Course Information

ICS 6D
Discrete Mathematics for Computer Science

Fall: 2014

Instructor

Teaching Assistants

Readers

Meeting Places and Times

Lecture will be held MWF 3:00-3:50 in SSLH 100. You are responsible for anything said in class, including class announcements. If you have to miss lecture for any reason, please ask one of your classmates to fill you in on what you missed.

There are four discussion sections for this class. Each section meets two hours per week. This is an important time to get questions answered about homework problems. No new content will be given in discussion, but you are highly encouraged to attend as it will give valuable practice on problems.

Obtaining Assistance

We will use an online question and answer service called Piazza. You will all have an account. The link to the to the course page on Piazza is: https://piazza.com/university_of_california_irvine/fall2014/ics6d/home. If you have a question about course content, you can go to see if it has already been asked by another students. If not, you can post the question yourself. The course staff will be checking Piazza several times a day to update answers to questions posted there. Piazza is also a good place to post general adnministrative questions about the class. If you send me an email with a technical question about the class, I am likely to refer you to Piazza.

Another important way to get your questions answered is by coming to lecture, office hours or discussion and asking them there. Office hours and discussion are the best place to ask questions that require a longer answer or some diaglog to get resolved.

I have put together a table showing you where to go to for different kinds of questions. Please try to follow the directions there. I really do want to be available for significant problems or issues that may arise. I also really enjoy meeting students in my office hours. However, with a class this size, the amount of email generated from smaller, routine questions can be overwhelming, so I would like you to try and find that answer through other sources first.

Course Announcements

• Many routine announcements will be posted on Piazza, so please check it regularly.
• Time critical announcements will be sent by email to the whole class..
• Click here for the archive of these messages.

Homework and Quizes

A quiz will be given every Monday, starting in week 3. The quizzes will be given at the end of lecture and will last approximately 20 minutes. In calculating your grade, I use only the top six scores from the eight quizzes. In exchnage for this, I give absolutely no make up quizzes, regardless of the reason. It is understandable that there are sometimes circumstances beyond your control that make it necessary to miss a quiz. The dropped quizzes are designed to cover such occasions.

The topics covered in each quiz is tied to a particular homework. For example, quiz 1 will cover the topics covered in homework 1. Each homework will indicate which sections in the book are covered by that homework.

Homework is due every Wednesday, starting in week 2. There will be a dropbox labeled "ICS 6D" on the third floor of Bren Hall 3013 where you should drop it off. You must hand it in before the start of lecture because one of the readers will pick it up during lecture. Absolutely no late homework assignments will be accepted.

You will notice that the homework counts very little towards your grade. It is important to do the homework because it enables you to learn the material but a missed homework will not have a big effect on your grade.

Grades for the assignements and quizes will be posted through EEE. If you have questions regarding grading, please see one of the reader or TA who graded that assignment. The readers and TAs will be posting on Piazza when quiz grades and homework scores are ready so you will know who graded which assignments.

I will post solutions to the homework so that you can use them to study for the quiz. However, I do not post the solutions to the quizzes. The best place to find out the correct solutions to the quiz problems is to ask in discussion section.

Text

This quarter you will be using a web-based interactive, animated offering as your "textbook". You are required to have an account for the course. The material includes interactive exercises which will count towards your grade. The directions for subscribing can be found at:

1. Go to https://zybooks.zyante.com/#/zybooks. Bookmark this site - this is your site for the entire quarter.

Course Structure

Homework 5%
Reading Assignments 4%
Quizzes 60%
Final 30%
Completing the Course Evaluation 1%

Missed Final Exam Policy

• If you miss the final exam and do not have a valid reason, you will receive a score of 0 on the exam.
• The following policy applies if you miss the final exam for a valid reason.
  • There are only two classes of valid reasons for missing the final exam:
    1. An unforeseeable emergency, such as a medical emergency. In such cases I will ask for documentation.
    2. An absence from an exam due to a foreseeable circumstance that I have approved in advance.
  • A work conflict or a family vacation is NOT a valid reason for missing the final exam.
  • If you wait until after the exam to get a foreseeable excuse approved, and it is not approved, you will receive a grade of zero (0) on the exam.
  • If I accept your reason for missing the final exam, at my option I may either (1) give you a makeup exam or (2) assign your grade on the basis of the remaining course work that you did not miss.
  • If I give a makeup exam, I may give it less weight than announced on the course web page.

Academic Honesty

The Bren School of ICS and the University have already established an academic honesty policy. Read it.

Violators of academic honesty policies are subject to the penalties described in the Bren School of ICS policy. They are also subject to an immediate course grade of F, and you will not be allowed to drop the course to avoid the grade. Also be aware that a single documented case of academic dishonesty may preclude you from switching into computing majors, registering for computing minors, joining the ICS Honors Program, and graduating from a computing major with honors.

Guidelines to avoid plagarism:

• Do not look at another person's homework. Instead you should prefer to discuss the problem in plain English. This helps you to communicate clearly, practice technical jargon as it applies to your problem, and to identify how your solution exhibits behavior different from what you expect.
• Do not write down the solution in your notes. It is perfectly fine (and encouraged) to collborate on work. Working in a group is a rewarding experience, and definitely a necessary skill in any professional career. The collaboration can include drawing diagrams and perhaps solving the problem on a whiteboard. However, you should avoid writing the solution in your notes. It is very useful to rethink the problem and go through the details and logic when you solve it again on your own.

We expect that:

• You can monitor each other and enforce these rules among yourselves. Making sure that others follow these guidelines will help to ensure that they don't pass off your work as their own.

• Your work honestly represents your efforts. The entire purpose of obtaining an education is so that you can accumulate a body of skills and experience that will help you later on. If you do not perform the work yourself, then you have cheated yourself out of the education. Employers in our field can (and do) screen applicants for skills and knowledge. You will perform poorly (and discredit UCI) if you do not practice now by doing your own work.