Topic outline

  • General

    Lecturer:

    Dr. Tefjol Pllaha 

    Teaching assistants:

    Dr. Mohamed Taoufiq Damir (head TA),  Napoleon Freitas-Paajanen

    Content:

    • Groups and subgroups 
    • Group homomorphisms 
    • Rings and ideals
    • Ring homomorphisms
    • Fields
    In this course we will cover the basics of groups, rings, and fields, and pay special attention to concise proofs.

    Time:

    2020-2021 Period III (6 weeks)

    • Lectures: Tuesdays and Thursdays 10: 15-12: 00 on Zoom (link to follow)
    • Exercises (choose one group):
      • Wednesdays 10: 15-12: 00 on Zoom (Taoufiq Damir, Napoleon Freitas-Paajanen)
      • Fridays 14: 15-16: 00 on Zoom (Napoleon Freitas-Paajanen)
    There will also be a weekly online office hour (TBA) where the instructor and TAs will be available for Q&A.

    Grading: 

    You will have two options:

    • 50% exam + 50% homework solutions
    • 100% exam
    The final grade will take into consideration only the maximum of the two options.

    Exam: 

    The final exam will be a timed "take home" exam and will take place on Wednesday, February 24. It will become available at 9:00. You must submit your solutions as a single, clearly readable, file no later than 13:00 of the same day.  The extra hour accounts for extra time that you can use for solving the problems as well as for taking care of the logistics such as scanning and uploading. The instructor reserves the right of follow up oral questions. During the exam you may use any course material such as lectures, exercise solutions, videos etc. You do not need to prove something that has already been proved during the course and may freely invoke any results from the course. You do not need to reference the lecture or the homework or the problem set in which that given result is coming from.

    Homework:  

    There will be Weekly problem sets posted every Monday under "Assignments" in MyCourses. You are strongly encouraged to work in groups, however, you must write up your own solution. Solutions should be uploaded to MyCourses, as a single PDF file, no later than the following Monday (at Midnight). You are strongly encouraged to use Latex and submit typed solutions. Clear scanned hand written solutions are also welcome.

    Study material:

    We will not follow one particular source, however, all essential material is included in any standard abstract algebra book or lecture notes. A standard resource is:  Dummit and Foote: Abstract Algebra. ISBN 978-0471433347 .