An alternative to group theory in the discrete structures course
Ward Douglas Maurer · Journal of computing sciences in colleges · 2006
Many of us who teach the discrete structures course in computer science departments were once majors or strong minors in mathematics; and, as such, we received an introduction to group theory. This is so interesting, to most mathematicians, that it becomes frustrating to see it left out of the discrete structures course. Of course, there are very few actual computing applications for group theory; yet group theory gives students a relatively simple introduction to what abstract mathematics is about. The importance of that, for students, is something which many non-mathematicians on computer science faculties will agree with. In this paper we suggest an alternative to group theory, which is just as easy to understand; which gives students the same sort of introduction to abstract mathematics; and which has obvious applications in computer science.