CS 270 Mathematical Foundations in CS - Syllabus

Term and Credits

Fall 2023-2024
3 Credits

Room and Time

Section Days Time Room Instructor Course Assistant
001 MW 9:00am - 10:50am 3675 Market Street Room 1104 Jeremy R. Johnson Theo Jerome
002 MW 10:30am - 11:50am 3675 Market Street Room 1104 Jeremy R. Johnson Theo Jerome
003 MW 12:00pm - 1:20pm 3675 Market Street Room 1054-1055 Mark Boady Theo Jerome + Robert Silver
005 TR 10:30am - 11:50am 3675 Market Street Room 1104 Mark Boady Thodoros Tsolakos
006 TR 3:00pm - 4:20pm 3675 Market Street Room 1104 Mark Boady Tuesday: Arnav Sharma
Thursday: Saquib Baig

Instructors

Professor Mark Boady
Electronic Mail Address: mwb33@drexel.edu
Office: 3675 Market Street Room 1063 (near snack machine)
Extention: 215-895-2347
Office Hours: Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday from 2-3PM

Professor Jeremy R Johnson
Electronic Mail Address: johnsojr@drexel.edu
Office: 3675 Market Street Room 1175
Extention: 215-895-2893
Office Hours: Monday and Tuesday 5-6PM

Teaching Assistant(s)

All TA Office Hours are held in the CLC https://www.cs.drexel.edu/clc

Name Email Hours
Robert Silverrls442@drexel.eduM 2:00PM-4:00PM
Safa Obuzseo52@drexel.eduM 6:00PM-8:00PM
Saquib Baigsb4356@drexel.eduT 4:00PM-6:00PM
Arnav Sharmaas5466@drexel.eduT 6:00PM-8:00PM
Thodoros Tsolakostt675@drexel.eduW 4:00PM-6:00PM and R 4:00PM-6:00PM
Kaitlyn Markkm3949@drexel.eduR 6:00PM-8:00PM [Zoom Only]
Theo Jeromelsj38@drexel.eduF 12:00-2:00PM and 2:00-4:00PM
Vanessa Martinezvm557@drexel.eduNo Office Hours/ Grading Only
Hung Dohd386@drexel.eduR 12:00PM-2:00PM

Course Description

Introduces formal logic and its connections to Computer Science. Students learn to translate statements about the behavior of computer programs into logical claims and to prove such assertions using both traditional techniques and automated tools. Considers approaches to proving termination, correctness, and safety for programs. Discusses propositional and predicate logic, logical inference, recursion and recursively defined sets, mathematical induction, and structural induction.

Course Objective and Goals

  1. To use recursion and divide and conquer to solve problems
  2. To provide recursive definitions of patterns and data structures
  3. To formally specify the input/output requirements of programs
  4. To use induction and other proof techniques to prove properties of algorithms, data structures, programs, and computer systems
  5. To use logic to describe the state of systems and to use logical deduction (by hand and using tools) to prove properties of systems
  6. To understand the power and limitations of formal logic.

Topics

  1. Functional Programming
  2. Recursion, Recursive Definitions and Induction
  3. Propositional and Predicate Logic
  4. Formal Proof using Natural Deduction
  5. Applications of Logic to Computer Science
  6. Divide and Conquer Algorithms and Recurrence Relations
  7. Program Specification and Verification
  8. Automated Reasoning
  9. Termination Analysis
  10. Test Case and Counter Example Generation

Audience and Purpose within Plan of Study

This is a required course for all Computer Science and Software Engineering students. It should also be of interest to Computer Engineering, Mathematics students and students with an interest in logic and computation.

Prerequisites

CS 172 Minimum Grade: D or CS 176 Minimum Grade: D or CS 265 Minimum Grade: D or SE 103 Minimum Grade: D or ECEC 301 Minimum Grade: D or ECEC 201 Minimum Grade: D

What Students Should Know Prior to this Course

  1. Ability to read and understand code.
  2. Basic understanding of program execution.
  3. Ability to write simple recursive programs.

What Students will be able to do upon Successfully Completing this Course:

  1. Use Proofs by Deduction to Justify Logical Statements
  2. Be able to write and analyze Recursive Functions
  3. Be able to implement and use a SAT solver.
  4. Use Inductive Proofs to Justify the correctness of programs and statements.
  5. Use logic to describe the state of systems.

Textbook

We will use free resources for this class.

Book of Proof (Second Edition)
Richard Hammack
Paperback: ISBN 978-0-9894721-0-4
Hardcover: ISBN 978-0-9894721-1-1
Available for Free online at: http://www.people.vcu.edu/~rhammack/BookOfProof/

The Racket Guide
Matthew Flatt, Robert Bruce Findler and PLT
https://docs.racket-lang.org/guide/index.html

Forall x: Calgary
P.D. Magnus and Tim Button
http://forallx.openlogicproject.org

Optional:

If you want to learn more about functional programming.
The Little Schemer - 4th Edition
Daniel P. Friedman and Matthias Felleisen
ISBN-13: 978-0262560993
ISBN-10: 0262560992
Available at: Amazon

If you want to learn more about logic and proofs.
Connecting Discrete Mathematics and Computer Science - 2nd Edition
David Liben-Nowell
ISBN-13: 978-1009150491
Available at: Amazon

Grading and Policies

Final grades will be determined by your total points weighted according to this distribution. Grades may be curved but are generally computed via the formula below. It may be modified at the instructor's sole discretion, but letter grades will generally not be lower than those shown here.

Late Policy

Academic Honesty Policy

The CCI Academic Honesty policy is in effect for this course. Please see the policy at http://drexel.edu/cci/resources/current-students/undergraduate/policies/cs-academic-integrity/.

Academic Honesty Violations will be reported to the University. Punishment will be determined by the severity of the incident. Punishments include, but are not limited to,

Course Material

Programming Language

Lectures

Labs

Homeworks

Exams

Extra Credit

General Information

Computer/Software Help
iCommons: http://drexel.edu/cci/about/our-facilities/rush-building/iCommons/

University Policies
In addition to the course policies listed on this syllabus, course assignments or course website, the following University policies are in effect:

Appropriate Use of Course Materials

It is important to recognize that some or all of the course materials provided to you are the intellectual property of Drexel University, the course instructor, or others. Use of this intellectual property is governed by Drexel University policies, including the IT-1 policy found at: https://drexel.edu/it/about/policies/policies/01-Acceptable-Use/
Briefly, this policy states that all course materials including recordings provided by the given prior written approval by the University. Doing so may be considered a breach of this policy and will be investigated and addressed as possible academic dishonesty, among other potential violations. Improper use of such materials may also constitute a violation of the University's Code of Conduct found at: https://drexel.edu/cpo/policies/cpo-1/ and will be investigated as such.

Recording of Class Activities:

In general, students and others should not record course interactions and course activities in lecture, lab, studio or recitation.
Students who have an approved accommodation from the Office of Disability Resources to record online lectures and discussions for note taking purposes should inform their course instructor(s) of their approved accommodation in advance. The recording of lectures and discussions may only be carried out by the students enrolled in the class who have an approved accommodation from Disability Resources with their instructors' prior knowledge and consent. Students with approved accommodations may be asked to turn off their recorder if confidential or personal information is presented.
If a student has any comments, concerns, or questions about provided class materials and/ or recording, talk to your course instructor first. If this does not resolve the issue, you can also reach out to the Department Head, and use the process described for a grade appeal to move your concern forward. The process described for grade appeals can be found at: https://drexel.edu/provost/policies/grade-appeals/

Tentative Course Schedule (Tuesday/Thursday Sections)

Please see the appropriate assignment webpages for a detailed description of course deliverables.

NOTE: Due to University Holidays the TR and MW sections have different due dates.

Week Topic Homework
(1) September 25, 2023
(Monday Holiday: Yom Kippur)
Formal Logic
Natural Deduction Basics (Not including Disjunction Elimination)
Lab 1 - Due Thursday
(2) October 2, 2023 Disjunction Elimination and Some Examples
Proofs by Contradiction and More Examples
Lab 2 - Due Tuesday
Lab 3 - Due Thursday
Homework 1 - Due 11:59PM Friday (10/6/23)
(3) October 9, 2023
(Monday Holiday: Indigenous Peoples' Day)
Predicates and First Order Logic
Deduction with Predicates
Lab 4 - Due Tuesday
Lab 5 - Due Thursday
Homework 2 - Due 11:59PM Friday (10/13/23)
(4) October 16, 2023 Introduction to Racket
Recursion and Lists
Lab 6 - Due Tuesday
Lab 7 - Due Thursday
Homework 3 - Due 11:59PM Friday (10/20/23)
(5) October 23, 2023 Equational Reasoning and Recursive Functions
High Order Functions
Lab 8 - Due Tuesday
Lab 9 - Due Thursday
Homework 4 - Due 11:59PM Friday (10/27/23)
(6) October 30, 2023 Inductive Thinking
Midterm
Midterm - Thursday in class (11/2/23)
(7) November 6, 2023 Mathematical Induction
Peano Arithmetic
Lab 10 - Due Tuesday
Lab 11 - Due Thursday
Homework 5 - Due 11:59PM Friday (11/10/23)
(8) November 13, 2023 Induction on Lists
Boolean Expressions as Lists
Lab 12 - Due Tuesday
Lab 13 - Due Thursday
Homework 6 - Due 11:59PM Friday (11/17/23)
(9) November 20, 2023Happy Thanksgiving: No Classes
(10) November 27, 2023 Boolean Normal Forms
Simplifying Expressions Recursively
Lab 14 - Due Tuesday
Lab 15 - Due Thursday
Homework 7 - Due 11:59PM Friday (12/1/23)
(11) December 4, 2023 SAT Solvers
NP-Complete Problems
Lab 16 - Tuesday
Lab 17 - Thursday
Homework 8 - Due 11:59PM Friday (12/8/23)
(12) December 11, 2022 Final Assessment
Section 01 and 02 Disque 103 Dec 14, 2023 3:30pm-5:30PM
Section 03, 05 and 06 Main Aud Dec 14, 2023 3:30pm-5:30PM
Extra Credit Course Survey - Due 11:59PM Wednesday (12/13/23)

Tentative Course Schedule (Monday/Wednesday Sections)

Please see the appropriate assignment webpages for a detailed description of course deliverables.

NOTE: Due to University Holidays the TR and MW sections have different due dates.

Week Topic Homework
(1) September 25, 2023
(Monday Holiday: Yom Kippur)
Formal Logic Nothing Due
(2) October 2, 2023 Natural Deduction Basics (Not including Disjunction Elimination)
Disjunction Elimination and Some Examples
Lab 1 - Due Monday
Lab 2 - Due Wednesday
Homework 1 - Due Friday 11:59PM (10/6/23)
(3) October 9, 2023
(Monday Holiday: Indigenous Peoples' Day)
Watch Video Lecture:Proofs by Contradiction and More Examples
Wednesday: Predicates and First Order Logic
Lab 3 - Due Tuesday 11:59PM in Gradescope
Lab 4 - In Class Wednesday
Homework 2 - Due Friday 11:59PM (10/13/23)
(4) October 16, 2023 Deduction with Predicates
Introduction to Racket
Lab 5 - Due Monday
Lab 6 - Due Wednesday
Homework 3 - Due Friday 11:59PM (10/20/23)
(5) October 23, 2023 Recursion and Lists
Equational Reasoning and Recursive Functions
Lab 7 - Due Monday
Lab 8 - Due Wednesday
Homework 4 - Due Friday 11:59PM (10/27/23)
(6) October 30, 2023 High Order Functions
Midterm
Lab 9 - Due Monday
Midterm - Wednesday in class (11/1/23)
(7) November 6, 2023 Inductive Thinking
Mathematical Induction
Lab 10 - Due Wednesday
Homework 5 - Due Friday 11:59PM (11/10/23)
(8) November 13, 2023 Peano Arithmetic
Induction on Lists
Lab 11 - Due Monday
Lab 12 - Due Wednesday
Homework 6 - Due Friday 11:59PM (11/17/23)
(9) November 20, 2023 Boolean Expressions as Lists Lab 13 - Due Monday
(10) November 27, 2023 Boolean Normal Forms
Simplifying Expressions Recursively
Lab 14 - Due Monday
Lab 15 - Due Wednesday
Homework 7 - Due Friday 11:59PM (12/1/23)
(11) December 4, 2023 SAT Solvers
NP-Complete Problems
Lab 16 - Due Monday
Lab 17 - Due Wednesday
Homework 8 - Due Friday 11:59PM (12/8/23)
(12) December 11, 2022 Final Assessment
Section 01 and 02 Disque 103 Dec 14, 2023 3:30pm-5:30PM
Section 03, 05 and 06 Main Aud Dec 14, 2023 3:30pm-5:30PM
Extra Credit Course Survey - Due 11:59PM Wednesday (12/13/23)