergraduate Catalog Statement on Incomplete Grades, outlined in the
Undergraduate Catalog. Take the time to familiarize yourself with the contents
of this page.
Generally,
incomplete ("I") grades are not given. However, very rarely,
circumstances truly beyond the student's control prevents him or her from
completing work in the course. In such cases the instructor can give a grade of
"I". The student will be given instructions and a deadline for completing
the work, usually no more than 30 days past the end of the semester. University
and department policy dictate that "I" grades can be given only if
the following conditions are met:
·
An
Incomplete will only be given for missing a small part of the course.
·
An
Incomplete will only be given when the student misses work due to circumstances
beyond his/her control.
·
An
Incomplete will only be given when the student is passing the course except for
the missed material.
·
An
Incomplete is to be made up with the original course instructor within the time
specified by the appropriate University regulation (see appropriate document
above), and usually within the following semester.
·
An
Incomplete will not be given to allow the student to informally retake the entire
course, and have that grade count as the grade of the original course.
Incompletes can not
be given as a shelter from poor grades. It is the student's responsibility to
make a timely resignation from the course if he or she is doing poorly for any reason.
Regrading of Work
Any questions about
the grading of a piece of work must be raised within 1 week of the date that
the work was returned by the teaching assistant or the instructor. In other
words, if you do not pick up your work in a timely fashion, you may forfeit
your right to question the grading of your work. Please note, we reserve the
right to regrade the entire assignment brought to our attention, possibly
leading to a reduction in the overall assignment grade.
Disablities
If you have a
diagnosed disability (physical, learning, or psychological) and are registered
with the Office of Disability Services, please inform the instructor during the
first two weeks of the course. Do not
assume that the instructor has received any paperwork about it. It is the student's responsibility to make
sure that the instructor receives the paperwork as soon as possible from
Disability Services.
Email Policy
If you have
correspondence that is course related, please send email using one of your UB
email accounts to either the instructors or teaching assistants’ email
addresses as listed on the course web page.
I will not respond to email messages relating to this course from email
accounts that are not UB email accounts.
If it is a question regarding grading of work or any pleas for leniency
or extensions, a visit to office hours is more appropriate.
Code:
This page contains a link to the examples of code (if any) that are shown
in class.
Resources:
The Resources page
of the course website has points of interest for all students taking this
class.
Schedule:
A tentative course
schedule is available on the course website.
Disclaimer:
I reserve the right
to change this syllabus and the contents herein if circumstances of the
class/semester require me to do so.
These changes will be announced and posted to the class website.
Student Portion: Signature form - Student
Copy
I agree to all of
the terms and conditions presented in the syllabus for the University at
I also understand
the definition of academic integrity as outlined by the syllabus, and
understand that if I violate the University at
I also understand
that I am required to have successfully completed the assigned pre-requisites
for this course. I understand that if I
do not have the required pre-requisites, that I can be forcibly dropped or
resigned form the course.
I have read the
above statement and have read the syllabus and understand what the expectations
are in this course.
CSE 191: Discrete
Structures Spring
2005
Student Portion:
Signature form
I agree to all of
the terms and conditions presented in the syllabus for the University at
I also understand
the definition of academic integrity as outlined by the syllabus, and
understand that if I violate the University at
I also understand
that I am required to have successfully completed the assigned pre-requisites
for this course. I understand that if I
do not have the required pre-requisites, that I can be forcibly dropped or
resigned form the course.
I have read the
above statement and have read the syllabus and understand what the expectations
are in this course.
Student Name
(print): _____________________________________________________
Signature:
_______________________________________________________________
Date: ________________