COSC 237 Information Theory in Computer Science

This course introduces students to information theory, a mathematical formalism for quantifying and reasoning about communication. While traditionally a part of electrical engineering, it has found several powerful applications in the theory of algorithms and complexity and adjacent fields such as combinatorics and game theory. The first third of the course will teach students the basics of information theory (Shannon entropy, mutual information, Kullback-Liebler divergence). The rest of the course will sample topics from error correcting codes, communication complexity, data structures, and optimization, in each case highlighting applications of information theory.

Prerequisites

COSC 31 or COSC 30 plus permission of the instructor (based on strong mathematical background)