MAT 148, Winter 2016

Instructors

Instructor: Eugene Gorsky, egorskiy AT math.ucdavis.edu.
Office hours: MWF 10-11am at Math 2113
If you have a question and cannot come at office hours, write me an email to schedule an appointment.

Teaching Assistant: Federico Castillo, fcastillo AT math.ucdavis.edu.
Office hours: F 10am-12pm at Math 2137.

General course information

Textbook

The textbook for the course is "Introduction to the Theory of Error-Correcting Codes" by Vera Pless (3rd edition).

Final exam

The final exam will be on Thursday, March 17, 6:00-8:00pm. It will cover all the material studied in the course: Practice problems: problems
Letter grade F C C+ B- B B+ A- A A+
Weighted average 0-50 50-60 60-65 65-70 70-80 80-85 85-90 90-100 100-110

Midterm 2

The second midterm will be on Monday, February 29. It will cover the following topics: Varshamov-Gilbert bound, Reed-Muller codes, Hamming codes, finite fields, polynomials. The BCH code will not be covered in this exam (but may appear on the final).

Practice problems: problems .
Midterm 2 problems: problems .

Midterm 1

The first midterm will be on Friday, January 29. It will cover sections 1-2.2 of the textbook, and the following topics: linear codes, generator matrix, parity check matrix, cosets, syndromes, weight, distance, sphere-packing bound, Hamming codes.

Practice problems: problems .
Midterm 1 problems: problems .

Final grade and exams

There will be two midterms on Friday, January 29 and Monday, February 29.
The Final will be on Thursday, March 17, 6:00-8:00 pm.
The final grade is based on your grades for the homework, midterms and the final:

Homework Midterm I Midterm II Final Exam
20% 20% 20% 40%

Homework

The homework should be handed in before the start of Monday lecture. It must be legible, and written in connected sentences that explains what you are doing. Just the answer (whether correct or not) is not enough. ease put your name on every page and staple the pages together. Homework should be handed in on time, late homework will not be graded.

Though it is fine to discuss the HW problems with others, you must always write up the solutions in your own words. Copying will be penalized. Of course, in the exams you must work on your own: no calculators, textbooks etc will be allowed.

Week Sections Written
Homework
Jan 4, 6, 8 Appendix, 1.1, 1.2 HW1 , Solutions
Jan 11, 13, 15 1.3, 2.1 HW2 , Solutions
Jan 20, 22 2.2, 2.3 No class on Jan 18
(Martin Luther King, Jr. Day), HW3 , Solutions
Jan 25, 27, 29 Review, Midterm on Jan 29
Feb 1, 3, 5 2.4, 3.1, 3.2 Drop deadline on Feb 1
HW4 , Solutions
Feb 8, 10, 12 3.3, 3.4 HW5 , Solutions
Feb 17, 19 4.1-4.3 No class on Feb 15 (Presidents` Day)
HW6 , Solutions
Feb 22, 24, 26 Review
Feb 29, Mar 2, 4 5.1, 5.2, 4.4 Midterm on Feb 29
HW7 , Solutions
Mar 7, 9, 11 5.3, 5.4, review
Mar 14 Review

Disability Services

Any student with a documented disability who needs to arrange reasonable accommodations must contact the Student Disability Center (SDC). Faculty are authorized to provide only the accommodations requested by the SDC. If you have any questions, please contact the SDC at (530)752-3184 or sdc@ucdavis.edu.