Subject Code/Name: MATH3411 - Information, Codes and CiphersContact Hours:- 2x 2 hour lectures
- 1x 1 hour tutorial
Assumed Knowledge: At least one of:
- MATH1081
- MATH1231/41/51 with at least a CR
- MATH2099
- DPST1014 with at least a CR
The critical things you should know from the above courses though are modular arithmetic from MATH1081 and linear algebra from MATH1231/41/51.
Assessment:- 3x computer-delivered lab tests, worth 40% combined
- Final exam, worth 60%
Lecture Recordings? Yes, screen, voice and video recording of the theatre, however the video quality is not very good so don’t count on it. Thomas uploaded any relevant blackboard work to Moodle anyways for added clarity.
Notes/Materials Available: Course notes, lecture slides and past exam papers.
Textbook: None prescribed, however some recommended resources are
- N. Abrahamson, “Information Theory and Coding”, McGraw-Hill (1963)
- R. Ash, “Information Theory”, John Wiley (1965), recently reprinted by Dover
- R. Bose, “Information Theory, Coding and Cryptography”, Tata McGraw-Hill (2002)
- G. Brassard, “Modern Cryptography”, Springer (1988)
- R. W. Hamming, “Coding and Information Theory”, Prentice-Hall (1986)
- R. Hill, “A First Course in Coding Theory”, Clarendon (1986)
- V. Pless, “Introduction to the Theory of Error-Correcting Codes”, Wiley (1982/89)
- O. Pretzel, “Error-Correcting Codes and Finite Fields”, Clarendon (1992)
- S. Roman, “Coding and Information Theory”, Springer (1992)
- A. Salomaa, “Public-key Cryptography”, Springer (1990/96)
- B. Schneier, “Applied Cryptography”, Wiley (1996)
- H. C. A. van Tilborg, “An Introduction to Cryptology”, Kluwer (1988)
Lecturer(s): Dr. Thomas Britz
Year & Trimester of completion: 19T3
Difficulty: 1.5/5, but you might rate it higher if you’re doing it in your first year (which I did, but personally didn’t find the course hard even still)
Overall Rating: 5/5, but I could easily have given it more than that
Your Mark/Grade: 98 HD
Comments: I absolutely loved this course. Thomas Britz is easily my favourite lecturer thus far, and I really can’t say enough nice things about him - a fantastic lecturer who makes the course a total blast.
For a Level 3 course, it surely must be one of the easiest - though, disclaimer, I haven’t done any of those other courses. It isn’t boring however, far from it - while a lot of the content is inherently computational, it is a very unique application of some of the staple topics in first year mathematics, discrete and linear algebra. Computer science and software engineering students will find this content particularly interesting I think.
The online tests are going to be a similar deal to the ones found in the first year maths courses - you have plenty of time to spam practice tests which contain questions exactly the same as what you will see on the day, just with different numbers. The final exams for this course are pretty normal with one or two challenging questions - our final exam this term was probably the easiest ever given compared to the past papers. If you did well in those first year maths courses, I honestly think this course is barely harder than those, so you will likely find it quite reasonable.
I 100% recommend this course if you’re looking for something interesting to do in term 3 and aren’t too scared of things like first year modular arithmetic and linear algebra.