The Chinese University of Hong Kong offers online course on Information Theory. This course is an introduction to information theory, which emphasizes fundamental concepts as well as analytical techniques. Specific topics include: Information Measures, The I-Measure, Zero-Error Data Compression, Weak Typicality, Strong Typicality, Discrete Memoryless Channels, etc.
About the course
At the completion of this course, the student should be able to:
- Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the fundamentals of information theory.
- Appreciate the notion of fundamental limits in communication systems and more generally all systems.
- Develop deeper understanding of communication systems.
- Apply the concepts of information theory to various disciplines in information science.
Course Syllabus
The lectures are based on the first 11 chapters of Prof. Raymond Yeung's textbook entitled Information Theory and Network Coding (Springer 2008).
Chapter 1 The Science of Information
Chapter 2 Information Measures
Chapter 3 The I-Measure
Chapter 4 Zero-Error Data Compression
Chapter 5 Weak Typicality
Chapter 6 Strong Typicality
Chapter 7 Discrete Memoryless Channels
Chapter 8 Rate-Distortion Theory
Chapter 9 The Blahut-Arimoto Algorithms
Chapter 10 Differential Entropy
Chapter 11 Continuous-Valued Channels
Prerequisites
A solid course in probability at the undergraduate level would suffice.
Course Format
There will be 15 weeks of lectures, each composed of video clips of around 5-20 minutes with a total length equal to 50 minutes (equivalent to about 2 to 3 hours of classroom teaching). There will be regular homework assignments for you to check your understanding of the lecture videos.
Course Sessions
September 1, 2014 - January 12, 2015
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