CS420: Introduction to the Theory of Computation
Spring 2019

Section 1

Monday Wednesday, 5:30-6:45, Y-2-2300

Department of Computer Science, UMass Boston

Professor

Peter Fejer
email: fejer@cs.umb.edu
Office: S-3-184
Office Hours: M,W 3:30-5:00, Tu,Th 1:00-2:00 and by appt.

TA

Quynh Vo

Email: kingvo at cs.umb.edu

Office: S-3-124

Office Hours: M,W 2:00-3:00

General Information

Introduction to theoretical aspects of computing, including models of computation, inherent limits on computation, and feasible computation.

Prerequisites:  CS 320L (or equivalent).

 

Day-by-Day Syllabus

·         For some topics in the course, I am using slides prepared by Prof. Emanuele Viola of Northeastern University. These slides are used with his kind permission. The slides are organized by chapter rather than by section of the textbook. Links to these slides on Prof. Viola’s webpage are given in the syllabus below.

·         This course is in the UMB Blackboard and in piazza. You can log into Blackboard with your UMB ID at umb.umassonline.net. The piazza page is accessible from Blackboard, but can also be reached directly at piazza.com/umb/spring2018/cs420/home. Both Blackboard and piazza contain links to this page.

·         Class lectures are being recorded using the Echo 360 system. You can find the class recordings in Blackboard.

 

 

Date

Topic

Textbook Section(s)

Slides

Homework and Solutions

Test Study Material and Solutions

Jan 28

Finite Automata I

Section 1.1

How to Succeed in CS 420

Introduction

Regular Languages

 

 

Jan 30

Finite Automata II

Section 1.1

 

Homework 1

Solutions

 

Feb 4

Finite Automata III

Nondeterministic Finite Automata I

Section 1.1

 

Section 1.2

 

 

Feb 6

Nondeterministic Finite Automata II

Regular Expressions I

Section 1.2

 

Section 1.3

 

Homework 2

Solutions

 

Feb 11

Regular Expressions II

Section 1.3

 

 

Feb 13

Non-Regular Languages I

Section 1.4

 

Homework 3

Solutions

 

Feb 18

Presidents’ Day

 

 

 

 

Feb 20

Non-Regular Languages II

Context-Free Grammars I

Section 1.4

 

Section 2.1

 

Context-Free Languages

Homework 4

Solutions

 

Feb 25

Context-Free Grammars II

Section 2.1

 

 

Feb 27

Context-Free Grammars III

Section 2.1

 

Homework 5

Solutions

 

Mar 4

Snow Day

 

 

Mar 6

Pushdown Automata I

Section 2.2

 

Homework 6

Solutions

 

Mar 11, Mar 13

Spring Break

 

 

 

 

Mar 18

Pushdown Automata II

Section 2.2

 

 

Mar 18 Make-Up Class

Pushdown Automata III

Section 2.2

 

 

 

Mar 20

Non-Context-Free Languages

Section 2.3

 

Homework 7

Solutions

 

Mar 25

Turing Machines I

Section 3.1

Computability

 

 

 

Mar 27

Turing Machines II

Section 3.2

 

 

Apr 1

Turing Machines III

Section 3.3

 

 

 

Apr 3

First Test

 

 

Study Guide

 

Practice Questions

 

Practice Question Solutions

 

Solutions

 

Apr 8

Decidable Languages I

Section 4.1

 

 

Apr 10

Decidable Languages II

Undecidability I

Section 4.1

Section 4.2

 

Homework 8

Solutions

 

Apr 15

Patriots Day

 

 

 

 

Apr 17

Undecidability II

Section 4.2

 

 

Homework 9

Solutions

 

Apr 22

Undecidable Problems in Language Theory I

Section 5.1

 

 

Apr 24

Undecidable Problems in Language Theory II

Section 5.1

 

Homework 10

Solutions

 

 

Apr 29

Undecidable Problems in Language Theory III

Mapping Reducibility I

Section 5.1

 

 

Section 5.3

 

 

 

May 1

Mapping Reducibility II

Measuring Complexity I

Section 5.3

 

Section 7.1

 

 

 

Homework 11

Solutions

 

 

 

 

May 6

Measuring Complexity

Section 7.1

 

 

 

May 8

Second Test

 

 

 

Study Guide

 

Practice Questions

 

Practice Question Solutions

 

Solutions

 

 

May 13

The Class P

Section 7.2

 

 

 

 

May 15

The Class NP

NP Completeness

Section 7.3

Section 7.4

 

 

Supplemental Homework

 

Solutions

May 20

Final Exam

6:30-9:30

 

 

 

Study Guide

 

Practice Questions

 

Practice Question Solutions

 

Solutions

Interesting Links

·        Here is the web site for the textbook . (Third Edition, Second Edition) (You should print out the list of errata for the textbook.)

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