CS 5002: Discrete and Data Structures Fall 2019

Northeastern University — Silicon Valley

General Information
This course introduces the mathematical structures and methods that form the foundation of
computer science. We will study basic logic, proof techniques, functions, number theory,
algorithms, graphs and trees. We will discuss counting techniques and apply the techniques to
estimate the size of sets, the growth of functions, and the time complexity of algorithms. We will
examine inductive and recursive definitions of structures and functions, as well as data structures
such as arrays, lists, maps, stacks, and queues.

Learning Objectives
At the end of CS 5002, a student should be able to do the following:
1. Convert between decimal, binary, and hex.
2. Understand two’s complement representations of negative numbers.
3. Read and write mathematical logical formulas.
4. Use logical operators effectively.
5. Understand the set operators of union, intersection, and complement.
6. Understand relations and functions.
7. Perform basic counting tasks - e.g. counting possible passwords - using permutations and
combinations as appropriate.
8. Calculate basic probabilities by counting success outcomes and total outcomes.
9. Apply proof techniques, particularly mathematical induction.
10. Model problems using trees and graphs.
11. Describe the number of operations in an algorithm as a function of the input size, and
identify superpolynomial running times as intractable.
12. Understand the meaning of big-O notation.

Required Textbook:
Discrete Math and Its Applications by Kenneth Rosen (8th ed)
You have the following two choices for the format of the textbook:
1. Textbook only
2. Online Learning System “Connect”: (10-day free trial / $106)

Course Websites: ​We will use three websites for this course:
1. ​NEU Blackboard ​for communicating grades. It contains links to the other two websites.
2. ​Piazza​ for discussions, communicating with the instructor and teaching assistants. Class
slides, homework solutions, quiz solutions, exam reviews, etc. will be posted here.
3. (Optional) ​Connect ​for electronic textbook, homework assignments, learning activities
Meeting Time: Friday 6:00 PM - 9:15 PM (Local Time — Pacific Time)

Professor: Dr. Sarah H Sellke

Teaching Assistants:
● Rajesh Sakhamuru
● Suyue Jiang
● Tuan Nguyen
● Yibao Hu
● Yuting Chen
● Zach Roney

Office Hours:
Monday 10 AM - 1 PM Raj

1 PM - 4 PM Tuan

4:15 PM - 6 PM Zach

Tuesday 9 AM -- Noon Yuting

10 AM - 1 PM Suyue

Wednesday 11:30 AM - 1 PM Zach

2 PM - 5 PM Yibao

4:15 PM - 6PM Zach

Friday 2 PM - 5 PM Sarah

Saturday 10 AM - 1 PM Suyue / Yibao

Grading and Exams:
Category Date Weight

Weekly Assignments Due Wednesdays 55%

Quizzes Most Fridays 15%

Midterm Exam 10/18/2019 (6 PM - 9 PM) 15%

Final Exam 12/10/2019 (6 PM - 9 PM) 15%

1. Homework Assignments: ​will be released no later than Wednesday by 11:59 PM. It is due
the following Wednesday by 11:59 PM. Everyone will get one token for late homework. If you
use a late homework token, your due date will be extended for a week. If you need a homework
extension, please notify me and teaching assistants by a private message on piazza. Additionally,
the lowest homework score will be dropped.

Under no circumstances may you share written answers or code (including electronically)
or dictate answers verbatim to another student. ​This will be considered plagiarism, see
section ​"Academic Integrity"​ below.

2. Quizzes on Fridays:​ Research shows that frequent quizzes is one of the most effective ways
of learning. Therefore, we will have a quiz every Friday except on 10/18/2019 and 12/06/2019.
Quizzes are closed book quizzes. The lowest quiz score will be dropped. There are no make-up
quizzes for any reason.

3. Exams are closed book exams. ​The midterm exam is scheduled on Friday October 18th, and
the final exam is scheduled on Tuesday December 10th, 2019.

Important:​ You are required to take the final exam during the scheduled time. Please do not
make travel plans during the final exam week

Letter grades will only be determined by the following criteria: “A”s going to outstanding work,
“B”s going to good but flawed work, “C”s going to problematic work that nevertheless gets the
key concepts, “D”s going to work where you’ve learned at least some things, and “F”s going to
work that doesn’t show the concepts were learned.

A 94% or above is a guaranteed A, 84% or above is a guaranteed B, 72% or above is a

guaranteed C, and 60% or above is a guaranteed D.
Professionalism and Respect:

You are expected to treat your instructor and all other participants in the course with courtesy
and respect. Your comments to others should be factual, constructive, and free from harassing
statements. You are encouraged to disagree with other students and the instructor, but such
disagreements need to be respectful and be based on facts and documentation (rather than
prejudices and personalities). Part of the learning process in this course is respectful engagement
of ideas with others.

Academic Integrity:

You should be familiar with Northeastern’s Academic Integrity policy. I will highlight two ways
in which it applies here:
(1) ​You may not search the web for homework solutions;
(2) You may not ​copy ​solutions to homework problems in any case.

You will generally know a homework solution, as opposed to general web research, when you
see it. This includes homework solutions posted for other discrete mathematics classes, students
at other universities posting their work, or using any kind of web tool that automatically solves a
problem you were meant to do by hand.

Copied solutions, from the web or other students, may result in a zero on the corresponding
assignment, or harsher penalties if the problem is more widespread in your work. Students who
share their solutions will face similar penalties.

Attempts to violate the spirit of the rules listed here with loopholes will generally be received
unkindly and treated as integrity violations anyway.

.
Course Schedule:
Date Topics

09/06 Overview and Logic

09/13 Number Theory

09/20 Application of Number Theory

09/27 Sets and Functions

10/04 Sequences and Summations

10/11 Review for Midterm Exam

10/18 Midterm Exam

10/25 Counting (Chapter

11/01 Induction and Advanced Counting

11/08 Recursion

11/15 Discrete Probability

11/22 Graphs and Trees

12/06 Review for Final Exam

12/10 Final Exam

Course Topics and Learning Outcomes:

Course Topics Learning Outcomes

Binary/Hexadecimal representation of 1. Explain the reasons for using alternative formats to

numbers represent numerical data. [Familiarity]
2. Explain how fixed-length number representations affect
1. Numeric data representation and accuracy and precision. [Familiarity]
number bases 3. Describe how negative integers are stored in
sign-magnitude and two’s-complement representations.
2. Fixed- and floating-point systems [Familiarity]
4. Convert numerical data from one format to another.
3. Signed and two’s-complement [Usage]
representations 5. Representation of non-numeric data (character codes,
graphical data)
6. Describe the internal representation of non-numeric data,
such as characters and strings. [Familiarity]

Basic Logic 1. Convert logical statements from informal language to

propositional expressions. [Usage]
1. Propositional logic 2. Describe how symbolic logic can be used to model
2. Logical connectives real-life situations or applications, including those arising
3. Truth tables in computing contexts such as circuit design.
4. Predicate logic (primarily so [Familiarity]
students are familiar with concepts 3. Apply formal logic proofs and/or informal, but rigorous,
and notation of “for all” and “there logical reasoning to real problems, such as predicting the
exists”) behavior of software or solving problems such as puzzles.
[Usage]

Sets 1. Explain with examples the basic terminology of functions,

relations, and sets. [Familiarity]
1. Venn diagrams 2. Perform the operations associated with sets, functions,
2. Union, intersection, complement and relations. [Usage]
Cartesian product 3. Relate practical examples to the appropriate set, function,
3. Power sets or relation model, and interpret the associated operations
4. Cardinality of finite sets and terminology in context. [Assessment]

Relations
1. Reflexivity, symmetry, transitivity
2. Equivalence relations, partial
orders

Functions
1. Surjections, injections, bijections
Inverses
2. Composition
Course Topics Learning Outcomes

Counting Arguments 1. Apply counting arguments, including sum and product

1. Set cardinality and counting rules, inclusion-exclusion principle and
2. Sum and product rule arithmetic/geometric progressions. [Usage]
3. Arithmetic and geometric 2. Solve a variety of basic recurrence relations. [Usage]
progressions 3. Analyze a problem to determine underlying recurrence
relations. [Usage]
Solving Recurrence Relations

Permutations and Combinations 1. Compute permutations and combinations of a set, and

interpret the meaning in the context of the particular
application. [Usage]
2. Map real-world applications to appropriate counting
formalisms, such as determining the number of ways to
arrange people around a table, subject to constraints on
the seating arrangement, or the number of ways to
determine certain hands in cards (e.g., a full house).
[Usage]

The Pigeonhole Principle Apply the pigeonhole principle in the context of a formal proof.
[Usage]

Discrete Probability 1. Calculate probabilities of events and expectations of

random variables for elementary problems such as games
1. Finite probability space, events of chance. [Usage]
2. Axioms of probability and 2. Differentiate between dependent and independent events.
probability measures Conditional [Usage]
probability, Bayes’ theorem 3. Compute a probability using that distribution. [Usage]
Independence 4. Apply Bayes theorem to determine conditional
3. Integer random variables probabilities in a problem. [Usage]
(Bernoulli, binomial) expectation,
including linearity of expectation

Basic modular arithmetic Perform computations involving modular arithmetic. [Usage]

Notion of contrapositive 1. Identify the proof technique used in a given proof.

[Familiarity]
1. Proof by contradiction 2. Outline the basic structure of each proof technique.
2. Disproving by counterexample [Usage]
3. Induction over natural numbers 3. Apply each of the proof techniques correctly in the
construction of a sound argument. [Usage]

Structural induction State the relationship between ideas of mathematical and/or

structural induction to recursion and recursively defined
structures. [Familiarity]
Course Topics Learning Outcomes

Trees and Graphs (tie with Structural 1. Illustrate by example the basic terminology of graph
Induction) theory, as well as some of the properties and special cases
of each type of graph/tree (unrooted, rooted, binary, not
binary). [Familiarity]
2. Demonstrate different traversal methods for trees and
graphs, including pre-, post-, and in-order traversal of
trees. [Usage]
3. Model a variety of real-world problems in computer
science using appropriate forms of graphs and trees, such
as representing a network topology or the organization of
a hierarchical file system. [Usage]

Basic Analysis 1. Explain what is meant by “best” and “worst” case

behavior of an algorithm. [Familiarity]
Differences among best and worst-case 2. Determine informally the time and space complexity of
behaviors of an algorithm Asymptotic simple algorithms. Good examples for this are searching
analysis of upper complexity bounds and sorting algorithms. Note that these are also covered
in 5001. Faculty may wish to coordinate. Some
Big O notation repetition/reinforcement can work very well,if planned.
[Usage]
Complexity classes, such as constant, 3. State the formal definition of big O. [Familiarity]
logarithmic, linear, quadratic, and 4. List and contrast standard complexity classes.
exponential Time and space trade-offs in [Familiarity]
algorithms 5. Give examples that illustrate time-space trade-offs of
algorithms. [Familiarity]