Combinatorial Mathematics (MAT 377)
Noga Alon (first name initial followed by last name at
math dot princeton dot edu)
Fall 2026-2027, Tuesday and Thursday 9:00-10:20, Room TBA
TA and CTAs: TBA
The main webpage of the course (in Canvas) will be posted.
Course syllabus:
The course covers the basic combinatorial
techniques as well as introduction
to more advanced ones.
The topics discussed include elementary counting, the pigeonhole principle,
counting spanning trees, Inclusion-Exclusion, generating functions,
Ramsey Theory, Extremal Combinatorics, Linear Algebra in Combinatorics,
introduction to the probabilistic method, spectral graph theory,
topological methods in combinatorics.
A more detailed syllabus will appear in Canvas, lecture notes
that will be used during the term will also be posted there.
Prerequisites:
MAT 202 (Linear Algebra with Applications) or
equivalent. Some knowledge in Probability will be helpful but is
not a must.
Grading:
5 Homework assignments (30 %)
1 in-person midterm exam (30 %)
1 in-person final exam (40 %)