Combinatorics or information theory?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the choice between two university courses: CS 575, focusing on combinatorics and graph theory, and CS 691GG, which covers applied information theory. Participants share their preferences, experiences, and insights regarding the content and teaching quality of both subjects, as well as their relevance to future studies and interests.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Exploratory

Main Points Raised

  • One participant expresses a political advantage in taking the combinatorics course due to the instructor's role as chief undergraduate advisor, suggesting it may benefit future interactions.
  • Another participant finds combinatorics boring and believes information theory would be more thought-provoking, indicating a subjective preference.
  • A participant who took both courses shares that the information theory class was more engaging, although it was not purely applied.
  • Conversely, another participant enjoyed their combinatorics class, attributing their positive experience to an engaging professor.
  • One participant prefers combinatorics and graph theory, citing their applications in optimization, neural networks, and cryptography, while questioning the relevance of information theory to optimization.
  • Another participant notes the possibility of self-learning combinatorics and graph theory, but expresses frustration over the quality of instruction in their experience.
  • The original poster acknowledges the challenge of the combinatorics course based on an old final exam they found, indicating a desire for rigorous coursework.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing opinions on the appeal and relevance of combinatorics versus information theory, with no consensus on which course is preferable. Some favor combinatorics for its applications, while others advocate for information theory as more stimulating.

Contextual Notes

Participants reference personal experiences with course instructors, which may influence their views on the subjects. There is also mention of the potential for future course availability, indicating uncertainty about the scheduling of the information theory course.

Who May Find This Useful

Students considering courses in combinatorics or information theory, particularly those interested in the applications of these subjects in computer science and related fields.

0rthodontist
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I have to choose between two classes because of a schedule conflict:

CS 575, combinatorics and graph theory
This course is taught by the chief undergraduate advisor and earlier I mentioned to him that I'd be taking the course. So politically it may be a good idea. The course says it centers around the solution of a set of interesting problems, which makes it attractive, and it looks like a "foundation" course for further study in CS. On the other hand I have already been introduced to a moderate amount of combinatorics and graph theory from earlier courses and self study so I might get by without it. This is the course I'm already signed up for.

CS 691GG, applied information theory
Studying information theory at some point is a major goal I have. This is a graduate course that focuses on the applied and not the theoretic--it is not proof oriented. What I am looking for is specifically the major ideas in information theory, so this might not be the right approach for me. On the other hand, a search for information theory courses at umass and affiliated colleges turns up only this course. So it has not been recently offered and it might not be offered again soon. It has enrollment 19/20.

ideas?
 
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Combinatorics is boring. Information theory would be much more thought-provoking. Of course, this is just my opinion, your interests may be different than mine.

- Warren
 
Agreed. I took both a combinitorics/graph theory class as well as a wavelets/information theory class (although it was not purely applied we did deal a fair amount with applications). The wavelets class was way better. But then again my combinitorics/graph theory prof sucked...
 
i took the combinatorics class but i loved it...but my professor was nice and he taught us in a very interesting way
 
I find both to be interesting, but my preference would be for Combinatorics and Graph Theory(mainly graph theory as I like the problems, and they related to Neural Nets, Coloring, Management ie traffic,schedules and computaiotnal geometry) as they apply to Optimization. Not sure if Info Theory is related to optimization...but it has links to cryptography & Neural nets.

You can self-learn Combinatorics/Graph Theory. As mentioned above but a lot of the profs for these classes suck, I made the mistake of taking both as they were offered separately in my school and both times were taught by very boring graduate students. Still I aced the classes, but there was no guidance to pursue anything further outside the class.
 
Thanks for your replies. I'm sure both courses would be interesting. They are each taught by a researcher in a related field. I found an old final for 575
http://twiki-edlab.cs.umass.edu/bin/view/_F2005Moll575/OldFinal
and it looks pretty challenging.

I'll have to ask about the future course availability.
 
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