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:
- Linear codes, generator matrix, parity check matrix.
- Cosets, syndromes, syndrome decoding.
- Minimal weight and error correction, sphere-packing bound, Varshamov-Gilbert bound
- Reed-Muller codes, Hamming codes
- Finite fields, polynomials.
- Cyclic codes
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% |
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.