Mathematics of Information

Prof. Dr. Helmut Bölcskei

Lecture:Thursday, 9:15-12:00, in room ML F 36. The first lecture takes place on Thursday, February 20, 2025.
Exercise session:   Monday, 14:15-16:00, in room ML E 12. The first exercise session takes place on Monday, February 24, 2025.
Teaching assistants: Clemens Hutter, Konstantin Häberle
Office hours: Monday, 16:15-17:15 in ETF E 118. Please contact the TAs if you are planning to attend.
Lecture notes:Detailed lecture notes can be found below in the section "Lecture notes and prerequisite material". Exercise problem sets along with detailed solutions will be made available as we go along, see the section "Exercise sessions". The access information for the notes will be sent by email on the first day of the spring semester to all students registered for the class.
Credits: 9 ECTS credits
Offered in:See course catalogue


Lecture recordings:

The lectures will not be recorded and no recordings from previous years are available.

Course structure

The class will be taught in English. There will be a written exam in English of duration 180 minutes.

News

We will post important announcements, links, and other information here during the semester, so please check back often!



Course information

The class focuses on mathematical aspects of information science and learning theory.

We encourage students who are interested in mathematical data science to take both this course and "401-4944-20L Mathematics of Data Science" by Prof. A. Bandeira. The two courses are designed to be complementary.

H. Bölcskei and A. Bandeira

Prerequisites

This course is aimed at students with a background in linear algebra, probability, and basic functional analysis. In particular, familiarity with Hilbert spaces on the level of the "Hilbert spaces" chapter posted below (excluding the appendices) is expected.



Lecture notes and prerequisite material



Homework assignments

There will be exercise session notes posted every Thursday after the lecture. The TAs will inform you by email which of the problems in these notes will be solved in the exercise session the following Monday. The expectation is that you prepare these problems before the exercise session.

DateProblemsSolutionsExtra Notes
24.02.2025
03.03.2025
10.03.2025
17.03.2025
24.03.2025
31.03.2025
07.04.2025
14.04.2025
05.05.2025
12.05.2025
19.05.2025
26.05.2025


Previous years' exams and solutions

YearExamHandoutSolutions
Summer 2018 Exam 2018 - Solutions 2018
Summer 2019 Exam 2019 Handout 2019 Solutions 2019
Summer 2020 Exam 2020 Handout 2020 Solutions 2020
Winter 2020/2021 Exam 2020/2021 Handout 2020/2021 Solutions 2020/2021
Summer 2021 Exam 2021 Handout 2021 Solutions 2021
Winter 2021/2022 Exam 2021/2022 Handout 2021/2022 Solutions 2021/2022
Summer 2022 Exam 2022 Handout 2022 Solutions 2022
Summer 2023 Exam 2023 Handout 2023 Solutions 2023
Summer 2024 Exam 2024 Handout 2024 Solutions 2024


Material for the exam

All the material that has been covered during the lectures and the exercise sessions will be relevant for the exam.

You are allowed to bring a summary of 10 handwritten or printed A4 pages (or 5 A4 pages on both sides). Electronic devices (laptops, calculators, cellphones, etc...) are not allowed.



Recommended reading

If you want to go into more depth or if you need additional background material, please check out these books: