COMP 1002 -- Introduction to Logic for Computer Scientists, Fall 2020

Announcements | Course information | Labs | Slides
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Announcements

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Course information

Course website: http://www.cs.mun.ca/~kol/courses/1002-f20 . Also see Brightspace (D2L) .

Instructor: Antonina Kolokolova

The course information below is very tentative! The way the lectures/tests/labs are done and the marking scheme, in particular, are likely to change depending on everybody's availability, enrolment, software licenses and other factors.

Syllabus (printable)
Lectures Lectures (except tutorials) will be pre-recorded, and posted throughout the semester on the Brightspace.
Tutorials We will have a special one hour synchronous lecture ("tutorial") every week (with several options for time slots, to be decided by a survey at the start of the semester). It is likely to be offered on Zoom.
Labs: The lab descriptions will be posted weekly, ahead of time, together with practice exercises for the week. The labs themselves will consist of a group activity, done synchronously on Zoom, during lab time slots. The slots will be split into two shifts 1 hour and 15 minutes each; use “groups” tool on Brightspace to select which shift you prefer. The questions based on each lab will appear in a corresponding weekly quiz due Thursday evening, together with questions based on that week’s practice exercises. Note: this is still very tentative!

Instructor office hours: TBD, on Zoom.

Textbook: (not required) Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications: Kenneth H. Rosen.
Reference books:

Equipment: The two tools we are going use are Brightspace (course shell, formerly known as D2L, including Bongo videoconferencing) and Zoom (videoconferencing).

All course materials will be posted on Brightspace . You should be automatically enrolled when you register for the course; click Brightspace link to login (with your MUN id and password) to access the course shell. Quizzes, tests, etc will take place in Brightspace as well, and links for labs and tutorials, as well as lecture recordings and slides will be posted there. I will be using Brightspace for announcements, and Brightspace’s discussion board will be our main place to ask questions and get answers.

To attend tutorials, and office hours, you will need a device which can run Zoom; you do not need a paid account. If connecting from a computer, you will need to install Zoom app (and create a free account) in order to be able to use whiteboard (it does not work from a browser). The labs are in Bongo virtual classroom, accessible through Brightspace . It would be nice, though not required, if you could connect with voice and, possibly, video (especially for the labs, to make it easier to work together); at the very least, you should be able to type in a chat and write or type on the whiteboard.

Please use your real name during labs, tutorials and office hours; however, do not put your student number anywhere on Zoom: your student number should be kept private!

Marking scheme:
Weekly quizzes (9 x 6%, lowest mark dropped unless some lab gets cancelled). Based on labs as well as posted exercises (with examples covered in tutorials).
Drills (repeatable online exercises) 17 x 1%.
Tests: two tests of increasing length and difficulty, 15% and 20%. Dates TBD.
Note that the second test is likely to be scheduled during the last week of classes, or during exams period. The first test is likely to be around Thanksgiving break.

Course description
Logic has been called the "calculus of computer science": just as sciences such as physics that deal with continuous realm rely on calculus techniques, we rely on logic. Indeed, so many areas of our field are based on logic: from designing circuits to determining complexity of problems; from verifying correctness of algorithms and devising database queries to automated reasoning in artificial intelligence.

This course is intended to be an introduction to mathematical logic with emphasis on Computer Science applications and methodologies. We will cover propositional and predicate logic with applications, including the Resolution proof technique, which is the basis of most modern-day automated problem solvers. Then we will discuss basic proof techniques such as mathematical induction, again with computer science applications. We will also touch upon basic combinatorics, counting methods and probability, and theory of computation.

Labs

Labs start on Sep 14 or 17, depending on your section. There will be no lab during Thanksgiving week, and during last week of classes.

Lectures and tutorials

I will be posting slides as we go; you are welcome to check the slides and other materials from the previous semester.

Here is the A study guide for the midterm and for the final exams
Here is a guide from a famous mathematician Polya on how to approach solving problems.

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