Welcome

Welcome to the Fall 2023 iteration of CIS 1600!

If you're new here, welcome!

We have a course Piazza page. It will be used for course announcements and Q&A.

We have a course Gradescope. It will be used for homeworks. The Gradescope course code will be posted on Piazza.

Most questions should be directed to Piazza. However, if you need to get in contact with the course staff for an urgent matter, please email the head TAs at cis1600@seas.upenn.edu (do not contact this email address with waitlist related queries).

Course Description

This course introduces you to math concepts that form the backbone of the majority of computer science. Topics covered include sets, functions, permutations and combinations, discrete probability, expectation, mathematical Induction and graph theory. The goal of the course is to ensure that students are comfortable enough with the math required for the rest of the undergraduate program. CIS 1210 and CIS 3200 and many others heavily rely on concepts taught in this course.

Grading

Your final grade will consist of:

  • 20% - Midterm 1
  • 20% - Midterm 2
  • 30% - Final Exam
  • 25% - Homework
  • 5% - Recitation Attendance/Participation

The professor reserves the right to adjust grading policies. Note that students who score below 1.5 standard deviations of the final weighted exam average (calculated using the percentages above) will automatically fail the class.

Course Policies

Collaboration Policy

Note that collaboration is not allowed on the homeworks. This includes:

  • Working on the homework with other people
  • Asking another student for hints on the homework
  • Searching up questions on the internet or ChatGPT for answers
  • Looking at someone's final solutions (or LaTeX file)

However, searching for LaTeX styling tips or studying with a group of students is allowed, as long as you aren't working on current homework problems together.

Note additionally that it is your responsibility to keep your answers to yourself-- if we find that a student copied your answers, even if you didn't directly give those answers to them, you will be penalized as if you directly gave your answers to that student. So, make sure you don't leave Overleaf open on your laptop if you aren't working on it directly.

Students caught violating the collaboration policy will be harshly penalized and may fail the course.

Regrade Request Policy

Every time we release grades for homeworks, we'll make a Piazza post announcing all of the homework grade statistics. This post will also contain a regrade request deadline. All regrade requests must be submitted before this deadline without exception.

In order to submit a regrade request, you will need to get your regrade request approved by a TA during either office hours or at the end of your recitation. Regrade requests that have not been approved by a TA will be automatically rejected. Once a TA has looked at your regrade request and acknowledges that the question should be regraded, please submit a regrade request on Gradescope that includes the TA who endorsed your request and an explanation for why you submitted the regrade request.

Note: We will always release a rubric for each homework question highlighting what specific things we were looking for in a proof, as well as what specific rubric items you lost points on. While not absolutely necessary, it would help make the regrade request approval process easier if you came with a specific rubric item in mind that you feel your solution adequately addressed.

Recitation Attendance Policy

Every student will have one recitation absence excused for the semester. Additionally, in cases of emergency or conflict, you are allowed to attend a different recitation section for the week. This recitation swap can only be used twice a semester, so make sure that you are saving them for actual emergencies or conflicts.

If you'll be attending a different recitation for the week, you must email both your official recitation TA and the TA of the recitation you want to attend at least 24 hours before the recitation begins. Any requests made last-minute will automatically be rejected, and any student who attends a recitation without letting their TA know will not get attendance credit for that week.

Any subsequent absences beyond the one free drop and the two recitation swaps will count as absences and be reflected in your recitation attendance grade.