EE 564CSE 554 Theory of Error Correcting Codes

EE 564/CSE 554: Theory of Error Correcting Codes Jan 8 2018

Logistics Time: Mon, Wed, Fri 1: 25 PM to 2: 15 PM Location: 101 Electrical Engineering West Instructor: Prof. Viveck R. Cadambe Contact information: viveck@engr. psu. edu, 230 EE West. Office hours: After class, or by appointment. Course Webpage: http: //www. ee. psu. edu/viveck/EE 564_s 2018/ We will use Canvas to distribute solutions.

Logistics Grade: 35% Homeworks 25% Midterm exam, tentatively in Week 10 30% Course Project 10% Scribing + Class Participation • You are allowed to discuss homework problems with classmates and look through external reference material, but what you turn in must be your own understanding of the problem. You are encouraged to try the problem first by yourself before taking external help. • If you discussed the problems with somebody else or saw the solution elsewhere, then you must list the person/reference which helped you out, and briefly describe the idea that you borrowed.

Logistics - Homework Grade: • You are allowed to discuss homework problems with classmates and look through external reference material, but what you turn in must be your own understanding of the problem. You are encouraged to try the problem first by yourself before taking external help. • If you discussed the problems with somebody else or saw the solution elsewhere, then you must list the person/reference which helped you out, and briefly describe the idea that you borrowed. • Homeworks must be typed in latex, or printed in clear, legible handwriting, and uploaded in dropbox provided

Logistics - Project • Course project will involve the study of a set of papers in coding theory, and can involve implementations in special cases. The student’s understanding of the topic will be demonstrated via an in-class presentation. • The project can be done in a group or individually (group size TBA based on class strength). • Topic suggestions will be provided during the course. Students are encouraged to suggest their own topics, in discussion with the instructors.

Logistics - Scribing • The class notes will be scribed in a group-wise effort by the students. Students will type out week-wise notes in Latex. Notes for Monday-Wednesday-Friday will be due on Thursday of the following week. • Each student will sign up for two weeks in the semester. For each week, we will have either two or three students scribing, and the scribes will collaborate and send one document to me. • Student reponsibilities: Understand the material properly, possibly via discussions with instructor, and via reference material, and type out correct, well-written lecture notes. • Remaining students: detect errors/typos in the scribed notes • Latex template and sign up link will be mailed to you.

Reference Materials 1) Introduction to Coding Theory by Ron Roth ISBN-10: 0521845041 Publication Date: 2006 2) Error Correction Coding: Mathematical Methods and Algorithms (1 st Edition), by Todd K. Moon. 3) Richardson, Tom, and Ruediger Urbanke. Modern coding theory. Cambridge university press, 2008. 4) Online lecture notes by Prof. Madhu Sudan and a draft of a textbook by. Venkat Guruswami, Madhu Sudan and Atri Rudra (urls are on course webpage)

Pre-requisites • Mathematical Maturity – Numerous proofs will be provided in the course – Student will be expected to derive correct proofs in homeworks and exams. • Elementary linear algebra • Elementary probability theory (EE 560 or equivalent) • Topics in elementary discrete mathematics (CMPSC 360 or equivalent)

What is this course about? Error-correcting codes provide a way to efficiently add redundancy to data, so that the original data can be recovered even in the presence of noise. Such codes are essential in modern communication and storage of data, where high reliability is required. Error correcting codes use sophisticated techniques from algebra, probability, graph theory and combinatorics. This course is an introductory course on theory of error correcting codes. Go to course webpage for a list of topics.