Welcome to the course webpage for the Discrete Optimization course taught by Jonathan Noel at the University of Victoria (UVic) taking place during September-December 2025. Graduate students from outside UVic can register for this course via the PIMS Network Wide Courses program.
This course will follow a similar format to the PIMS Network Wide Course on Extremal Combinatorics taught by the same instructor in 2024.
Students at the University of Victoria can register for the course normally. The course numbers are Math 428 (undergraduate) and Math 529, Section A02 (graduate).
Graduate students at various other universities in Western Canada can register via the Western Deans Agreement (WDA). See the PIMS Network Wide Courses page for information about registering via the WDA. Please also reach out to the instructor by e-mail.
Graduate students from Canadian universities that are not covered by the Western Deans Agreement may be able to register if their university is part of the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS). See the PIMS Network Wide Courses page for information about registering via the CAGS. Please also reach out to the instructor by e-mail.
Other learners at any level from anywhere in the world are welcome to audit the course by attending the lectures on Zoom, YouTube livestream or in person. You are also permitted to work on the assessments (assignments, etc) for the course. If you are a student, then it may be possible to get course credit if there is an instructor at your university who is willing to be the official instructor for a reading course on this topic. However, the TA for this course cannot mark the work of students who are not officially registered at the University of Victoria and so other arrangements will need to be made if you require your work to be marked. Please reach out to the instructor by e-mail if you are interested in auditing the course or finding a way to take it for credit.
The official course outline can be found here: Course Outline.
The following documents contain general policies of the UVic Math & Stats Department, all of which apply to this course.
Dates: Mondays and Thursdays from September 4, 2025 until December 1, 2025.
Times: 1:00 pm to 2:20 pm Pacific Time (local time in Victoria, BC, Canada).
Location: Hickman Building (HHB) 110 at the University of Victoria.
Remote Viewing: Zoom or YouTube livestream. For students who are officially registered for the course at UVic, the Zoom link can be found on the Brightspace page. For anyone else, please contact the instructor by e-mail to request the link.
The lectures will follow these Official Course Notes written by the instructor. These notes are only be available in html format.
Some great additional sources include
Submit your solutions on Crowdmark
Details about the written project are available on Brightspace. Projects must be typeset, preferably in LaTeX, and submitted to the instructor by by e-mail. Deadline: December 8, 2025.
The final exam will take place on Crowdmark during the UVic exam period.