Math 503-101 Page, Fall 2010

This page concerns Math 503, Section 101, Winter 2010-11, term I (i.e., Fall 2010).

This page has the most up-to-date information on the course and supersedes any other document.

This course will give an introduction to discrete mathematics. We will mostly follow the book by Laszlo Lovasz entitled Combinatorial Problems and Exercises. We are aiming to give a broad, general introduction to discrete mathematics (e.g., generating functions, inclusion-exclusion and related sieves, graphs and connectivity, spectral graph theory); time permitting we shall cover a topic or two in more detail than covered in Lovasz. More details can be found in the following course outline.

The course should be suitable to students in math and a number of mathematical disciplines (e.g., computer science, electrical engineering, physics, statistics). The grade will be based on homework and/or a project/essay and/or presentation, with the following rough meaning.

The class will meet MW, 9:30-10:50 in Auditorium Annex room 157. If you are interested in the course but cannot attend, please e-mail me (jf at math dot ...).

Homework	Homework problems will be assigned during class and collected periodically. These problems are open ended; some of these questions have generalizations that would take much work to complete. Here is a draft of the first few problems.
Office Hours	I (Joel Friedman) will hold office hours by appointment (for as long as this is feasible). During hectic times I may revert to limited office hours at fixed times.
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