Math 370 – Introduction to Combinatorics – Spring 2019

Agreement

A goal of this course is to offer a rigorous, welcoming, and rewarding experience to every student; you will build that experience by devoting your strongest available effort to the class. You will be challenged and supported. Please be prepared to take an active, critical, patient, and generous role in your own learning and that of your classmates.

General Information

Lecture: MWF 3-4pm in Cupples I 218

Professor: Laura Escobar

Office hours: Tuesdays 2:30-4:30pm, or by appointment, in Cupples I 211A

Email: laurae (at) wustl (dot) edu

Website: Canvas, www.math.wustl.edu/~escobar/teaching/math370spring19.html

Prerequisites

Math 132, Math 309, and Math 310

Textbook and Topics

Introductory Combinatorics (fifth edition) by Richard A. Brualdi.

You are encouraged to supplement lectures by reading of the corresponding topics in the book. A detailed schedule will be kept in Canvas and updated as the course progresses.

Grading Information

Homework	10%	Due weekly on Thursdays
Midterm	25%	February 13
Quiz	10%	March 8	25 minute long
Presentation	10%	March 25-29	~10 minute long
Project	10%	Due April 26
Final	35%	May 2, 6-8pm	Cumulative

If you miss the midterm for some reason, the missed exam grade will be replaced with your final exam grade. Absences on the final exam require a documentable excuse and meeting with the professor.

Letter grades will be given based on your overall score. The cutoffs will be no higher than the following: A-: 85%, B-: 70%, C-: 60%, D: 50%

Homework

There will be weekly homework. The problems will be posted in Canvas and you will submit your solutions through Crowdmark.

Your lowest homework assignment score will be dropped. For this reason, there will be no late homework allowed. If, for whatever reason, you cannot or forget to turn in a homework, it will count as your dropped homework score.

Collaboration and Citations: Group work on assignments is encouraged. You must acknowledge any collaborations, with a statement such as “I worked on problem 1 with XYZ and received help on problem 2 with ABC”. You are also allowed to use any resources to solve the homework provided you cite them properly. However, homework should be written up independently and using your own words.

Citations and acknowledgments are worth one point for each HW problem. Being honest about how you came up with the solutions will in no way affect your grade, but it is merely a matter of academic honesty. Failure to do so may lead to an academic integrity charge.

Academic Integrity

All students are expected to adhere to the University's academic integrity policy.

Plagiarism is a form of cheating or fraud; it occurs when a student misrepresents the work of another as their own. See above for details on what is allowed.

Do not post any course materials online without my permission.

Presentation

During the week of March 25-29 there will be ~10-minute in class student presentations on a topic of each of the students’ choice. It could be about a topic from the book, a solution to an exercise, a paper in combinatorics, or an application of combinatorics to industry.

Project

The project will ask you to come up with a game based on the topics we learned in the course. On April 12 you will submit a summary of the game. On April 26 the final report of your project is due.

Disability Resources (DR)

Special accommodations for exams are offered to students who have registered in a timely manner at Disability Resources (DR). Information about DR may be found at http://disability.wustl.edu. Students who desire to use this service should go to the DR early in the semester, well before the first exam. Once approved for accommodations, students should work with DR for these exams.

Acknowledgements

This syllabus is based on syllabi from previous semesters which were prepared by various Professors. Parts of this syllabus are based on Professor Federico Ardila’s syllabi for his courses at SFSU and Professor Alexander Yong’s courses at UIUC.