Course Syllabus

Spring 2025: 18.204 Undergraduate Seminar in Discrete Mathematics (Section 3)

Instructor: Foster Tom

E-mail: ftom@mit.edu

Office: 2-246a

Office hours: By appointment via https://calendly.com/ftom

Communications Specialist: Malcah Effron

E-mail: meffron@mit.edu

Office hours: By appointment via https://calendly.com/meffron

 

Logistics:

Meetings are TuTh 2:30-4pm in 2-147. 

All course announcements will be posted on Canvas. Practice videos and your term papers will be submitted through Canvas.

 

Course description:

The main goal is to improve our skills in written and oral communication by presenting topics in discrete mathematics. You will give four talks, write one term paper, and participate in workshops. Attendance and active participation are required.

 

Assignments:

You will give four talks and write one term paper.

Talk 0: Chalkboard talk (5 min)

You will give a short talk on anything mathematical that you like.

Presentation dates: February 11 and February 13 in class

Talk 1: Chalkboard talk (25-30 min)

You will present some material from a chapter in Proofs from THE BOOK, available here: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-662-57265-8. Please decide your top five choices of which chapter from 28-45 you wish to present.

Topic preference form: Due February 6

Presentation dates: Between February 20-April 1

Practice with Foster and Malcah: Before the day of your talk

Final presentation notes: Due the day before your talk

Talk 2: Slide talk (15-20 min)

You will present some material from a research paper in discrete mathematics.

Presentation dates: Between April 8-April 22

Practice talk with Foster and Malcah: Optional

Practice video: Due the day before your talk

Presentation slides: Due the day of your talk

Talk 3: Chalkboard or slide talk (15-20 min)

You will present some material on the topic of your term paper in discrete mathematics. You may present on the chalkboard or with slides.

Presentation dates: Between April 24-May 13

Practice talk with Foster and Malcah: Optional

Practice video: Due the day before your talk

Presentation slides (if you use them): Due the day of your talk

Term paper

You will select a topic in discrete mathematics to study in depth and write a term paper (10-12 pages) on this topic. It is important that we get started early.

Final submission: Due May 15

Topic preference form: Due Mar 20

Project proposal: Due April 8

Draft of a written proof: Due April 15

Introduction: Due April 24

First draft: Due May 1

 

Participation:

Daily attendance is required. I understand circumstances may arise in which you are unable to attend. These absences may be excused or unexcused. For an absence to be excused, you must have a good reason and you must notify me in advance. If the reason is personal, you do not need to disclose it to me; you can contact S^3 and have them contact me with the relevant information. You are expected to arrive on time. It is disrepectful and disruptive to your classmates to arrive late. Frequent unexcused absences or late attendances will significantly affect your participation grade.

 

Academic integrity:

MIT's academic integrity policy is outlined here: http://integrity.mit.edu/. Because the main goal of this course is to improve written and oral communication, it is especially important that you communicate using your own words. In particular, you are not allowed to use text-generating AI tools in your term paper.

 

Resources:

Student Support Services (S^3) is here to support you through through personal or medical issues. Please visit the S^3 website for more information: https://studentlife.mit.edu/s3.

MIT's Writing and Communication Center (WCC) offers free consultations and coaching, see http://cmsw.mit.edu/writing-and-communication-center for more information and make appointments through https://mit.mywconline.com. 

 

Course grades:

Your grade will be determined based on your presentations (30%), your term paper (30%), and your participation (40%). We will not be grading on a curve, so your peers' performance will not negatively affect your grade.

 

Detailed schedule
The schedule may change a little so check the Canvas page regularly.

Date	Class Activity	Assignments
Tu Feb 4	Introductions
Th Feb 6	Chalk talk workshop	Submit preference form for Talk 1
Tu Feb 11	Talk 0 (1/2)
Th Feb 13	Talk 0 (2/2)
Tu Feb 18	Monday schedule: no class
Th Feb 20	Albert Wang: Chapter 29: Tiling rectangles
Tu Feb 25	Grace Li: Chapter 30: Three famous theorems on finite sets Jason Chen: Chapter 31: Shuffling cards
Th Feb 27	Orion Foo: Chapter 28: Pigeon-hole and double counting Nathan Xiong: Chapter 33: Cayley's formula for the number of trees
Tu Mar 4	Slide talk workshop
Th Mar 6	Tino Munochiveyi: Chapter 34: Identities versus bijections Ashley Wang: Chapter 35: The finite Kakeya problem
Tu Mar 11	Lucia Wang: Chapter 36: Completing Latin squares Davian Rodriguez: Chapter 38: The Dinitz problem
Th Mar 13	Alicia Zhang: Chapter 39: Five-coloring plane graphs Asmi Kumar: Chapter 40: How to guard a museum
Tu Mar 18	Jade Buckwalter: Chapter 41: Turan's graph theorem Grace Tian: Chapter 42: Communicating without errors
Th Mar 20	Maggie Lin: Chapter 44: Of friends and politicians Alek Westover: Chapter 45: Probability makes counting (sometimes) easy	Topic preference form for term paper
Tu Mar 25	Spring break - no class
Th Mar 27	Spring break - no class
Tu Apr 1	Term paper writing workshop
Th Apr 3	Talk 2: Albert Wang Slides Nathan Xiong Slides Alek Westover Slides
Tu Apr 8	Talk 2: Jason Chen Slides Davian Rodriguez Slides Orion Foo Slides	Term paper project proposal
Th Apr 10	Talk 2: Grace Li Lucia Wang Slides
Tu Apr 15	No class	Draft of written proof for term paper
Th Apr 17	Talk 2: Alicia Zhang Slides Jade Buckwalter Slides Asmi Kumar Slides
Tu Apr 22	Talk 2: Grace Tian Slides Ashley Wang Slides Tino Munochiveyi
Th Apr 24	Talk 3: Albert Wang Slides Nathan Xiong Alek Westover Slides	Introduction for term paper
Tu Apr 29	Talk 3: Davian Rodriguez Jason Chen Orion Foo Slides
Th May 1	Peer review session	First draft of term paper
Tu May 6	Talk 3: Grace Li Ashley Wang Slides Lucia Wang Slides
Th May 8	Talk 3: Jade Buckwalter Slides Alicia Zhang Slides Asmi Kumar
Tu May 13	Talk 3: Grace Tian Maggie Lin Tino Munochiveyi
Th May 15	No class	Term paper final submission through Canvas