Syllabus

Logistics

Course Description

Introduces the mathematical structures and methods that form the foundation of computer science. Studies structures such as sets, tuples, sequences, lists, trees, and graphs. Discusses functions, relations, ordering, and equivalence relations. Examines inductive and recursive definitions of structures and functions. Discusses principles of proof such as truth tables, inductive proof, and basic logic. Also covers the counting techniques and arguments needed to estimate the size of sets, the growth of functions, and the space-time complexity of algorithms.

Meeting Times

Lesson (CS1800)

Section	Time	Day	CRN	Instructor	Room
2	9:50 am - 11:30 am	TF	10314	Higger, M.	ISEC 102
3	1:35 pm - 3:15 pm	TF	11769	Hamlin, A.	ISEC 102
4	1:35 pm - 3:15 pm	TF	14684	Higger, M.	MU 201
5	3:25 pm - 5:05 pm	TF	19559	Hamlin, A.	ISEC 102

Recitation (CS1802)

Most weeks will include a 65 minute seminar where students will work in small groups on a given problem set to digest and polish their understanding. Most sessions will conclude with a 10-15 minute low-stakes gradescope quiz which allows the student to evaluate their own understanding of the material before heading into the homework. Each student’s lowest quiz grade will be discarded when computing their final grade. Please see the Recitation Instructions for further details.

CRN	Meeting Time	Instructor	Room
12336	M 9:15 am - 10:20 am	Jones, M.	HS 102
12337	M 10:30 am - 11:35 am	Jones, M.	WVH 212
12338	M 10:30 am - 11:35 am	Ithier, C.	HS 210
12339	M 11:45 am - 12:50 pm	Ithier, C.	WVH 212
12340	M 11:45 am - 12:50 pm	Jones, M.	RY 429
16086	M 1:35 pm - 2:40 pm	Jones, M.	WVH 212
16109	M 1:35 pm - 2:40 pm	Stern, J.	RY 429
16108	M 2:50 pm - 3:55 pm	Ithier, C.	WVH 212
13571	M 2:50 pm - 3:55 pm	Stern, J.	RY 429
13572	M 4:05 pm - 5:10 pm	Ithier, C.	WVH 212
13573	W 9:15 am - 10:20 am	Higger, M.	WVH 210A
13984	W 10:30 am - 11:35 am	Higger, M.	WVH 210A
14318	W 10:30 am - 11:35 am	Amor-Tijani, G.	WVH 212
14321	W 11:45 am - 12:50 pm	Higger, M.	WVH 210A
14322	W 9:15 am - 10:20 am	Amor-Tijani, G.	HS 102
14324	W 1:35 pm - 2:40 pm	Higger, M.	WVH 210A
14327	R 10:30 am - 11:35 am	Ithier, C.	RY 429
14328	R 10:30 am - 11:35 am	Amor-Tijani, G.	WVH 212
14330	R 11:45 am - 12:50 pm	Amor-Tijani, G.	WVH 212
15450	R 1:35 pm - 2:40 pm	Ithier, C.	WVH 210B
16104	R 2:50 pm - 3:55 pm	Ithier, C.	WVH 212
16743	R 2:50 pm - 3:55 pm	Stern, J.	WVH 210B
16744	R 4:05 pm - 5:10 pm	Ithier, C.	WVH 212

Learning

Our goal is to make you a more graceful problem solver. Its not easy! Maybe most significantly, we seek to promote a sense of curiosity, playfulness and humility as you hang out in that (often uncomfortable) space of “what exactly is this problem asking me to do?”. Its expected that new problems will be confusing, this is part of doing math and you should give yourself permission and time to scribble up a piece of scratch paper or daydream about the problem for bit. Please don’t fault yourself for not knowing a solution right away, the process of coming to the solution is more important than the solution itself. This is because there are more varieties of real math problems out there than anyone can reasonably prepare themselves for ahead of time. All of us, from professors with a lifetime of experience to elementary school students, start our math problems by being confused.

Class Attendance

Showing up to class is critical towards learning efficiently. Our attendance allows us to build community with each other which will supercharge your learning. You can teach each other in ways I can’t (and making friends is wonderful in its own right too, of course!). Please do make every effort to show up so you can nurture your own math expertise in addition to the expertise of your friends-in-waiting sitting nearby in class.

In the rare circumstance life prevents you from attending a lesson in person, know that we’ll record one of the sections. The recording will be made available to everyone (see zoom tab on the Canvas site) a few hours after the lesson ends (Zoom takes some time to process). To avoid taking away from the in-person experience, no students may join the lesson remotely, while it is being recorded, via zoom. Please know that this recording is intended as a backup only; in our past experience students who rely on it end up spending more time digesting the same material.

Online resources:

• Piazza - class discussion board

• Gradescope - submission system

• Canvas - distribution of HW, solutions and quizzes

• This Course site - all other course admin (i.e. syllabus, admin, schedule, class notes)

Note

Sign up for Piazza and Gradescope by accessing the sidebar links on our Canvas site. After registering you can use the quick links on our Course site or access the sites directly.

Textbooks

"Discrete Structures" by Harriet Fell and Javed Aslam is wonderfully readable and targeted towards our particular topics. The classes associated with each chapter are fairly intuitive, you’re welcome to reach out on piazza if there’s any confusion. While this text follows our course of study closely know there is material in the book not covered in class as well as approaches taught in class not covered in the textbook.

“Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications” by Kenneth Rosen is a thorough and broad treatment of the topic. Its a great resource to find extra practice problems or push your skills on these topics a bit beyond our lessons.

Grading

The grade for CS1800 and CS1802 are the same. This mark is computed as a weighted average:

Exam1	19%
Exam2	19%
Exam3	7%
Homework	50%
Recitation Quiz	5%

Letter grades are assigned according to the highest thresholds met:

A	A-	B+	B	B-	C+	C	C-	D+	D	D-	E
93	90	87	83	80	77	73	70	67	63	60	0

To keep a transparent, consistent grading standard among all students:

• grades will not be rounded before applying the above threshold

• no extra credit will be offered to individual students

• We will not adjust anyone’s grade individually because they’ve asked (so please don’t)

  • If there are extraordinary circumstances which have impacted your learning, please reach out to Northeastern’s WeCare who can get in touch with us to make accomodations as necessary

• Remember, there are already a few quality-of-life adjustments which will nudge grades upwards:

  • Lowest Quiz Score Dropped

  • Late Day Passes

Exam Logistics

All exams will be in person. Students are welcome to use non-internet connected calculators (not your phone). While students may not bring their own personal notes to the exam a generous sheet of notes (formulas etc) will be provided to each student during the exam. The note sheet will be made available to students before the exam itself so they can familiarize themselves and study any content it doesn’t contain.

“Exam3” will be written to take 30 minutes, though students may take up to 50 minutes to complete it. We only call it an “Exam” to avoid any confusion with recitation quizzes, but its more of a quiz really.

Late HW

Late HW will incur a penalty of 15% of the total possible points per day it is late up to two days. After 48 hours beyond the due date no HW will be accepted for credit. (Extending beyond this 48 hour mark makes for tight TA grading deadlines and would muddle other students’ ability to work on the next HW without feedback from the previous HW). Additionally, each student has 3 late day “passes” which are automatically used to neutralize the first late day penalties possible; you needn’t contact anyone to utilize late day passes.

A single student’s late HW (example):

HW 1 is 2 days late	2 late passes used
HW 2 is 2 days late	1 late pass used. 15% penalty applied to this HW
HW 3 is 1 day late	15% penalty applied to this HW
HW 4 is 2 days late	30% penalty applied to this HW
HW 5 is 3 days late	no credit is given for this HW

Note

The intention behind giving all students these late passes is to provide flexibility when you just “forget”, need a travel day, are ill for a few days, have some computer challenge or trouble submitting the work to gradescope. We will not give further accommodation to students who contact us under these or similar circumstances.

(I apologize for having to be strict here, but the more accomodations which are made to individual students the less consistent our grading scheme becomes.)

Academic Integrity and Conduct

Warning

Under no circumstances may one student view or share their ungraded homework with another student.

Sharing or viewing another students ungraded work may result in a failing course grade. With that said, you are welcome to discuss concepts and ideas with other students so long as you don’t view any written work. One approach to collaborating effectively is to work through practice problems (examples given in class, recitation or from the textbook) which are similar to the HW problems. See OSCCR for further details.

Additionally,

Note

We report every academic integrity violation to OSCCR, which track such violations across semesters to detect patterns.

Wellness Day Policy

Students are welcome to take advantage of the University’s Wellness Day Feature. Because this course already has a few mechanisms to facilitate flexibility (late days for HW, recitation quiz re-takes beyond the day of the quiz) wellness days will not move other deadlines. Wellness days will not move exam dates.

Please do take great care of yourself through the semester!

Disability Access Services (DAS)

Students who have disabilities who wish to receive academic services and/or accommodations should visit the Disability Access Services at 20 Dodge Hall or call (617) 373-2675. If you have already done so, please provide your letter from the DAS to me early in the semester so that I can arrange those accommodations.

Title IX

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 protects individuals from sex or gender-based discrimination, including discrimination based on gender-identity, in educational programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance.

Northeastern University and its faculty are committed to creating a safe and open learning environment for all students. If you or someone you know has experienced a Prohibited Offense including sexual harassment, sexual assault, dating/domestic violence, or stalking, please know that help and support are available. Northeastern strongly encourages all members of the community to take action, seek support, and report incidents of Prohibited Offenses to the Title IX Coordinator within The Office for University Equity and Compliance (OUEC) through the Online Discrimination Complaint Form found at https://www.northeastern.edu/ouec/file-a-complaint/.

Please be aware that faculty members are Mandatory University Reporters who are required to disclose information about alleged discrimination, including sexual harassment, sexual assault, dating/domestic violence, or stalking to the OUEC. If the OUEC receives a report, a member of their office will reach out to offer information about your rights, support resources and pathways towards a resolution as a member of the campus community. Community members are not required to respond to this outreach. If you, or another community member you know wishes to speak to a confidential resource who does not have this reporting responsibility, please contact University Health and Counseling Services staff (http://www.northeastern.edu/uhcs/), the Center for Spiritual Dialogue and Service clergy members (http://www.northeastern.edu/spirituallife/) or the Sexual Violence Resource Center (open@northeastern.edu). By law, these confidential resources are not required to report allegations of discrimination to the University without your signed release.

Please visit http://www.northeastern.edu/ouec for a complete list of reporting options and support resources both on- and off-campus and contact the OUEC (ouec@northeastern.edu) at any time.