CS385/Math385
Theory of Computation

Spring 2008 (EO Only)
Syllabus

Note: the dates are for reference purpose and defined in on-campus terms. EO students may be somewhat self paced, but try not to fall behind.
WeekDatesTopicChaptersAssignment/Due DateKeyComments and Topics
1 1/9 - 1/11 Introduction and Review Chapter 1 assignment 1
Fri. Jan. 18
Sets, functions, graphs and trees; langauges, grammars, and automata
2 1/14 - 1/18 Finite Automata Chapter 2 assignment 2
Weds. Jan 23rd
Define a finite automata. Determistic versus non-determistic. Are they equivilent? Link to my simple DFA simulator. There are many others avaliable on-line.
3 1/21 - 1/25 Regular Languages and Grammars Chapter 3 assignment 3
Weds. Jan 30th
No Class on Monday. Definition of a finite automata. Determistic versus non-determistic. Are they equivilent?
4 1/28 - 2/1 Properties of regular langauges Chapter 4 assignment 4
Weds. Feb 6th
Closure properties, using the pigeonhole principle and pumping lemmas to identify non-regular langagues.
5 2/4 - 2/8 Context-free langauges Chapter 5.1-5.2 (skip 5.3) assignment 5
Weds. Feb 13th
First Exam. Context-free grammars, parsing, ambiguity, relationship to programming langauges and compilers
6 2/11 - 2/15 Simplification of CFGs Chapter 6 assignment 6
Weds. Feb 20th
Transforming grammars
7 2/18 - 2/22 Push down automata Chapter 7.1-7.3 assignment 7
Weds. Feb 27th
Nondeterministic, deterministic, context free langauges
8 2/25 - 2/29 Pumping Lemmas Chapter 8 (skip P.L. for linear languages) assignment 8
Weds. Mar 5th
Pumping lemmas for context free and linear languages, closure
9 3/3 - 3/7 Turing Machines Chapter 9 assignment 9
Weds. Mar. 12th
Definition, languages, output, combining Turing machines, Church-Turing thesis
10 3/10 - 3/14 Spring Break
11 3/17 - 3/21 Variations of Turing Machines Chapter 10 Second Exam. Minor variations, multi-tape, multi-dimensional, non-deterministic; Universal Turing Machines
12 3/24 - 3/28 More Turning Machine Variations Chapter 10 assignment 10
Wed. Apr. 2nd
Exam review.
13 3/31 - 4/4 Heirarchy of Languages and Automata Chapter 11 assignment 11
Wed. Apr. 9th
Recursive and recursively enumerable languages, unrestricted grammars, context-sensitive grammars, Chomsky Heirarachy
14 4/7 - 4/11 Limits of Computation Chapter 12.1-12.2 assignment 12
Wed. Apr. 16th
Halting problem, undecidable problems, implications
15 4/14 - 4/18 Other Models of Computation Chapter 13.1 and 13.3 assignment 13
Wed. Apr. 23rd
We will briefly cover recursive functions and rewriting systems.
16 4/21 - 4/25 Computational Complexity Chapter 14 assignment 14
For review only
Efficiency, complexity classes, P and NP
17 4/28 - 5/2 Final Exam Week