CSCI 2670 Introduction to Theory of Computing (Fall 2018)
General Information:
Monday Classes: 11:15 - 12:05, 551 Chemistry
Tuesday/Thursday Classes: 11:00 - 12:15, 310 Dawson Hall
Instructor : Liming Cai
Office: 544 Boyd
Phone : 542-6081
Email : cai@cs.uga.edu
Office hours : 1:00-2:00 Mon and 9:45-10:45 Thur, or by appointment
Teaching Assistants:
Ms. Ruoyan Cai; Email: ruoyan.c@uga.edu; Office hours: 1:30pm-2:30pm Wed and 1:00-2:00pm Thur; office: Room 307 Boyd
Mr. David Robinson; Email: daverob@uga.edu; Office hours:
1:00-2:00 Tues and 3:00-4:00 Wed; Office: Romm 307 Boyd
First MidTerm Exam: 11:00-12:15 September 20 Thursday, in classroom 310 Dawson Hall
Second MidTerm Exam: 11:00-12:15 October 25 Thursday, in classroom 310 Dawson Hall
Final Exam : 12:00-3:00 December 11, Tuesday, in classroom 310 Dawson Hall
Last Class Day:: Monday December 3
Lecture Notes (updated constantly, download it and read with Adobe Acrobat reader, using page up and down keys.)
Homework
Course contents:
This course introduces the theory for computation, addressing fundamental questions such as what problems can or cannot be computed. Lectures use formal languages as the simplest form for computation problems, upon which computability is discussed with respect to a hierarchy of computation machine models: finite automata, push-down automata, and Turing machines. Computabilities of these models are proved in terms of their capabilities to recognize a corresponding hierarchy of formal languages, including regular languages and context-free languages. Equivalence among formal languages and thus undecidability are discussed via the notion of reduction. Computational complexity is also presented based on Turing machines with limited resources (i.e., bounded time and space resources).
This course also
covers typical applications of automata and formal languages in text processing and biomedical research. In addition,
new computation models based on bio-molecule programming will be briefly introduced as a potential development of computations with models beyond the classical (Turing) computers.
Prerequisites:
CSCI(MATH) 2610 or CSCI 2611.
Texts:
Grading policy:
Homework and pop quizzes: 45%
Two in class midterm exams : 30%
Final exam: 25%
Late homework answers:
15% off for one day late,
35% off for two days late,
50% off for three days late.
Tentative schedule:
Chapter 0. Introduction (one week)
Chapter 1. Regular languages and finite automata (5 weeks)
Chapter 2. Context-free languages and pushdown automata (5 weeks)
Chapter 3. The Church-Turing Thesis (2 week)
Chapter 4. Decidability (one week)
Chapter 5. Reducibility (one week)
Chapters 7-8. Time and space complexities (2 weeks)
Academic Dishonesty:
It is expected that the work you submit is your own. Plagiarism and other
forms of academic dishonesty will be handled within the guidelines of
the Student Handbook. The usual penalty for academic dishonesty is loss of
credit for the assignment in question; however,
stronger measures may be taken when conditions warrant.
Attendance policy: