615-160 Tools of Analysis

615-145 Concepts in Software Development 1 or 433-142 Computing Fundamentals B, or similar programming background.

Many software applications in everyday use have their foundation in mathematics. For example: modern security techniques, as used in products supporting digital signatures and facilitating email privacy, rely on number theory and abstract notions of complexity; the database query language SQL, used in many commercial products is linked to relational algebra and relation calculus and hence to logic; widely used spreadsheet applications provide sophisticated facilities for modelling and mathematical optimisation.

This subject introduces these and other applications, in order to motivate and study the underlying mathematical ideas and to introduce students to a different approaches to mathematical analysis. Topics will be drawn from counting principles and data complexity, public key cryptography, propositional and predicate logic, linear algebra, linear programming and decision-making.

One written exam of up to three hours, up to 15 pages of project work, and a test totalling no more than two hours, during the semester. The weighting of the assessment components will be announced at the commencement of the subject.