Carnegie Mellon University
Computational Discrete Mathematics
NOTE: This content is a prototype development effort. In this form, it does not reflect best OLI practices. As part of our commitment to open educational resources, we continue to provide access to this content.

OLI Computational Discrete Mathematics courseThis course presents material in discrete mathematics and computation theory with a strong emphasis on practical algorithms and experiential learning.

The CDM course is currently under development and we are making the course available while it is under development. Only one of the planned fifteen modules is currently available. The module on Groups that is currently available would appear mid-way through the complete course.

Discrete mathematics, also called finite mathematics or decision mathematics, is the study of mathematical structures that are fundamentally discrete in the sense of not supporting or requiring the notion of continuity. Objects studied in finite mathematics are largely countable sets such as integers, finite graphs, and formal languages. Concepts and notations from discrete mathematics are useful to study or describe objects or problems in computer algorithms and programming languages.

Course Description

The OLI course on Computational Discrete Mathematics presents material in discrete mathematics and computation theory with a strong emphasis on practical algorithms and experiential learning. This approach makes it possible to cover material that would ordinarily be out of bounds for an undergraduate course. For example, the course covers finite state machines on infinite words and their applications to model checking.