MAT344

Course information Instructors Lecture times Teaching assistants Tutorials Textbook Course content Tentative schedule Marking scheme Problem sets Midterm exam Final exam Discussion forum

MAT344
Introduction to Combinatorics
Fall 2020

Course information

syllabus

pdf

course code

MAT344H1-F

delivery method

Online synchronous on Zoom

prerequisite

MAT223 (Linear Algebra) or MAT240 (Algebra I)

description

Basic counting principles, generating functions, permutations with restrictions. Fundamentals of graph theory with algorithms; applications (including network flows). Combinatorial structures including block designs and finite geometries.

Instructors

name email sections office hours
Stanislav Balchev stanislav.balchev@mail.utoronto.ca LEC0101 LEC9101 Monday 12:00—14:00
Maxence Mayrand mayrand@math.toronto.edu LEC0201 LEC9201 Tuesday 17:00—18:00 and Thursday 13:00—14:00

Email is the preferred method of communication.

Lecture times

Lectures will be online on Zoom. Before each lecture, you will receive a link to the Zoom session from your official UofT email address. They will be recorded and available on Quercus.

sections

LEC0101 LEC9101 — Stanislav Balchev

times

Monday10:00—12:00
Wednesday10:00—11:00

first lecture

Monday, September 14, 2020

last lecture

Thursday, December 10, 2020 (make-up day)


sections

LEC0201 LEC9201 — Maxence Mayrand

times

Monday16:00—18:00
Tuesday16:00—17:00

first lecture

Monday, September 14, 2020

last lecture

Thursday, December 10, 2020 (make-up day)

Teaching assistants

name email tutorials
Sina Abbasi sina.abbasi@mail.utoronto.ca TUT0201 TUT9201
Tomas Dominguez Chiozza tomas.dominguezchiozza@mail.utoronto.ca TUT0301 TUT9301
Mehmet Durlanik durlanik@math.toronto.edu TUT0401 TUT9401
Xiao Jie xiao.jie@mail.utoronto.ca TUT5201 TUT6201
Yuxuan Lin lyx.lin@mail.utoronto.ca TUT0101 TUT9101
Reila Zheng reila@math.utoronto.ca TUT0501 TUT5101 TUT5102 TUT6101

Tutorials

Tutorials will be online on Zoom. You will receive a link from your official UofT email address before each tutorial. You must register to the tutorial to get the link and be able to join.

The TAs will explain solutions to some exercises, answer your questions, and review the relevant course material.

Tutorials start in the week Sep 21—Sep 25 and continue every week until the week Nov 30—Dec 4, except for the reading week.

sections time TA
TUT0101 TUT9101 Monday 13:00-14:00 Yuxuan Lin
TUT0201 TUT9201 Tuesday 13:00-14:00 Sina Abbasi
TUT0301 TUT9301 Wednesday 11:00-12:00 Tomas Dominguez Chiozza
TUT0401 TUT9401 Thursday 16:00-17:00 Mehmet Durlanik
TUT0501 Monday 09:00-10:00 Reila Zheng
TUT5101 TUT5102 TUT6101 Tuesday 17:00-18:00 Reila Zheng
TUT5201 TUT6201 Thursday 17:00-18:00 Xiao Jie

Textbook

Applied Combinatorics, by Keller and Trotter

It is freely available in html at the link above.

It is the most important resource for the course. We will follow it very closely.

Course content

The plan is to cover the following sections of the textbook:

1, 2, 3, 4.1, 5.1-5.6, 7, 8, 9, 13

Tentative schedule

week sections problem sets note
Sep 14—Sep 18 2
Sep 21—Sep 25 2 PS1 first tutorial
Sep 28—Oct 02 3 PS2
Oct 05—Oct 09 4, 5 PS3
Oct 12—Oct 16 5 no class on Monday (Thanksgiving)
Oct 19—Oct 23 5 PS4 midterm on Monday
Oct 26—Oct 30 7 PS5
Nov 02—Nov 06 8
Nov 09—Nov 13 PS6 reading week; no lecture and no tutorial
Nov 16—Nov 20 9 PS7
Nov 23—Nov 27 9 PS8
Nov 30—Dec 04 13 PS9 last tutorial
Dec 07—Dec 11 13 make-up class on Dec 10

Marking scheme

problem sets

72%

midterm exam

12%

final exam

16%

Problem sets

quantity

9

weight

72%
Only your best 8 will count, and each will weight 9%.

marking

There will only be a random subset of the questions that is marked. The number of questions will be announced in advance.

due dates

Problem sets are due on Sundays at 11:59PM (one minute before midnight) and are released one week before. The due dates are:
PS1due September 27 at 11:59PM
PS2due October 4 at 11:59PM
PS3due October 11 at 11:59PM
PS4due October 25 at 11:59PM
PS5due November 1 at 11:59PM
PS6due November 15 at 11:59PM
PS7due November 22 at 11:59PM
PS8due November 29 at 11:59PM
PS9due December 6 at 11:59PM

submission

The problem sets will be sent to you via Crowdmark.
You will be asked to submit your solutions electronically on Crowdmark. No paper copy will be accepted.
The easiest way to upload your problem set is to use a scanner, but if you don't have access to one, you can also use a scanner app on your phone. Make sure that your work is legible before submitting it; otherwise, it will not be accepted.

late problem sets

will be marked 0%

solutions

Solutions are not provided. This is to encourage you to consult with TAs, your fellow students, and the instructors to identify shortcomings in your grasp of the material.

plagiarism

Your submissions must be your own work, written independently, in your own words. Otherwise, it will be considered an offence under the University of Toronto's Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters (see section B.I.) and serious sanctions will be applied.

Midterm exam

weight

12%

format

24-hour take home exam (open book) on Crowdmark

start date

Monday, October 19, 11:59AM

due date

Tuesday, October 20, 11:59AM

Final exam

weight

16%

format

24-hour take home exam (open book) on Crowdmark

start date

Friday, December 18, 14:00

due date

Saturday, December 19, 14:00

Discussion forum

We will use Piazza, which is a discussion forum where you can ask as many questions as you like, and will receive answers from other students, the TAs, or the instructor.

To join the forum, go to piazza.com and search for MAT344. You will also get an email invitation at the beginning of the course. Alternatively, you can sign up using by cliking here.