COMP2804: Discrete Structures II
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Note: This is the webpage for the Fall 2023 offering of COMP2804, Section A.

Instructor: Pat Morin, 5177 HP, morin@scs.carleton.ca

Jump to Lecture Topics

News and Announcements

New: (Dec 4): There will be no in-person class on Tuesday December 5th. Instead, you can watch the video titled ``Final-exam review (no live class)'' or wait until December 7th for me to solve a different exam in class.

Learning Modality

Classes will take place in Richcraft 2200. We have 1h20m classes at 14:35 (2:35pm) on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The mid-term exam will take place in class. The final exam is a formally scheduled exam managed by exam services.

Below, you will find a class by class list of lecture topics along with videos of each topic recorded in Fall 2020. These can be a useful resource if, for some reason, you miss some classes.

Course Objectives

A second course that is designed to give students a basic understanding of Discrete Mathematics and its role in Computer Science. Computers handle discrete data rather than continuous data. The course presents an overview of some of the major theoretical concepts needed to analyze this type of data.

Office Hours Schedule

We will have lots of office hours during which TAs or myself can help you with studying course material and offer you guidance for assignments.

New: My office hours are Thursdays 9:00-11:00 in my office, 5177HP.

Check back here for a schedule.

Important Dates

       
Sunday Sep 24 23:59 Assignment 1 due
Sunday Oct 15 23:59 Assignment 2 due
Thursday Oct 19 14:30–16:00 Mid-term evaluation/exam
Sunday Nov 12 23:55 Assignment 3 due
Sunday Dec 3 23:55 Assignment 4 due

Assignments

Update: If you would like to see some sample solutions from a previous offering of this course, you can find them here.

Assignments will be posted here as they become available. Assignments are to be submitted using Brightspace.

If you are looking for an example of excellent assignment solutions, here are the sample solutions (pdf) (tex) for Assignment 1 Fall 2019

Please note the following rules and requirements about assignments:

Exams

The midterm exam will take place in class. The final exam will be a formally scheduled exam handled by examination services.

Here are exams for previous offerings of this course (for study purposes).

Here you can use use previous exams as practice exams.

Academic Integrity

As of 2020, there are new penalties in place for academic integrity violations. These will be issued by the Associate Dean (Undergraduate Affairs) of Science to students who copy, in whole or in part, work they submit for assignments.

These are standard penalties. More-severe penalties will be applied in cases of egregious offences. Failure to inform yourself of the expectations regarding academic integrity is not a valid excuse for violations of the policy. When in doubt, ASK your instructor or TA.

More information can be found at the ODS website

Grading Scheme

This course will use the following grading scheme.

   
Assignments 25%
Mid-term exam 25%
Final exam 50%

If you fail to submit an assignment and provide me with a valid reason then I will shift the weight of the missed assignment onto the remaining assignments. If you fail to attend the midterm exam and provide me with a valid reason then I will shift the weight of the midterm exam onto the final exam.

Textbooks

We will be using the following free (libre and gratis) textbooks. The first one is the primary textbook for this course. The second contains supplementary and background material:

Accommodation Statement

Carleton University is committed to providing access to the educational experience in order to promote academic accessibility for all individuals. Here is information on how to apply for academic accommodation.

Lecture Topics

You should already be familiar with the following topics from COMP 1805: basic logical reasoning, sets and functions, proof strategies (direct proof, proof by contradiction, proof by induction), Sigma-notation for summations, basic graph theory, Big-Oh, Big-Omega, Big-Theta. You may take a look at Chapter 2 of the textbook and do some of the exercises at the end of that chapter. Review the relevant parts of Lehman et al if you are still struggling.

Note: The entire collection of Fall 2020 lectures is available as a YouTube playlist