MATH3411: Information, Codes and Ciphers

3 x Online tests - 40%. Test 1 worth 10%, while tests 2 and 3 are worth 15% each. All the questions came from a question bank that we had access to weeks before the test. The questions really made you focus on the links between different aspects of the material though.

Final exam - 60%.

MATH1081 or MATH1231(CR) or DPST1014 (CR) or MATH1241(CR) or MATH1251(CR) or MATH2099. In practice, as long as you are comfortable with first-year linear-algebra you'll be fine.

Wow.

2 x 2 hour lecture per week. 1 x 1 hour tutorial per week.

2.5/5. I didn't find this course to be the easy wam-booster that it's made out to be, as I was a bit rusty on my linear algebra when going into the course. But as long as you engage with the material it will all fall into place by the end.

Yes.

Thomas Britz, 10/5. What can I say about Britz that hasn't already been said. He makes going to lectures and tutorials fun and exciting, and really makes you interact and engage with the material. My favourite moment was when he brought up a webcam and drilled a hole into a DVD copy of The Emoji Movie to demonstrate error-correction. He is easily a contender for the best lecturer at UNSW.

Full slides and notes given out.

5/5.

2020/T3

79 DN

- 3x computer-delivered lab tests, worth 40% combined
- Final exam, worth 60%

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.

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.

- 2x 2 hour lectures
- 1x 1 hour tutorial

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)

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.

Dr. Thomas Britz

Course notes, lecture slides and past exam papers.

5/5, but I could easily have given it more than that

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)

19T3

98 HD

Prerequisites:

A very interesting course for anyone interested in information theory or computer science. The course was pretty easy, and there weren't many challenging problems, but the challenging problems that were there, were fun to do. Dr. Britz is an absolute gem, and an amazing lecturer. His teaching style is really good, and keeps you engaged to the content, even though the somewhat boring stuff. He's a very supportive lecturer, and made the course as great as it was. Even if information theory isn't your cup of tea, I'd recommend doing the course just for the lecturer.

1x 2hr, 1x 1hr Lecture, 1x 1hr Tutorial

2.5/5

Yes - screen and voice recorded, and sometimes the document camera.

Dr. Thomas Britz

Lecture notes and slides online, and past finals and class tests with some solutions provided. Tutorial problems, with completely worked solutions for (almost) all of them provided.

4/5

None prescribed, but a lot of references. See the course outline for a list.

2018 S2

96 HD

- 1 x 10% in-lecture test
- 2 x 15% in-lecture tests
- 60% final exam

The listed prerequisite is MATH1081 or MATH2099 or CR in: {MATH1231 or MATH1241 or MATH1251}. I do highly agree with the MATH1081 prerequisite, but the only 1231 stuff you really need is just vector spaces and an understanding of eigenvalues.

This is one of the few third year mathematics elective courses that falls under Pure Mathematics. Of course, you do not need to be taking that major to be eligible to enrol in the course.

Essentially this course is an introduction to the theory of encryption. Topics included error correcting codes and compression codes etc., which essentially provide differing perspectives on how information can be transferred from one party to another. Many fundamental techniques are covered such as Huffman coding, however there's also some more advanced applications. Plus a fun chapter on cryptography at the very end.

This was the first course ever where I was able to walk into every lecture, and pretty much almost always understand everything. The only times I got lost were when I zoned out myself. All of the non-mathsy stuff made complete intuitive sense to me and the maths was just stuff I had already seen over and over again in the past. I found that this course was basically just the first time I saw some real-world based applications of stuff I already understood conceptually.

The learning spike in this course starts in topic 5 where number theory and abstract algebra is introduced. But as opposed to MATH3711 content which I didn't comprehend, this stuff barely scratches the surface of algebra and only teaches the few things you require for BCH coding (which was one of the hardest things in the course). Usually if you can get your head around topic 5, you've gotten your head around the entire thing.

Topic 7 (cryptography) should probably be treated as a standalone thing. It was examinable, but the concepts are (slightly) more independent from the rest of the course and should hopefully be more of an enjoyable topic.

I mean, all I have for this course is praise. Biggest WAM booster I've had and comparatively speaking one of the easiest courses I had ever touched. Some people do actually take this course in first year sem 2 (they take MATH1081 in sem 1 which is sufficient as a prereq), but even then whilst it'd be harder for them relatively speaking, it's still manageable. Every maths student should consider taking it for either ease or the chance to witness some cool applications of the stuff they learn, but it does also work as a gen ed for anyone who has taken MATH1081 previously.

3 hours of lecture (chopped up into 1+2 this year), 1 hour tutorial

Yes

Dr. Thomas Britz

Course pack, Thomas's notes, Thomas's slides, past papers for tests back to 2011. (Also Facebook group and Piazza forum.) That equates to tons in my opinion.

4.5/5

See page 6 of the course outline, but honestly none of them are necessary given the resources already available.

2018 s2

96 HD