This course has 50-minute lectures thrice a week and a 50-minute discussion section once a week. See the official registration system for the times and locations of lectures and discussions. Lectures and discussions are recommended but not required. Discussion will present examples to help you understand the more difficult concepts, as well as present example solutions to problems that appear in the written examlets. Weeks in which there is an evening written exam, there will be no Monday lecture.
Announcements are made in lecture and/or on our Piazza forum. If you miss lecture, you can find a video recording of the lecture on the lectures page. Information about exams can be found on the exams page. You are encouraged to use Piazza to discuss concepts, homework problems, and the like. However, you may not post solutions to graded problems (e.g. exams, homeworks) that folks may still be working on. Even after the standard deadline, some of your classmates may still be working due to extensions. If you aren't sure whether it's appropriate to post something, consult the course staff.
We will be using Piazza for on-line discussions and moodle for online assignments and posting grades. Please consult them regularly as the term progresses.
To sign up for CS 173 on piazza, got to the CS 173 signup page on piazza and use the access code given out in the first lecture (or ask a member of the course staff). Since Piazza is not part of the university, we can't directly control what they may do with your email address. So, if you don't want to give them your U. Illinois email, you can use any email address you want, even an anonymous one.
Most of you should already be registered for CS 173 on moodle. If not, or if you are auditing the course, you can use the same access code from lecture to enroll yourself. If you have to locate CS 173 in the main tree of courses, be aware that all engineering courses are listed under the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. (Don't ask.)
The official course text is Mathematics for Computer Science by Lehman, Leighton, and Meyers. Discussion section problems and lecture worksheets will be posted on the lectures page.
You may also consult Building Blocks for Theoretical Computer Science by Fleck. in addition, we have three books on reserve at Grainger Library:
These alternate sources can be useful to see ideas presented by a different writer (often helpful for understanding them) or investigate concepts in more detail.