APPLIED LOGIC FOR COMPUTER SCIENCE
CS 2209A: Fall 2011
Course Outline

Course Description

This course presents an introduction to mathematical logic with an emphasis on topics that arise from current research and practice in Computer Science.

Prerequisites

Computer Science 1027A/B or 1037A/B, in each case with at least 65%, and one full course or equivalent chosen from the following, with at least 60% in each: Applied Mathematics 1201A/B or the former Calculus 1201A/B, Applied Mathematics 1413, Calculus 1000A/B, 1100A/B, 1301A/B, 1501A/B, Mathematics 1600A/B or the former Linear Algebra 1600A/B, or permission of the Department.

Unless you have either the requisites for this course or written special permission from your Dean to enroll in it, you will be removed from this course and it will be deleted from your record. This decision may not be appealed. You will receive no adjustment to your fees in the event that you are dropped from a course for failing to have the necessary prerequisites.

Instructor

Dr. Charles Ling, Professor
Office: Middlesex College 28C
Office hours: Wed, 11:30 am to 1:30 pm
Email: cling@csd.uwo.ca (best way to contact him)

Course Website

Please check the Course Website regularly (http://cling.csd.uwo.ca/cs2209/index.html).

Topics

Topics will be chosen from

Translations from English into the language of propositional logic and first-order logic
Valid and invalid arguments
Formal deduction and its role in proving validity of arguments
Logic and Computer Science: how to build circuits from logic gates; how to minimize circuits using propositional calculus
Introduction to Prolog, a programming language based on logic
Applications of logic to Computer Science: artificial intelligence, automated theorem-provers, expert systems, and so on.

Textbook and Materials

Textbook: Introduction to Logic, By Prof. Harry Gensler. It is available online (free) for UWO students.

Read the textbook online here

A great advantage of using this book is that there is an excellent free software LogiCola that we will use in this course.

Additional materials related to computer science will be added and used later in the semester.

TA and Office Hours

TBD

Student Evaluation

Five in-class quizzes, each worth 5%, 5%, 5%, 12%, 13% in this order. The first three quizzes test materials before the midterm, and the last two after the midterm. The sum of all quizzes will constitute 40% of the final grade. The tentative dates of the quizzes are 9/30, 10/14, 10/28, 11/25, 12/7.
Five assignments, each worth 5%. The sum of which will constitute 25% of the final grade. The tentative due dates of the assignments are 9/23, 10/7, 10/21, 11/18, 12/2
One in-class midterm exam, worth 35%. The tentative schedule of the midterm is on 11/11 (Nov 11). It is a 1 hour 45 min written exam.
There is no final exam.

All exams and quizzes are close-book. A letter-size hand-written reference sheet (no flaps) is allowed, but no other electronic device is allowed.

The detailed schedule will be posted on the Course website. Please check regularly.

Late assignments cost 10% of the assignment per day late unless an extension has been granted. After a week has passed from the due-date no assignments will be accepted for marking. Extensions may be granted by the course instructor.

If for any reason the assignment and quiz schedules cannot be adhered to, the marks will be pro-rated.

Every effort will be made to have assignments marked and handed back within 2 weeks of the hand-in date, preferably sooner. Midterm exam marks will be available within 3 weeks of the exam at the latest.

Academic Accommodation for Medical Illness

If you are unable to meet a course requirement due to illness or other serious circumstances, you must provide valid medical or other supporting documentation to your Dean's office as soon as possible and contact your instructor immediately. It is the student's responsibility to make alternative arrangements with their instructor once the accommodation has been approved and the instructor has been informed.

A student requiring academic accommodation due to illness should use the Student Medical Certificate when visiting an off-campus medical facility or request a Record's Release Form (located in the Dean's Office) for visits to Student Health Services.

If the accommodation is approved by your Dean's office and/or by the instructor, your final mark will be re-weighted accordingly.

Accessibility Statement

Please contact the course instructor if you require material in an alternate format or if you require any other arrangements to make this course more accessible to you. You may also wish to contact Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) at 661-2111 x 82147 for any specific question regarding an accommodation.

Email Contact

We will occasionally need to send email messages to the whole class, or to students individually. Email will be sent to the UWO email address assigned to students by Information Technology Services (ITS), i.e. your email address @uwo.ca. It is each student's responsibility to read this email on a frequent and regular basis, or to have it forwarded to an alternative email address if preferred. See the ITS website for directions on forwarding email. However, note that email at ITS (your UWO account) and other email providers such as hotmail.com or yahoo.com establish quotas or limits on the amount of space available to you. If you let your email accumulate there, your mailbox may fill up and you may lose important email from your instructors. Losing email is not an acceptable excuse for not knowing about the information that was sent.

Ethical Conduct

Scholastic offences are taken seriously and students are directed to read the appropriate policy, specifically, the definition of what constitutes a Scholastic Offence, at the following Web site: http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/handbook/appeals/scholoff.pdf Plagiarism: Students must write their essays and assignments in their own words. Whenever students take an idea, or a passage from another author, they must acknowledge their debt both by using quotation marks where appropriate and by proper referencing such as footnotes or citations. Plagiarism is a major academic offence. All assignments are individual assignments. You may discuss approaches to problems among yourselves; however, the actual details of the work (assignment writing, answers to concept questions, etc.) must be an individual effort. The standard departmental penalty for assignments that are judged to be the result of academic dishonesty is, for the student's first offence, a mark of zero for the assignment, with an additional penalty equal to the weight of the assignment also being applied. You are responsible for reading and respecting the Computer Science Department's policy on Scholastic Offences and Rules of Ethical Conduct. The University of Western Ontario uses software for plagiarism checking. Students may be required to submit their written work and programs in electronic form for plagiarism checking.

APPLIED LOGIC FOR COMPUTER SCIENCE CS 2209A: Fall 2011 Course Outline