MAS435 Algebraic Topology
Lecturer: Neil Strickland
Module information
The syllabus, timetable and assessment arrangements are
here.
Lectures
Lectures will happen via
Blackboard
on Tuesdays at 11:00 and Fridays at 13:00. The number of students is very small,
so these will be more like conversations than lectures.
Handwriting from lectures
Images captured on the visualiser during lectures can be seen here:
Images from previous lectures can be downloaded below.
Semester 1
Week 1, Tuesday lecture
Week 1, Friday lecture
Week 2, Tuesday lecture
Week 2, Friday lecture
Week 3, Tuesday lecture
Week 3, Friday lecture
Week 4, Tuesday lecture
Week 4, Friday lecture
Week 5, Tuesday lecture
Week 5, Friday lecture
Week 6, Tuesday lecture
Week 6, Friday lecture
Week 8, Tuesday lecture
Week 8, Friday lecture
Week 9, Tuesday lecture
Week 9, Friday lecture
Week 10, Tuesday lecture
Lecture recordings
Semester 1
Week 3, Tuesday lecture
Week 3, Friday lecture
Week 4, Friday lecture
Week 5, Tuesday lecture
Week 5, Friday lecture
Week 8, Tuesday lecture
Notes
There is a set of lecture notes
covering the full year. There is also a separate
survey of examples
mentioned in the course. The notes contain links to interactive demonstrations
and videos. More of these will probably be added as the course proceeds.
Thus, you should generally read the notes directly on the web to ensure that
you have the latest version.
Interactive demonstrations
There are a number of interactive
demonstrations which illustrate various points in the course.
More will be added as the course progresses. There are also direct
links to these demonstrations in the lecture notes and solutions to
the problem sheets. There are also YouTube videos explaining all
of the demonstrations, which you can find by following the above
link.
Reading
Each week I will assign a section of the lecture notes. You should read
and digest it. If it contains interactive demonstrations, then you should
try them out after watching the associated videos. Please bring questions
from your reading to the lectures.
Week 1: Section 1 (Introduction), and Section 2 (Simplicial
complexes), as far as Example 2.13.
Week 2: The rest of Section 2, and a preliminary look at Section 3.
Week 3: Section 3.
Assessment
There will be eight homework assignments in each semester. The
best five in each semester will each count for 2% of the overall
course grade, making 20% in total. The remaining 80% will be
based on a final exam. If we are back to normal exam arrangements,
this will be a 2.5 hour formal closed book exam with five questions
of equal value, of which you will be asked to complete four.
Weekly problems
These will appear here as the course progresses. Work should be submitted
via Blackboard.
Please either
Use LaTeX, and upload the resulting PDF file; or
Scan handwritten work with a scanning app such as CamScanner
(Android/Apple)
or Microsoft Lens
(Android/Apple)
or Adobe Scan
(Android/
Apple).
Again, you should upload files in PDF form.
Semester 1
Problem sheet 1.
Please hand in Exercises 1, 3 and 6 before the Tuesday lecture of Week 3.
Problem sheet 2.
Please hand in Exercises 1 and 2 before the Tuesday lecture of Week 4.
Problem sheet 3.
Please hand in Exercises 1 and 3 before the Friday lecture of Week 5.
Problem sheet 4.
Please hand in Exercises 1 and 3 before the Tuesday lecture of Week 6.
Problem sheet 5.
Please hand in Exercises 1 and 3 before the Tuesday lecture of Week 8.
Problem sheet 6.
Please hand in Exercises 1 and 2 before the Tuesday lecture of Week 9.
Problem sheet 7.
Please hand in Exercises 1 and 2 before the Tuesday lecture of Week 10.
Problem sheet 8.
Please hand in Exercises 1 and 2 by the end of Week 11.
Past exam papers
The 2019/20 exam was online and open book. Previously we had
closed book exams in the exam hall. For 2020/21, your guess is as
good as mine.