Math 218A-Discrete Mathematics-Probabilistic Methods (Fall 2023)

Instructor: Terrence George (tegeorge at math dot ucla dot edu). Please put "218A" into the subject line.

Time and location: MWF 2pm-2:50pm, Mathematical Sciences Room 5137

Grading: Based on several homework problem sets.

Course description: This is a graduate level combinatorics class on the probabilistic method and the linear algebra method.

Textbooks:

  • N. Alon and J. Spencer, The Probabilistic Method , Wiley, 2016.
  • S. Jukna, Extremal combinatorics. With Applications in Computer Science (second edition), Springer, 2011.
  • Yufei Zhao's lecture notes.

Prerequisites: The material will be accessible to first year graduate students and advanced undergraduates. I will assume basic knowledge of undergraduate combinatorics (Math 184), graph theory (Math 180), probability, and linear algebra.

Office hours: TBD.