COEN-231: Introduction to Discrete Mathematics

Fall 2021

Instructor: Arash Mohammadi Time: T-Th 8:45am-10:00am

1. General Information

Course Instructor:

• Arash Mohammadi, Ph.D., Concordia Institute for Information System Engineering.

• Office: S-EV 9187

• Phone: (514) 848-2424 ext. 2712

• Email: arashmoh@encs.concordia.ca

• Homepage: http://users.encs.concordia.ca/∼arashmoh/

• Lab: http://i-sip.encs.concordia.ca/

Office Hours:
The instructor adopts an “Open Virtual-Door Policy,” please feel free to visit Course Director’s

Zoom Office Link: https://concordia-ca.zoom.us/j/4855533448

at any time of your preference should you have any course-related questions. You may also virtually visit
the Course Director during the following official office hours:

• Tuesday, 11:30pm - 12:30pm (Zoom Office)

• Thursday, 11:30pm - 12:30pm (Zoom Office)

Course Website: Moodle website. On the course website, you can find lecture slides, handouts, and other
resources. Students are suggested to visit the course website regularly.

2. Description

This course contains some mathematical background required in many other engineering advanced courses
and many real world engineering applications. By the end of this course, students should learn a particular
set of mathematical facts and how to apply them and more importantly should be able to think logically
and mathematically. Five important themes are interwoven in the textbook and lectures: mathematical
reasoning, combinatorial analysis, discrete structures, algorithmic thinking, and application and modeling.
This course covers the following concepts:

• Fundamentals of Logic: Basic connectives and truth tables; logical equivalence; the laws of logic; logical
implication; rules of inference; the use of quantifiers; proofs of theorems.

• Sets: The laws of set theory.

• Boolean Algebra: Relation of Boolean algebra to logical and set theoretic operations.

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• Modulo Arithmetic: representations of numbers in binary, octal and hexadecimal formats; binary
arithmetic.

• Induction and Recursion: Induction on natural numbers; recursive definitions.

• Fundamental Principles of Counting: rules of sum and product; permutations, arrangements and
combinations, the binomial theorem; combinations with repetition; distributions.

• Functions and Relations: Cartesian products and relations; functions; function composition and inverse
functions; computational complexity.

• Elements of Graph Theory: Basic definitions of graph theory; paths, reachability and connectedness;
computing paths from their matrix representation; traversing graphs represented as adjacency lists;
trees and spanning trees.

3. Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs)

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to

1. Use logical notation to define and reason about fundamental mathematical concepts such as sets,
relations, functions, and integers.

2. Evaluate elementary mathematical arguments and identify fallacious reasoning.

3. Understand the notion of mathematical thinking, and mathematical proofs, and be able to apply them
in problem solving.

4. Synthesize induction hypotheses and simple induction proofs.

5. Apply graph theory models to solve practical problems of engineering importance.

6. Calculate numbers of possible outcomes of elementary combinatorial processes.

7. Calculate probabilities and discrete distributions and calculate expectations.

4. Graduate Attributes

This course emphasizes and develops the following CEAB (Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board)
graduate attributes and indicators:

Graduate Attribute Indicator Level of knowledge CLO

ECE-KB-1. Knowledge base of mathematics Intermediate 1,2,3,4

ECE-KB-3. Knowledge base in a specific Intermediate 5,6,7

5. Prerequisites

• MATH 204 (Cegep Mathematics 105)

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6. Textbook

Required Textbook:
Kenneth H. Rosen, “Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications,” McGraw Hill, seventh edition, 2012.
• Available at the Concordia University Bookstore.
• Put on reserve at the library, and can be borrowed and kept for up to 24 hours.
Optional: Discrete Math zyBook, available at: https://zybooks.zyante.com

7. Grading Policy and Assignments

The weight distribution of the course components is as follows:

Assignments, Quizzes, and Exams

• Assignments 20% Total of 4 Assignments

• Midterm # 1 15% In class Midterm

• Midterm # 2 15% In class Midterm

• Final Exam 50%

Assignments:
• Assignment 1 out: 15 September, due 28 September, Assignment 2 out: 29 September,
due 12 October, Assignment 3 out: 25 October, due 2 November, Assignment 4 out: 10
November, due 25 November.
• The assignments are due at the beginning of the classes on the due dates.
• Assignment Submission is Electronic via Moodle.
• Late assignments suffer a penalty rate of 20% per day, up to 5 days (weekends count towards the 5
days). Assignments that are more than 5 days late are penalized by 100%.
• The solutions will be posted on the course website 6 days after the due date. No submissions will be
allowed after the solutions are published.
Midterms:
• Midterm #1 will focus on the first 5 Lectures.
• Midterm #2 will focus on lectures 6, 8, 9, and 10.
• Midterm #1 will be taken on Oct. 5 and Midterm #2 will be taken on Nov. 9.
Final Exam:
• Final Exam will cover material from the entire course and will take place during the examination
period at the end of the semester.
• Final Exam will take place during the examination period. Students should not make any specific
arrangements to leave the city until the final exam date is posted. posted.

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8. Tentative Course Outline

The course outline is a guideline to topics that will be discussed in the course, and when they will be
discussed. The sequence in which topics will be taught are subject to change. Instructors transparencies, if
applicable, will also be made available here.

Lec. # Week Topics Readings Notes

1 Sep. 5 Logic: Propositional Logic, Propositional Equivalence. 1.1, 1.3-1.8

2 Sep. 12 Logic: Predicates & Quantifiers, Rules of inference,

3 Sep. 19 Set theory: Sets, Set operations. 2.1-2.5

4 Sep. 26 Set theory: Functions, Sequences and summations. A. #1 Due (Sep. 28)

5 Oct. 3 Algorithms and Matrices 2.6, 3.1 MT. #1 (Oct. 5)

4.1, 4.2
7 Oct. 10 Number Theory & Boolean Algebra
12.1, 12.2

5.1
6 Oct. 17 Induction and recursion: Mathematical induction, A. #2 Due (Oct. 12)
Recursive definitions & Structural induction. HO-6

8 Oct. 24 Counting: Basics of counting, Pigeonhole principle. 6.1-6.3

Counting: Permutations and Combinations

10 Nov. 7 Relations Theory: Relations & their properties 9.1 MT. #2 (Nov. 9)

11 Nov. 14 Relations: Representing relations, Equivalence Relations. 9.3, 9.5

12 Nov 21 Graph Theory 10.1-10.4 A. #4 Due (Nov. 25)

11.1, 11.4
13 Nov 28 Trees
11.5

- Dec. Final Exam (TBD)

9. Academic Code of Conduct

Academic Integrity
Any form of cheating, plagiarism, personation, falsification of a document as well as any other form of
dishonest behaviour related to the obtention of academic gain or the avoidance of evaluative exercises com-
mitted by a student is an academic offence under the Academic Code of Conduct and may lead to severe

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penalties up to and including suspension and expulsion.

As examples only, you are not permitted to:

• Copy from anywhere without indicating where it came from

• Let another student copy your work and then submit it as his/her own

• Hand in the same assignment in more than one class

• Have unauthorized material or devices in an exam. Note that you do not have to be caught using
them – just having them is an offence

• Copy from someone’s else exam

• Communicate with another student during an exam

• Add or remove pages from an examination booklet or take the booklet out of an exam room

• Acquire exam or assignment answers or questions

• Write an exam for someone else or have someone write an exam for you

• Submit false documents such as medical notes or student records

• Falsify data or research results

You are subject to the Academic Code of Conduct. Take the time to learn more at
http://provost.concordia.ca/academicintegrity/

10. Student’s Responsibilities:

• Students are expected to attend every class. Some material may only be covered in class and not made
available on the course website. Students are expected to read the assigned material and to actively
participate in class discussions.

• Students are expected to be respectful of other people’s opinions and to express their own views in a
calm and reasonable way. Disruptive behaviour will not be tolerated.

• Students are expected to be familiar with the Code of Rights and Responsibilities:
http://rights.concordia.ca

• If you cannot attend class for any reason, unforeseen or not, you are to come and talk or write to me
as soon as possible.

11. Student Services:

• Concordia Counselling and Development offers career services, psychological services, student learning
services, etc. http://cdev.concordia.ca

• The Concordia Library Citation and Cycle Guides: http://library.concordia.ca/help/howto/citations.html

• Advocacy and Support Services: http://supportservices.concordia.ca

• Student Transition Centre: http://stc.concordia.ca

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• New Student Program: http://newstudent.concordia.ca

• Office for Students with Disabilities: http://supportservices.concordia.ca/disabilities/

• The Academic Integrity Website: http://provost.concordia.ca/academicintegrity/

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