ICS 6B: Boolean Algebra & Logic

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• Course website http://www.ics.uci.edu/~wayne/courses/ics6b
• Instructor
  • Professor Wayne Hayes
  • Office hours: TBA by mutual agreement with the class
• Teaching assistants and Office Hours
  • TA: Saad Manzur, Times TBA
• Text book
  • [Rosen] Kenneth H. Rosen, Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications, 7th edition, McGraw Hill. You can use the 6th Edition as well, but be aware that the homework numbers are different.
    This book is required, and you can find used editions online for $20 or less.
    Note: There is an online list of errata for the 6th edition.
    There is a beautiful set of notes created from my lectures by a previous student who wishes to be identified only as "Momoko".
• Course announcements
  • Course announcements will be sent via email to the official UCI email address of all students enrolled in the class. Thus you must read your UCI email!
• Grading
  • Grading will be based on the following weights: TBA
  • Homework assignments will generally be due last lecture of the week, one week after assigned, but one hour before lecture starts.
    Homework will not be accepted late.
    The lowest homework score will be dropped when computing your homework average.
    Only a few problems from each problem set, chosen arbitrarily, will be graded for correctness. The remainder of the homework will not be graded for correctness, only for completeness. Half of your grade for each homework will be for the correctness of the questions graded, and the other half for completing (correct or not) the rest.
    Regrading: We will not discuss a grading complaint in person. It MUST be in writing, to the prof, explaining your case. Note that when regrading, you grade may go down instead of up. So be absolutely sure that you have a strong case before asking for a regrade.
    You should be reading sections of the book before those sections are discussed in lecture.
    On occasion, there may be homework questions from sections of the book not yet covered in lecture.
• HOMEWORK QUESTIONS: Identical homework questions from Rosen's text numbered for the Sixth (6th) and the Seventh (7th) editions.
• ACADEMIC DISHONESTY will not be tolerated in any form.
  You may discuss ideas with your classmates (and others), but no written notes should be taken away from such discussions. All work you hand in must be your own. This course strictly adheres to all relevant University and ICS policies. It is each student's responsibility to be aware of these policies. To this end, all students are advised to (re)read the UCI Policy on Academic Integrity, noting in particular that any single incident of student academic dishonesty in this course is sufficient to merit a failing grade in the course with a letter of explanation being placed in the student's file. The Academic Honesty Policy for Information \& Computer Science also applies to this course and deals explicitly with with course work involving computers. If you are unsure whether certain behavior is acceptable, ask before you engage in it.
• List of topics, by week. Numbers in (parentheses) are sections from Rosen 7th Ed, and in [square brackets] from [Rosen 6th ed.].
  Note that the following schedule is approximate, and that if you are taking this in a Summer I or Summer II session, the schedule is compressed by a factor of 2, so for example Weeks 1+2 well actually be covered in the first week of Summer Session I or II.
  • Week 1: Logic (1.1), Propositional equivalences (1.3 [6ed1.2]), Predicates and quantifiers (1.4 [6ed1.3])
  • Week 2: Nested quantifiers (1.5 [6ed1.4]), Rules of inference (1.6 [6ed1.5]), Introduction to proofs (1.7 [6ed1.6])
  • Week 3: Proof methods and strategy (1.8 [6ed1.7]), Sets (2.1, 2.2), Functions (2.3)
  • Week 4: Relations and their properties (9.1 [6ed8.1]), n-ary relations and their applications (9.2 [6ed8.2])
  • Week 5: MIDTERM ON THURSDAY Matrices (2.6 [6ed3.8]), Representing relations (9.3 [6ed8.3]), Closure of relations (9.4 [6ed8.4])
  • Week 6: Equivalence relations (9.5 [6ed8.5]), Partial orderings (9.6 [6ed8.6])
  • Week 7: Boolean functions (12.1 [6ed11.1]), Representing Boolean functions (12.2 [6ed11.2])
  • Week 8: Logic gates (12.3 [6ed11.3]), Languages and grammars (13.1 [6ed12.1])
  • Week 9: Finite state machines (13.2 [6ed12.2], 13.3 [6ed12.3])
  • Week 10: Turing machines (13.5 [6ed12.5])

Lectures and Discusion

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. The Lecturer and TAs are not responsible for keeping you up-to-date if you miss a class.

Discussion section meets two hours per week. (One during summer.) This is an important time to get questions answered about homework problems. No new content will be given in discussion and we do not take attendance, but you are highly encouraged to attend as it will give valuable practice on problems.

Piazza

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/uci/summer2020/ics6b. 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. There is also a way for students to collectively edit a response to a question and for instructors to indicate whether the answer is a good/correct answer.

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.

Important class announcements may also be posted on Piazza. You are responsible for checking for course announcements at least twice a week.

Before posting a question on Piazza, you should look through the course materials or previous Piazza posts to see if you can find the answer to your question. If your question is about the technical content of the course, check the text. If you have an administrative question, check the course web page (either the home page with the schedule or this course information page).

Piazza provides a way for you to post anonymously. However, your posts will only be anonymous to other students. The instructors will be able to see the name and uciNetID of any individual who posts to Piazza.

Obtaining assistance

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

The table below shows 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.

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.