Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

Prerequisite

Introduction to Topology (18.901) is a prerequisite for this course.

Textbook

The primary book for the course is:

Massey, W. S. "Algebraic Topology: An Introduction." Graduate Texts in Mathematics. Vol. 56. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag, 1977. ISBN: 0387902716.
Students should note that there are two other books in the GTM series (GTM 70 and GTM 127) by Massey, which are different books.

The material covered in this course is also contained in the beginning of:

Hatcher, Allen. Algebraic Topology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001. ISBN: 0521795400 (paperback.)
This is an excellent text with many examples and pictures, and it can by found online at Allen Hatcher's Homepage.

The text by Massey is our primary source because it spends more time on the material we plan on covering, and gives a very careful exposition.

Course Format

This course is of the "mathematical seminar format," meaning that the students give all of the lectures. There are usually two lectures per class meeting, and because of the intimate nature of the class there is very little in the way of formal homework. There is one final project, and there are no exams. For each student's first lecture, the student must arrange a meeting outside of class with the instructor to do a practice lecture.

Homework and Exams

There are no homework or exams.

Final Project

Each student must write a mathematical paper approximately ten pages long. It must be written in LaTeX, and it should be written so that other people in the seminar can read and understand it. Before the project is due, but after the first draft is submitted, each student is expected to give a short presentation based on his/her mathematical paper.

Grading

The class participation grade will be determined by both the quality, and the degree of improvement, of lectures and attendance.