Handbook

Discrete Mathematics is an area of mathematics directly applicable to both practical and theoretical aspects of computer science. It is the study of mathematical structures that are inherently discrete, as opposed to continuous structures that are dealt with using differential  calculus.

The importance of Discrete Mathematics today lies in its numerous practical and relevant applications. It plays an essential role in modelling the natural world (e.g., the genome) and the technological world (e.g., the Internet), and in designing efficient solutions such as Internet routing protocols. It is commonly used in cryptography, computer security, electronic banking, algorithms, theory of computing, telecommunications, web search engines, to mention a few.

Emphasis will be placed on developing knowledge of the elements of discrete mathematics of fundamental importance in the context of computing. Topics to be covered include:  foundations of logic, propositions and predicates; the concept of mathematical proof, with a focus on proof by induction, recurrence relations and algorithm correctness; set theory and basic theory of graphs and networks, including optimisation algorithms.