Computer Science 270

Applied Math Topics for Computer Science
Spring 2026
Thomas VanDrunen



Meeting time: MWF 2:15-3:25 pm.
Meeting place: MEY 184

Office hours: Drop-in 3:30-4:30 MWF; also schedule through Calendly
Contact: 163 Science; 752-5692; Thomas.VanDrunen@wheaton.edu
http://cs.wheaton.edu/~tvandrun/cs270


Syllabus



Final exam: Wednesday, May 6, 1:30 pm


Moon's dayWoden' s dayFrigga's day

Jan 12

Sets, etc
Slides

Jan 14

More sets, etc; proof techniques

Jan 16

More proof techniques
Slides

Jan 19

NO CLASS

Jan 21

Cardinality and counting

Jan 23

Counting; combinations and permutations

Jan 26

The pigeonhole principle

Jan 28

Samle spaces, events, axioms of probability

Jan 30

Sum and product rules

Feb 2

The event-composition method

Feb 4

Conditional, joint, and marginal probablities

Feb 6

Independence

Feb 9

Random variables

Feb 11

Review

Feb 13

TEST

Feb 16

NO CLASS

Feb 18

Expected value and variance

Feb 20

Common distributions

Feb 23

Continuous random variables

Feb 25

Common continuous distributions

Feb 27

More common continuous distributions

Mar 2

Correlation

Mar 4

Elements of hypothesis testing

Mar 6

Hypothesis testing examples

Mar 9

NO CLASS

Mar 11

NO CLASS

Mar 13

NO CLASS

Mar 16

Z-tests and p-values

Mar 18

Confidence intervals

Mar 20

The central limit theorem

Mar 23

The weak law of large numbers

Mar 25

Review

Mar 27

TEST

Mar 30

Benford's law

Apr 1

Bayes's theorem

Apr 3

NO CLASS

Apr 6

Bayesian inference

Apr 8

More Bayesian inference

Apr 10

Graph theory

Apr 13

Graph proofs

Apr 15

Graph isomorphisms

Apr 17

Varieties of graphs

Apr 20

Graphs as models of information

Apr 22

Finite automata and regular expressions

Apr 24

FA = RE proof

Apr 27

The lambda calculus

Apr 29

Undecidability and NP-completeness

May 1

Review