CS 172-01, Discrete Structures for Computer Science, Spring 2012

Abstract

 This course provides a tour into the mathematical underpinning of computer science. To understand what this course is about, we must first understand what the term “discrete structures” means. Discrete mathematical structures refer to structures or objects that are fundamentally discrete rather than continuous. Examples of discrete objects are integers (whole numbers), binary numbers (or logical values), graphs, information on a digital computer, etc. In contrast, the real number set is not discrete. For example, there are infinitely many real numbers (even rational numbers) between 7 and 8 while there is no integer “between” 7 and 8.  In computer science, the topics that are normally covered in a discrete mathematics course are counting (permutations and combinations), discrete functions, basic number theory, relations and order relations, number systems, logic, sets, graph theory (especially trees), proof techniques, and finite state machines and languages. We’ll introduce all of these ideas in this course!  This course is important to your studies in computer science because it lays the mathematical reasoning and problem solving background necessary for approaching more advanced computing problems. It provides you with a language that you need to discuss computer systems and it provides you with a toolbox full of problem solving techniques.