CS 103ACE: Mathematical Problem-Solving Strategies

🌼 Spring 2025 🌼

Announcements

Good luck on the final exam!!!

Section Materials

Week 2. Tuesday Apr 8: Sets & Proof Methods
Slides, Worksheet, Solutions
Week 3. Tuesday Apr 15: Propositional & first-order logic
Slides, Worksheet, Solutions
Week 4. Tuesday Apr 22: Functions, set theory proofs
Slides, Worksheet, Solutions
Week 5. Tuesday Apr 29: Midterm 1, No Section
Supplementary Materials: Graphs, pigeonhole principle
Slides, Worksheet, Solutions
Week 6. Tuesday May 6: Induction
Slides, Worksheet, Solutions
Week 7. Tuesday May 13: DFAs, NFAs, Regular Languages
Slides, Worksheet, Solutions
Week 8. Tuesday May 20: Midterm 2, No Section
Supplementary Materials: Nonregular Languages, Regular Expressions, CFGs
Slides, Worksheet, Solutions
Week 9. Tuesday May 27: Turing Machines, Recognizing and Deciding Languages
Slides, Worksheet, Solutions
Week 10. Tuesday Jun 3: Verifiers, Lava Diagram, P vs. NP
Slides, Worksheet, Solutions

Logistics

ACE office hours and review sessions are limited to enrolled students.There will be no ACE section on exam dates

Resources

Syllabus

CS 103ACE is a 1-unit companion course to CS 103 offered as part of the School of Engineering's ACE program. Our weekly section reinforces course material in a welcoming small-group setting, with a particular focus on strategies for writing proofs. In section, we review topics from the previous week's lectures and work on practice problems collaboratively. Outside of class, we offer ACE-specific support, including office hours and exam review sessions, to help you do your best in CS 103.

Contact Info

ACE Instructor
Elena Sierra (pronouns: she/her or they/them, email: esierra@stanford.edu). Contact me with questions about CS 103 content and 103ACE.
ACE Leadership
See the ACE Leadership Team contact page. Contact with questions and feedback about the ACE program as a whole.
CS 103 Staff
Contact Cynthia, Alex, and/or Emily via email with questions about CS 103 policies, grades, etc.
Contact the entire 103 team about CS 103 content & logistics through EdStem

Grading

103ACE is graded Satisfactory / No Credit. To receive a Satisfactory grade, you must:

  1. Finish CS 103 with a grade of C- or higher.
  2. You must attend all ACE sections with one free absence. Exceptions for extenuating circumstances (illness, emergencies, etc.), email me for these absences.

If you drop, withdraw from, or take an incomplete in CS 103, you must do the same for 103ACE. If you need to miss more than one section, please reach out to me. I will try to be as flexible as possible.

Participation is an integral part of 103ACE, and, to get the most out of the course, we expect you to be up-to-date on lecture material. 103ACE is intended to be a welcoming community, where asking questions, throwing out guesses, and encouraging your peers are all valuable ways to participate! In addition, I know that everyone has low-energy days. If it's a day where coming to section is already enough of an achievement, we'll be glad you came!

Accessibility

I care about making 103ACE accessible and responsive to your needs. This course is meant to provide extra support and resources, not create more work or stress for you. If you have a letter from the Office of Accessible Education, or if you have any other needs or circumstances that I should be aware of, please get in touch!

Materials adapted from previous ACE instructors (Ryan Guan, Grace Alwan, Frankie Cerkvenik, Lauren Saue-Fletcher, and Ian Tullis).

Website adapted from 103ACE websites written by Ryan Guan.