Mathematics for Information Studies

Course manual 2025/2026

Course content

This course is designed to provide students with the mathematical background that is necessary to follow other courses in the bachelor Informatiekunde, such as Network Science, Recommender Systems, Applied Machine Learning, etc. The goal is to make students feel comfortable working with basic concepts from calculus, probability theory and linear algebra. Moreover, we will introduce those concepts using applications from machine learning, data sciences, etc., so that students are already exposed to the use of mathematics in those areas.

Objectives

• Can compute basic derivatives and is able to use them to solve simple applied problems.
• Apply basic combinatorics in simple scenarios.
• Understand and use the main results in basic probability theory, such as correlation and independent variables and Bayes' rule.
• Can perform calculations with discrete and continuous probabilities.
• Can perform basic vector and matrix operations and is able to use them to modelize and solve simple applied problems.
• Students can compute and interpret basic descriptive statistical measures—including measures of central tendency and variability
• can clearly communicate and collaborate on the different topics of the course. can clearly communicate and collaborate on the different topics of the course can clearly communicate and collaborate on the different topics of the course

Teaching methods

• Lecture
• Seminar

Learning activities

Attendance

Additional requirements for this course:

During the werkcolleges, there will be assignments where students can work together. In relation to the last ILO, those werkcolleges will have mandatory attendance. Specifically, students are expected to attend all the werkcolleges, but may miss up to 3 werkcolleges due to sickness, personal reasons, etc.

Assessment

The final grade is determined in the following way:

Practical exercises (consisting of homework and laptop assignments) counts for 30% of the final grade. Note that for those practical exercises,  the use the LLMs is not allowed. Theoretical material, tested with two partial exams counts for 70% (of which 35% is for the first partial exam and 35% for the second partial exam). Finally, some hoorcollege might contain an optional quiz and those quizzes may count towards a final bonus point for the final grade. A perfect score on all quizzes will earn you a one-point bonus. Partial completion will be credited proportionally—for example, answering 50\% of all the quiz questions correctly will result in a 0.5-point bonus, and answering 30\% correctly will result in a 0.3-point bonus, etc.

To pass the course, the final grade must be at least a 5.5, and the component grades for both the exam and the assignments must be at least a 5.

The resit exam concerns the theoretical material. The resit exam is only accessible to students who have sufficiently completed the assignments (with at least a 5.5).

Assignments

The homework and laptop assignments are individual and are graded in canvas.

Fraud and plagiarism

The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.student.uva.nl

Course structure

Contact information

Coordinator

• Gaelle Fontaine