Course Syllabus - Spring 2006

Prerequisites: Math 3140 (Intro. to Abstract Algebra), Math 4409(Applied Combinatorics).

A comment on prerequisites: The prerequisites for this course should be taken as a guide to the course content, but should not prevent anyone from taking the course. The Abstract Algebra prerequisite is there because many of the constructions we look at in this course start with finite fields. The Applied Combinatorics prerequisite is present because many of the topics in this course are introduced in that course. However, this course is totally self-contained and any tools we would need from other courses will be introduced anew.

Exams: There will be three oral exams. They will cover specific chapters of the book (see below). An oral exam is graded as a high pass, pass, or fail. Failure of an oral exam will result in a written exam on the same material within a week of the oral exam. You are to tell me when you are ready to take an exam, however the first one must be taken by the 6th week of class and the second by the 11th week.

Homework: All the problems in the assigned chapters of the text are considered homework problems, plus any additional ones I assign in class. From time to time I will ask you to write up and hand in some problems. These will be graded.

Project: There will be a written project and oral presentation of same. Each student will be assigned a different topic and will be required to do a literary search on that topic and write up their findings.

Grades: Grades will be determined as follows:

Pluses and minuses may be used in final grades at my discretion.

Syllabus: I plan on covering the entire text at a pace of about one chapter every two weeks.

Dates: