CS 373: Theory of Computation


Lecture, Problem Solving Sessions, and Section

Starting the second week, the course will have an unusual lecture schedule. There will be two lectures each Monday, and two lectures each Wednesday. One lecture per day will take place as normal, at 9:00AM in 1109 SC. The second lecture will be held at 2:00PM in 1304 SC. You are not required to attend the extra lectures, but feel free to attend if able and ask questions.

All of the lectures will be recorded, and you are required to watch each of the lectures! (It's part of the homework.) Ideally, you should watch each lecture before the next scheduled lecture occurs; look at the Lecture # to see when. Note that the first week will not be recorded.

Since you are watching lectures at home, the homeworks will be somewhat easier. Instead of lecture on Tuesdays and Thursdays, there will be a Problem Solving Session (PSS) in which we work on the homework for the class. This will be somewhat similar to the 'sections' that usually accompany CS theory courses. In each PSS, you will work on and get answers to some of the problems that are due in the homework that week. As a result, there will be less homework problems that you need to tackle on your own.

Be careful not to fall too behind in lecture! The Summer course moves fast and CS373 usually requires a lot of time and work to understand. In particular, the Problem Solving Sessions will not be as useful to you if you are not up to date with the material!

The sections each week will cover different material as necessary.

Files

Here is everything we uploaded in one place:

HW: hw0(pdf,tex), hw1(pdf,tex), hw2(pdf,tex),hw3(pdf,tex), hw4(pdf,tex), hw5(pdf,tex)

Lectures: GNFA/Regex=regular notes, Suffix class definition correction, DFA minimization/Myhill Nerode notes, Pumping lemma game, Rice's theorem proof, Reduction proof outline

Exams: Sp11 Practice Midterm 1, Midterm 1 solutions, Fa10 Practice Midterm 2, Practice unrecognizable problems(solutions), Midterm 2 solutions, FA09 mock midterm 2 (w CFLs),FA09 midterm 2 (w CFLs), Sp10 mock final (solutions)

Schedule

BEFORE STARTING THE HOMEWORK, PLEASE READ THE INSTRUCTIONS ON THE HOMEWORK POLICY PAGE!!!

Date Lecture # Lecture Topic Resources Assignments
Week 1
6/13 Mon01 Motivation and Problems


6/14 Tue02 Problems and languages, Finite states


6/15 Wed03 DFA formalism, finite languages are regular

HW0 assigned [tex]
6/16 Thu04 DFA constructions, nondeterminism


6/17 Fri section


Week 2
6/20 Mon05 9AM: NFA formalism
HW0 due, HW1 assigned [tex]
06 2PM: The power of NFAs: equivalence

6/22 Wed07 9AM: Subset construction, NFA examples,
finite is regular (revisited)

08 2PM: Regular closure properties with NFAs

6/24 Fri section

HW1 due; HW2 assigned [tex only]
Week 3
6/27 Mon099AM: Regular Expressions

10 2PM: Regex equivalence
[notes]
6/29 Wed119AM: Homomorphism, Nonregularity,
DFA structure: pumping lemma

122PM: More pumping lemma

7/01 Fri section

HW2 due; HW1 corrections due
Week 4
7/04 Mon INDEPENDENCE DAY (NO CLASS)
7/05 Tue
Midterm Review


7/06 Wed 9AM: MIDTERM 1 (in class)

132PM: DFA structure: Myhill-Nerode theorem

7/07 Thu14DFA minimization
[notes]
7/08 Fri section


Week 5
7/11 Mon159AM: Programs with Infinite memory, Turing machines
HW3 assigned [tex only], HW2 corrections due
16 2PM: TM Formalism, Decidability, Recognizability

7/13 Wed179AM: Regular languages are decidable, TM Examples

182PM: More TM examples, Church-Turing thesis, TM variants

7/15 Fri section

HW3 due; HW4 assigned [tex only]
Week 6
7/18 Mon199AM: Nondeterminism, Countable sets, Undecidability

20 2PM: Halting problem, Reductions for undecidability

7/20 Wed219AM: Unrecognizability, Mapping reductions

222PM: Mapping reduction examples, Rice's theorem
[notes]
7/22 Fri section

HW4 due; HW3 corrections due
Week 7
7/25 Mon
9AM: Midterm review

232PM: Grammars, Chomsky Hierarchy

7/26 TueMIDTERM 2 (in class)
7/27 Wed249AM: Context free grammars

252PM: Pumping lemma for CFLs

7/28 Thu26Normal Forms
HW5 assigned [tex only]
7/29 Fri section

HW4 corrections due
Week 8
8/01 Mon279AM: Restricted infinite memory: Pushdown Automata

28 2PM: PDA/CFG equivalence, CFLs are decidable

8/03 Wed299AM: The end and more
8/04 Thu
Final Review/Homework Solutions

HW5 due
8/05 Fri FINAL EXAM: 1:00-3:00 PM