Course: MCS 421, Combinatorics
CRN: 34232 and 34233
Time: MWF 900-950pm
Place: ONLINE through Zoom

Professor: Dhruv Mubayi
Office: 620 SEO
E-mail: mubayi@uic.edu
Course Web Page: http://www.math.uic.edu/~mubayi/421/Spring21/421Spring21info.html
Office Hours: W 10-12

Grading Policies:
Attendance and class participation: 10%
Homework (due Friday roughly every two weeks): 15%
Two in-class midterms, 25% each: 50%
Final Exam: 25%

HW should be scanned and turned in on Blackboard. No late homework will be accepted.

Disability Policy: Students with disabilities who require accommodations for access and participation in this course must be registered with the Office of Disability Services (ODS). Please contact ODS a 312/413/-2183 (voice) or 312/413-0123 (TTY).

Prerequisite: Prerequisite(s): Grade of C or better in MATH 215; and Grade of C or better in MATH 310 or Grade of C or better in MATH 320; or consent of the instructor.

Description: The pigeonhole principle, permutations and combinations, generating permutations and combinations, binomial coefficients, inclusion-exclusion principle, recurrence relations and generating functions, special counting sequences, Polya theory of counting. We will attempt to cover most of Chapters 1--8, 10, and 14 from the text.

Text: Brualdi, Introductory Combinatorics, Prentice Hall 5th edition. Note that the text is not required for the mathematics (class lectures and notes should suffice for this) but you will need the text to find the homework problems.

Homework 1, Due Wednesday January 27:
Chapter 1: 1, 2, 3, 25, 38, 43
Solutions to HW1

Homework 2, Due Friday February 12 (its somewhat long so start early)
Chapter 2: 1,2,5 a,b, 8,11,16,28 a, 38, 39 a,c, 42, 45 a,b
Chapter 3: 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 22, 27
Solutions to HW2

Homework 3, Due Friday February 26:
Chapter 4: 5, 8a, 20, 35, 37, 47,
Chapter 5: 11, 16, 18, 25, 48, 49
Solutions to HW3

Test 1: Friday February 26

Homework 4, Due Friday March 12:
Chapter 6: 2, 5, 6, 7, 10, 13, 19, 22, 23, 26
Solutions to HW4

Spring Break - March 22-26

Homework 5, Due MONDAY APRIL 5 (note the 3 day postponement):
Chapter 7: 1 (all parts), 5, 8, 9, 16, 17, 21, 26, 33, 34, 42, 47
Solutions to HW5

Test 2, MONDAY APRIL 5 (note the 3 day postponement)

Homework 6, Due MONDAY April 19
Chapter 8: 1, 2, 9, 12, 19, 25, 26d
Chapter 10 NOT required for HW: Chapter 10: 19, 26, 28, 32, 38
Solutions to HW6

Homework 7, Due Friday April 30
Chapter 10: 42
Chapter 14: 7, 8, 12, 13d, 15, 19, 26, 35, 48
Solutions to HW7