Math 4408, Fall 2007
Applied Graph Theory

Professor:
Rich Lundgren
Office:
CU Building Room 624
Telephone:
303-556-8482
e-mail:
Richard.Lundgren@cudenver.edu
web address:
http://www-math.cudenver.edu/$\sim$rlundgre
Office Hours:
Monday 12:30-2:15, 5:30-6:00, Wed 12:30-2:15, 5:30-6:00 and by appointment
Text:
Introduction to Graph Theory by Chartrand and Zhang

We will cover the following sections of the book: 1.1-1.4, 2.1-2.4, 3.1-3.2, 4.1-4.3, 5.1-5.2, 6.1-6.2, 7.1-7.2, 8.1-8.2, 9.1, 10.1-10.2. Also, I will add some additional material on tournaments and some interesting applications, including: 1. Are medical students getting their best possible match? 2. Can digraphs save lives? 3. How does MapQuest work?.

The goal of the course is to study those topics in graph theory that are important in applications. The lectures, material in the book, and exams and quizzes will contain a mixture of theory, computational problems, and applications. Most of the new theoretical ideas are motivated by applications. This is an excellent course to practice proof techniques in a concrete setting.

There will be a project due after the Thanksgiving break on Nov 28. It should be on some application of graph theory, some interesting theoretical topic, or a computer project. The paper on the project should be about 7-10 pages.

Students are encouraged to work together in cooperative groups on the take-home quizzes and the project and paper. Groups may consist of 2 or 3 students. Everyone in the group must contribute to the solution of each problem, but only one written solution per group is required. Also, only one paper per group project is required. If you work in a group on your project, than the paper should be more substantial than if you work alone.

The quiz and exam due dates are as follows. Quizzes due on Monday can always be turned in on Wednesday without contacting me. However, if you can't get the quiz in by Wednesday, please contact me beforehand via any means with an appropriate excuse. Exam dates are firm, and if you have a problem, please contact me beforehand.

Quiz due dates
8/27,9/5,9/10,9/17,9/24,10/15,10/22,10/29,11/5,11/12,12/3
 
Exam dates
10/3,12/10
 
Project due date
11/28

The grading scheme for the course is outlined below. For each exam, the grading scale for the exam will be given after the exam, but will never be harder than the standard ten point scale. The quiz grades and the paper are based on the standard 10 point scale.

     
  Grading  
Paper $1\times 50$ pts 50
Quizzes 10 x 20 pts each 200
Exams 2 x 100 pts each 200
Total 450
     


Last Upated: 8/1/07 by Rich Lundgren