General overview of the course content:

• Basic Set Theory (Sets and Subsets, Set Operations, The Algebra of Sets, Ordered Pairs, Relations, Equivalence Relations, Functions, Ordering Relations, Closures of Relations etc.)
• Sequences and Summations (Sequences, Recurrence Relations, Series, Summation Notation & Summation Algebra,  Product Notation & Product Algebra etc.)
• Introduction to Combinatorics (Counting, Permutations, Combinations, etc.)
• Introduction to Graph Theory (Undirected Graphs, Directed Graphs, Connectivity, Weighted Graphs, Trees, Graph Representations for Computation Purposes, Selected Graph Algorithms, etc.)
• Introduction to Linear Algebra (Matrices and Vectors, Vector Norms, Matrix Multiplication, Linear Equations, Gauss-Jordan Elimination, etc.)
• Introduction to Logic (Reasoning, Propositional Logic, Predicate Logic)

In addition, a selection of academic publications (mandatory reading) will be made available for self-study.

The goal of this course is to learn the formal foundations, which are necessary for the understanding of the concepts, methods and tools of information systems. 

After completing this course the students should have basic knowledge about the content discussed in the course and a general overview of formal abstraction methods. Further, students will be able to apply the learned concepts and abstraction methods to solve concrete problems, to understand the connections between the individual concepts, and to further deepen their knowledge.

The presence in all classes is recommended. The attendance during the first class and during all types of exams (see section below) is compulsory.

• This course is with continuous assessment (in German: prüfungsimmanente Veranstaltung or PI).
• Students, who have registered to the course are automatically registered for the exam (i.e. there is no need for an additional registration).
• Students, who have completed at least one of the four performance components (see bellow) will receive a final grade for this course.
• The final grade will be calculated as a sum of the following four performance components:
  • Three unannounced quizzes during the course lectures (10 points each);
  • Final exam (60 points) - The exam will be on the entire content of the course (incl. mandatory reading)
• A minimum of 50% of the total points is necessary to pass the course with a positive grade ("genügend"/"sufficient", 4).

There is a total of 60 spots for this course. 30 of them will be assigned after the official registration period based on the waiting list of the course, considering various factors such as your study progress.

The attendance in the first course is mandatory. Should you have a valid reason to miss it, please send an email to the lecturer in advance. Failing to attend or notify the lecturer in advance will lead to your deregistration.

If you notice that are unable or unwilling to take the course after registering to the course, please do your colleagues a favour and deregister in time. This will allow people on the waiting list to receive a spot in the course and join the course already in the first class.

You are strongly encouraged to ask general questions about the course organisation and its content in class. In addition, please use the forum of this course to ask further questions. This way, repetitive questions, which concern all participants can be cleared quickly and more easily.

Should you have any questions, which concern only you (this is usually an exceptional case), feel free to send me an email (rivanova@wu.ac.at). Make sure to begin the subject of the email with [2208 - Formale Grundlagen der Wirtschaftsinformatik]. This way you avoid the risk of your email remaining overseen by accident.