Syllabus

Course Description

This course is an introduction to discrete mathematics. The course materials are divided into five individual blocks:

Algorithms and Number Systems
Logic
Proof Strategies
Sets, Functions, and Cardinalities
Binary Relations and Modular Arithmetic

Students who have completed Math 109 may not receive credit for CSE 20. Credit not offered for both Math 15A and CSE 20.

Prerequisites: COGS7 or CSE8B or CSE11 with a grade of C- or better.

Textbook: Discrete Mathematics and its Applications, 7th edition by Kenneth Rosen.

The textbook's companion website has extra practice problems and resources. In particular, the Self Assessments and the Extra Examples for each chapter are great practice materials. Access the companion website HERE
You may also wish to look at the following textbook as a supplementary resource.
- - Fundamentals of Discrete Math for Computer Science: A Problem-Solving Primer by Stephenson Jenkyns.
  - The full pdf of this book is available for free download from a UCSD internet connection at: this LINK

Homework (10% of your course grade)

Homework assignments will be graded for completeness only. You will earn full credits for a homework assignment if you submit your paper before the deadline and show a reasonable amount of work on each and every individual exercises. Regardless, Homework is a very important part of the course and in order to fully master the topics it is essential that you work carefully on every assignment and try your best to complete every problem.

IMPORTANT: late homework will not be accepted and there will be no exception to this rule. If you fail to submit your paper before the deadline, then you will automatically receive a zero for that assignment. Please do not contact the instruction staff to ask for leniency!

There will be five (5) assignments in total, corresponding to the five topic blocks. Homework assignments are posted on the class website under the “Files” tab on Canvas, and due at 11:59pm on the indicated date through Gradescope. Before the deadline, you may submit as many copies of your homework paper as you would like; however, only the most recent submission will be considered. We strongly encourage that you type your solution. Handwritten papers should be legible or your homework may not be considered. In addition, you need to tag your problems correctly on Gradescope. Failure to do so may result in a zero for on the assignment. The scores and solutions to these problems will be available on Gradescope and Canvas.

Homework may be done in groups of one to three students. You are free to change group members at any time throughout the quarter. Problems should be solved together, not divided up between partners. Each group only need to submit one copy of their homework. Please remember to indicate the names of all group members in your submission.

For homework help, consult your textbook, class notes + recordings, lecture slides, instructors, TAs, and tutors. It is considered a violation of the policy on academic integrity to:

look or ask for answers to any assigned problems in other texts or sources, including the internet or other versions of this class, or to
discuss the followup homework problems with anyone.

Homework solutions will be available online after the submission deadline

Participation Worksheets (10% of your course grade)

All lectures are pre-recorded and posted on Canvas. Students are advised to consult the course schedule and watch the recordings before the corresponding scheduled class meetings. In class, the instructor will address any concern/question that students may have on the recording for the topic of that day. The instructor will also discuss several other examples that are related to the lecture recordings. The podcasts for these in-class discussions will be available shortly after the meetings.

Since these lecture recordings are a fundamental component of the course, it is very important that students are able to keep up with the course progression. As a result, there are worksheets (available on Canvas) which student can use to take notes as they go over the lecture recordings.

For each scheduled lecture day, students are expected to submit a short write-up of the materials learned through the video recording. You will earn 1 participation point per lecture by following through with the video recording and submitting the completed worksheet to Gradescope by 2:00pm of the day after the scheduled lecture. There will be opportunities to earn about 26 points, but you only need 20 of them for full 10% participation. If you earn fewer than 20 points then your participation score will be scaled proportionally.

Exams (80% of your course grade)

There will be four midterms and one final exam in total. The midterms will be take-home and timed, while the final exam will be in-person. The exam topics can be found under the schedule.
If you have a conflict with the scheduled final exam time, then you should not enroll in CSE20 this quarter. If an unexpected emergency or crisis prevents you from attending the final exam at the end of the quarter, and if you are in passing standing in the class at that time, you may be eligible for an Incomplete grade that will allow you to take the final exam at a later date. The circumstances under which Incomplete grades can be granted are tightly controlled by the university.
The midterms are open resources but you are limited to only the course materials discussed in lectures and discussions. You have to complete the exam on your own. You must not have your exam questions answered by a third party. Any reference outside the course materials must be cited appropriately within your paper.
For the in-class final exam, you are allowed to bring one page of handwritten notes (regular 8.5 x 11 inches in size, both sides ok). No textbook, notes, calculator, or any other electronic devices will be allowed during the final exam.

There will be no make up exam! It is your responsibility to ensure that you do not have a schedule conflict involving the exams. If you cannot complete/attend an exam during the following scheduled time, then you will be assigned a grade of zero (0) for that exam.

The first midterm will be available from Saturday, October 08 at 10:00am to Sunday, October 09 at 10:00am (Week 2)
The second midterm will be available from Saturday, October 22 at 10:00am to Sunday, October 23 at 10:00am (Week 4)
The third midterm will be available from Saturday, November 05 at 10:00am to Sunday, November 06 at 10:00am (Week 6)
The fourth midterm will be available from Saturday, November 19 at 10:00am to Sunday, November 20 at 10:00am (Week 8)
The final exam will take place in-person on campus (in WLH 2001) on December 05 11:30am - 2:29pm (Week 11).

For the midterms, here is what we shall be doing:

At 10:00am (Pacific Time) Saturday of the exam weekend, the exam will be released on Gradescope for everyone and it will stay available there for 24 hours.
You can start the assignment at any time within this 24-hour window. However, once you open the assignment on Gradescope, then you will have about 1.5 to 2 hours to complete the exam and upload your work to Gradescope. Ideally, you should start your exam at least two hours before the deadline to have the entire time period available to you.
The exams should be done within roughly 1 to 1.5 hours (include checking your work). This means you will have about half an hour to work on the submission process. Please make sure you have a stable Internet connection while doing the exams.
Important: submission will not be accepted after the time expires or after the due date. Failure to submit the exam on Gradescope by the due date means you will be assigned a score of zero (0) for that exam.
Please tag the answer on Gradescope appropriately or your paper may not be graded. For exam submission, you may do any of the following methods:
- Download the exam template from Gradescope to a tablet, write your answer electronically, save and upload as a pdf file
- Print the template from Gradescope, write your answer directly on the hard-copy pages, scan and upload.
- Write your answer on separate blank papers, then scan and upload. However, if you are using this method, then please make sure to have different problems on different pages and clearly label the question number.

Here are two links regarding UC San Diego policies on exams:

Exam Responsibilities An outline of the responsibilities of faculty and students with regard to final exams
Policies on Examinations The Academic Senate policy regarding final examinations (These are the rules!)

Grade Policy

Your grade will be based on the scores of the homework assignments, participation worksheets, and exams. It will be the maximum of the following two scores (namely, you may replace the lowest midterm score with that of the final)

Score 1 = 10% Participation + 10% Homework + 15% Midterm 1 + 15% Midterm 2 + 15% Midterm 3 + 15% Midterm 4 + 20% Final
Score 2 = 10% Participation + 10% Homework + 15% Best Midterm + 15% Second Best Midterm + 15% Third Best Midterm + 35% Final

You must pass the final examination (scoring at least 50%) in order to pass the course. Since there is no makeup exam, if you miss a midterm exam for any reason then your course grade will automatically be computed using the second method. The letter grade you receive at the end of the course will be based on the following scale, which is the standard rubric at UC San Diego:

Regrade Policy

We shall grade your exams using Gradescope. All graded materials will be posted on Gradescope. If you find an error/inconsistency on any graded material, you have to request a regrade through Gradescope immediately. All regrade issues must be resolved within TWO DAYS after the score is published. Once the 2-day period is over, the score will become final and any late requests will not be considered.

At the end of Week 11 (i.e. Final Exam week), all grades will be imported over to Canvas, and only the scores posted on Canvas will be computed toward your final score percentage. It is your responsibility to keep track all of your graded materials and to check that the scores are consistent between Gradescope and Canvas. If there is any inconsistency in the recording of your scores, you must inform the instructor or TA before the end of the Final Exam week of the quarter to resolve recording errors. Questions regarding missing or incorrectly recorded scores posted after Friday, December 9 will have to wait until the Spring quarter (January of next year).

Academic Honesty and Attendance Policy

As a student of UC San Diego, you have agreed to abide by the university’s academic honesty policy. Academic integrity violations will be taken seriously and reported immediately. Violation of such policy may result in failing the class, suspension, and even expulsion from the university. Further information regarding Academic Integrity policy are available under the "Links" button above. You should make yourself aware of what is and is not acceptable by reading this document. Ignorance of the rules will not excuse you from any violations.

Key facts about academic integrity related to our course:

You must work alone on the exams. You may not post the exam questions online where they can be answered by someone other than the instructor or TA. Similarly, you are not allowed to have any third-party answer any part of your exam for you.
You may consult other students, the instructor, or TAs while formulating your ideas on homework problems. However, you must write your final homework solutions by yourself, based on your own understanding.
You may not copy or paraphrase solutions from another student or from any other source. If you consult any sources other than your textbook or discuss the problems with anyone other than the instructor or TA, you must acknowledge this on your homework. For the exam, you can only use the contents discussed in the lectures.
You may not post your homework or exam solutions online where they could be found by your classmates or future CSE 20 students. If your instructor posts any homework/exam solution, you may not show those solutions to future CSE 20 students, or post them online.

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