Photo of Paul Erdős, a renowned Hungarian mathematician and the founder of the probabilistic method. (Image courtesy of Kmhkmh. Source: Wikimedia Commons. License CC BY.)
Instructor(s)
Prof. Yufei Zhao
MIT Course Number
18.218
As Taught In
Spring 2019
Level
Graduate
Course Description
Course Features
Educator Features
Course Description
This course is a graduate-level introduction to the probabilistic method, a fundamental and powerful technique in combinatorics and theoretical computer science. The essence of the approach is to show that some combinatorial object exists and prove that a certain random construction works with positive probability. The course focuses on methodology as well as combinatorial applications.