G51MCS Mathematics for Computer Scientists

Autumn 2007

New! Corrected solutions to last year's examination available!

Overview


Lecture Notes and Literature

You should come to the lectures prepared to take notes. Lecture attendance is compulsory! Occasionally, lecture notes and/or summary slides will be made available via this page. Please note that you should not expect these notes to be a complete or even self-contained record of all that is said and discussed during the lectures.

The book Program Construction: Calculating Implementations from Specifications [Bac03] by Roland Backhouse is the main reference for the course and is recommended reading.

The book A Logical Approach to Discrete Math [GS00] by David Gries, Fred B. Schneider provides further reading.

You can check prices and stock-level at the local branch of Blackwell's by following this link. The DLRC Library at the Jubilee Campus also has a number of copies of both books (although only the older 1993 edition of Gries and Schneider). Finally, University of Nottingham students have on-line access to a complete electronic version of [Bac03].


Lectures

Note! The lecture overview below is preliminary!

Schedule change! Slight shift of the lecture break. No lecture on 23 October, but instead there will be a lecture on 30 October. The schedule below has been updated accordingly.

Lecture# Date Content Lecturer Reading
1 27 Sep Administrative Details and Introduction nhn
2 2 Oct Logic rcb
3 4 Oct Logic rcb
4 9 Oct Logic rcb
5 11 Oct Logic rcb
6 16 Oct Logic rcb
7 18 Oct Logic rcb
-- 23 Oct lecture break
8 25 Oct Sets, Permutations, and Combinations nhn
9 30 Oct Inequalities nhn
-- 1 Nov lecture break
10 6 Nov Floor and Ceiling nhn
11 8 Nov Floor and Ceiling nhn
12 13 Nov More on Logic
13 15 Nov More on Logic
14 20 Nov More on Logic
15 22 Nov More on Logic
16 27 Nov Set Comprehensions
17 29 Nov Quantifiers
18 4 Dec Quantifiers
19 6 Dec Quantifiers
20 11 Dec Revision
21 13 Dec Revision

Copies of lecture notes, slides, any major pieces of program code, or other electronic material used during the lectures can be found here.


Tutorials

Each Student is assigned to a tutorial group. This group meets once a week to discuss the coursework, except that there are no tutorials the weeks G51APS coursework is due. You are expected to take part in the tutorials on a regular basis. Tutorials start from week 3 of the semester (Monday 8 October 2007). For further details, including tutorial group assignments, and detailed coursework and tutorial schedules, see the tutorials page.


Coursework

The coursework counts for 25 % of the overall mark for the module. A set of problems is to be solved weekly and handed in before the deadline, Friday 3.30 PM each week, starting from 5 October 2007, except that no coursework is due the two weeks G51APS coursework is due. Solutions will be made available shortly after the deadline. There are going to be 8 or 9 sets of problems: the best 6 counts!. Thus you can miss two (or maybe three) deadlines without any ill effect, and failing to hand in one or two pieces of coursework due to e.g. short periods of illness are to be handled through this mechanism as opposed to the formal Extenuating Circumstances route. However! You should always log Extenuating Circumstances along with supporting evidence if you are ill as the duration and full impact of any illness obviously cannot be known from the outset.

Note!The first set of problems is special, in that its only purpose is to give us an idea about what you know. Thus, everyone who hands in complete (but not necessarily correct) solutions will get full marks for the first problem set.

The problem sets and the solutions will be made available via the tutorials page. Detailed schedules of coursework release and due dates, along with dates of the related tutorials, are also available there.


Examination

Some basic information about the exam:

Past examination papers can be found here. Important! The syllabus for G51MCS changed in 2006-2007. Examination papers prior to this date are no longer relevant.

Corrected (3 Jan 2008) solutions to the 2006/07 G51MCS exam can be found here. The answer to question 1b.v is "false", nothing else.


References


Last updated 3 January 2007.