Enumerative Combinatorics (Math 184, Winter 2018)

Instructor: Igor Pak
See email instructions below.

Class schedule: MWF 3:00 - 3:50, MS 5137
Discussion: Tu 3:00 - 3:50, MS 5137

Office Hours: M 4-5 pm, MS 6125 or by appointment.

Teaching Assistant: Bon-Soon Lin (bonsoon AT math.ucla.edu)
TA Office Hours: M 10-11 am, Th 3-4pm in MS 3973, additional OH on Tu 4pm in MS 5137 (right after Discussion)

Textbooks: Miklos Bona, Introduction to Enumerative and Analytic Combinatorics, Second Edition (MB), CRC Press, Second Edition
(see the CRC page)

Additional reading will be posted on this page if necessary.

Grading: Homeworks: 20%, Midterm: 20%, Final: 60%.

Difficulty: This is an advanced undergraduate course in Enumerative Combinatorics and it Application. The students are expected to learn the theory and solve problems on the homeworks. The exams and especially the homeworks will be challenging and require problem solving abilities.

Other expectations: I would guess that the average student should spend about 8-10 hours per week outside of class to get a decent grade. Much of this time should be spent on the homeworks, but some should be spent on reading the book and absorbing the class material.

Content

We will cover selected book sections concentrating on Enumerative Combinatorics portions of the book, but less Analytic Combinatorics. Although much of the material will follow the textbook, I will change the style of presentation, as well as the order of sections. Some additional material will be presented in class, so class participation is very important.

Approximate course content is here (by weeks).

Additional Reading

Home Assignments

The assignments will be posted here (on the course web page) in .pdf format. Unless announced otherwise, you need to return them in writing right before class. No late assignments will be accepted.

Midterm and Final Exams

Midterm: Mon Feb 12, 2018; in class, available here.

Final: Tue March 20, 2018, 8:00 am - 11:00 am.

Collaboration Policy

For the homeworks, you can form discussion groups of up to 3 people each. In fact, I would like to encourage you to do that. You can discuss problems but have to write your own separate solutions. You should write the list of people in you group on top of each HW.


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Last updated 2/17/2018