Computer Science 280: Discrete Structures
Spring, 2000

Spring 2000 -- Prof. Joe Halpern

• course policies and general information
• staff (including office hours)
• Lecture notes
• Homework assignments (along with solutions, prelim solutiosn, and review problems)

Late breaking news

• 5/11: HW11 is now graded. You can pick up HW11 (as well as all older homeworks) from Cindy, my admin, in Upson 4146. I've also posted solutions to HW11.
• 5/3: Lots of final notes:
  • The exams are graded. You can pick them up from Cindy in Upson 4146 any day before 1 PM. Please don't come after 1 PM. Cindy has a lot to do and it's not fair to constantly interrupt her. The solutions for the final are posted. If you have questions about the final, leave your final with Cindy and write a note explaining why you think you deserve more credit. The mean on the final was lower than I had expected: 40/60. The mean for the course was 75%. As announced, I set the mean to a B, close to a B+. Roughly 1/3 of the class got A- or better; roughly 70% got B- or better. Have a good summer!
  • The final is on May 17 at 9-11:30 AM, in Olin 155. If you're at all interested in a makeup, let me know this week.
  • Previous CS280 finals and solutions are available here. Note that you're not responsible for the material in question 12 of the 1997 prelim. The versions on the web are missing figures. You'll need to come to class on Friday if you want hardcopy and haven't gotten it yet.
  • I will try to hand out this week's homework on Friday; no promises though ... it depends on the graders.
  • There will be two review sessions, on Sunday, May 14, and Monday, May 15, from 7-9 or 9:30 PM, in Philips 219.
  • Office hours will continue during the next two weeks, up until the final, as usual. There may be some minor changes due to exams. Check the web page for current details. One exception: my office hours on Monday are cancelled: I'll be out of town.
  • On Friday, besides getting back homework and getting a copy of the finals from previous years (if you haven't picked them up yet), there will be a review session. No new material will be covered.
  • Good luck on the final!
• 4/24: I've posted a corrected version of the solutions to HW6 (the solution to extra problem 2 for BFS was wrong; in addition, two diagrams were added).
• 4/24: Joe Polastre and Rui Wang are switching office hours this week. Joe's office hours will be 5-6:30 in Upson 334; Rui's will be 4-5 in Rhodes 472.
• 4/16: Dave Feldman's office hours tomorrow (4/18) are changed to 6-7, rather than 6:30-7:30. That's for tomorrow only. Sorry for the late notice.
• 4/13: The prelims are graded; I'll try to hand them out in class tomorrow. The mean was 21/30. Solutions are available here.
• 4/4: The review for the second prelim will be on Sunday, April 9, 7-9 PM in Upson 205; Ozan will be running it.
• 4/2: The second prelim will be on Wedenesday, April 12, in class.
• 3/14: Note that you do have to do 3.8, #14 (despite the fact that on top of HW6 it says you don't).
• 3/10: the midterms are graded. The mean was fairly high (24/30). Solutions will be posted on the web shortly. You can pick up your midterm from Cindy Robinson every day but Tuesday between 2:20 and 4, or by appointment with her (cindy@cs.cornell.edu). Don't come at other times; Cindy does have lots of other things to do. Once you take the out of Cindy's office, you're waiving your right to a regrade. If you do want a regrade, please read the solutions first to try to understand what we wanted, and then make an appointment with me. Warning: a regrade means that, in principle, I can regrade your whole prelim, and grades may go up or down. I will be particularly picky with those who don't seem to have read the solutions before they ask for a regrade.
• 3/8: Dave Feldman will be taking Christine Chung's office hours 1:00-2:30 tomorrow; Christine will be taking Dave's office hours on Tuesday (6:30-7:30). That's for this week only.
• 3/8: For the many of you who asked, AE stands for Sasha Evfimievski (Sasha is short for Alexandre). Good luck on the prelim!
• 3/2: There will be review sessions on Sunday night (with Ozan) and on Monday night (with Sasha). Both sessions will start at 7 PM in Upson 111/111A.in
• 3/2: Previous CS280 prelims and solutions are available here.
• 2/28: The extra problem in HW5 has been corrected again. O(n+1) should go back to being defined as O(n) U {2n+1}. However, you should still show that O(n) = {1, ..., 2n-1}. Thanks to Tim Troup and Andrew Marcus for pointing this out.
• 2/27: it's definite; the prelim will be in class on Wednesday, March 8. No makeup will be offered.
• 2/27: for the coming week only, Joe Polastre and Rui Wang will be switching office hours. Joe's office hours will be Friday, 5-6:30, in Upson 334, and Rui's office hours will be Tuesday 4-5 in Rhodes 476.
• 2/27: the extra problem in HW5 is slightly buggy (thanks to Alexander Mochtchouk and Shaun Conlon for pointing this out). O(n+1) should be defined as On U {2n-1} (not 2n+1) and you should prove by induction that O(n) = {1, 3, ..., 2n-1}. The web version of the problem has been corrected.
• 2/2: Problems 0.7 4(b),(d) and 0.7 5(b),(c),(e) were inadvertantly assigned on HW3. They were already on HW2. I meant to assign 0.7 11(b),(c),(e) instead. The corrected assignment is available here.
• 2/2: Solutions to HW1 are posted, along with the mean, here. You should also check out the policy for complaining about homework grades.
• 2/2: Sasha Evfimievski's office hours are back in Upson 334 again.