XX10190: Programming and discrete mathematics

This is a 12-credit (20% of the entire first-year) course, with this formal description. It has recently been the subject of a Higher Education Academy workshop. It is based on the premise that much introductory programming, at least of the sort that mathematicians need, is discrete mathematics, and that the two benefit from being taught together. In particular, recursion and induction are two sides of the same coin. The course team for 2012-13 is:

Professor James Davenport (Programming and Unit Leader)
Professor Alastair Spence (Discrete Mathematics, Semester 1)
(replacing Professor Ivan Graham)
Professor Gregory Sankaran (Discrete Mathematics, Semester 2)
roughly 12 (at any one time) laboratory tutors
1 or 2 (per laboratory session) roving mathematics tutors
support from Mathematics and Statistics Help.

The course is assessed equally by examination and practical work: in more detail

15% January examination (Discrete Mathematics)
35% May examination (Discrete Mathematics and Programming)
14% December Programming coursework
12% February class test (Discrete Mathematics in front of a computer)
12% March Programming coursework
12% May Programming coursework

In a typical week, there are two pieces of student work:

fairly traditional mathematics homework, focusing on the Discrete Mathematics side of the course: handed in one week and returned by the tutor in the laboratory class next week;
a "tickable" programming exercise, which has to be marked pass/fail by the tutor each week. It is expected that a diligent student can always complete these, and the tutors are encouraged to give assistance (obviously, not to actually do the exercise). The purpose of the tickable exercises is to ensure that the sudents engage with, and keep up with, the programming concepts as they are introduced. To this end, if a student gets less than 80% of the ticks, a pro rata deduction is made from the coursework mark. In practice, this is very rare, as a student who does not engage with the tickables does not have passing coursework marks anyway.