Math 3250: Combinatorics
Instructor: Emily Gunawan
Office hours: see instructor’s website,
located at Monteith Bldg, room MONT 402
Instructor’s schedule: See instructor’s regular schedule here
Class location: MONT314,
see Spring 2020 math course schedule
Meeting times: Tu Th 3:30pm - 4:45pm (all group and individual meetings will be conducted virtually after Spring Break — see your email and HuskyCT for details)
Course website: egunawan.github.io/combinatorics
Textbook: Miklos Bona: A Walk through Combinatorics, 4th Ed. (3rd and 2nd editions will also work). Errata for the 4th edition. John Harris, Jeffry Hirst, and Michael Mossinghoff: Combinatorics and Graph Theory, 2nd Ed.
Combinatorics is related to the word “combinations”, and much of the field deals with counting problems (“enumeration”). More broadly, combinatorics considers discrete structures, such as graphs, (as opposed to the continuous structures considered in calculus and analysis) and questions that go beyond simply counting the number of possibilities. With the advent of computers in the second half of the last century, such questions have become increasingly important in applications as well as more managable to solve. Specifically, we plan to go through some of the following topics from the text, depending on student interest:
Presentations and group work of one form or another will take place every day (with lecturing in between).
To get full presentation credit, each student needs to present at least once every 2 weeks. I encourage you to present in a group of two or three. We will be generous and respectful of your work. You will not be penalized for mistakes, but you won’t earn credit if you have not attempted the problems before class. The presentation problems will come from homework problems, which will be announced ahead of time.
To receive full audience participation credit, you need to be physically and mentally present while other students are speaking (at least 75% of all class days). To earn audience participation credit for a particular day, all phones and other technology and distractions should be put away during presentations. The presenters should have your full attention, and you are responsible for asking questions when you don’t understand or disagree with the presenters. Friendly comments and compliments are also encouraged.
I ask that you work on the rough drafts with others on these take-home problem sets, so that you can practice doing math collaboratively. Afterwards, you must do the write up on your own. If you are unsure about your solutions (and even if you are), you are encouraged to meet with me to go over your work before you submit it. All take-home problem sets should be typed in LaTeX and the source code should be stored in your Overleaf project (more details on this later). Please sign up for an Overleaf account on https://www.overleaf.com and let me know the email address you used to sign up.
Grades will be determined as follows:
| quizzes, group work, presentations and audience participation: | 10% | |
| homework: | 30% | |
| exams: | 60% |
Late work will not be accepted, but your lowest homework grade will be dropped.
Please let me know ASAP (but within one week) if I’ve made mistakes in grading your assessments.
All announcements will be made on this course website. However, I will periodically upload your grades on HuskyCT lms.uconn.edu.
Please talk to me if you need access to technology during class. Otherwise, I expect you to turn off your phones, tablets, computers, etc. during class since these can be distracting.
All office hours are now conducted via Webex, by appointments (via email)
Strained relationships, increased anxiety, alcohol or drug problems, feeling down, difficulty concentrating, or lack of motivation may affect a student’s academic performance or reduce a student’s ability to participate in daily activities. If you or someone you know expresses such health concerns or experiences a stressful event that can create barriers to learning, UConn services are available to assist you. Learn about confidential health services available on campus at counseling.uconn.edu Arjona Building, 4th floor, near Mirror Lake phone 860-486-4705. See also dos.uconn.edu/student-resources/.
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The Center for Students with Disabilities (CSD) wants to ensure students with disabilities have the same access to programs, opportunities and activities as all others at UConn. If you think you have short-term or long-term disability, consider going to Accessibility Services for Students accessibility.uconn.edu/students/ or contacting CSD at 860-486-2020 or csd@uconn.edu for general information or to request a (confidential) student accommodation. You can give me a letter from the CSD at any time during the course of the semester in order to receive accommodations.
Also know that psychological problems are a disability in that they create a barrier to completing your work. A lot of people seek out mental health services for the first time in college. Please don’t neglect depression or stress. Get help! If at any point you feel depressed or stressed to the point that your academic work suffers, please take advantage of free counseling on campus through Counseling Services: counseling.uconn.edu Arjona Building, 4th floor, near Mirror Lake phone 860-486-4705.
UConns Student Conduct Code community.uconn.edu/the-student-code includes both academic integrity and compliance with the policy against discrimination, harassment, and interpersonal violence.
It is in everyone’s best interest to maintain their academic integrity. Any form of academic dishonesty undermines the goals of our course and devalues the learning process. Academic dishonesty is a serious offense at UConn and will result in an academic misconduct report and a zero score (for the first incident) and a failure in Math 3250 (for the second incident). For more information, consult UConns guidelines for academic integrity: community.uconn.edu/the-student-code-appendix-a.
Unless stated otherwise, in this particular course (only this class - you should check with your professor for each class), you are free to work with other people and use technology on take-home assignments to aid your learning. Whenever you work with another person or get help from a different book or the internet on a take-home assignment, please credit them - write the person’s name, website address at the top of your submission.
Working with other people on mathematics is highly encouraged and fun. You may work with anyone on your take-home problems, but make sure to write up your final draft by yourself.
Please refer to http://provost.uconn.edu/syllabi-references/ for the common policies we follow at UConn. See the full policy statements.