COMPSCI 250: Introduction to Computation

David Mix Barrington and Ghazaleh Parvini

Fall 2023

Sections 4.6, 9.10, and 15.1 are optional — they will not be covered on exams, homework, or quizzes.

PART I: Logic and Number Theory

Wed 06 Sep L01  Sets and Strings (1.1, 1.2)
Wed 06 Sep ---  NO DISCUSSION (first day of class)
Fri 08 Sep L02  Propositions and Boolean Operations (1.4)
Mon 11 Sep L03  Set Operations and Truth Tables (1.5, 1.6) (END OF ADD/DROP) 
Wed 13 Sep L04  Rules for Propositional Proofs (1.7) 
Wed 13 Sep D01  What is a Proof? (1.3)
Fri 15 Sep L05  Propositional Proof Strategies (1.8)
Mon 18 Sep L06  Predicates and Relations (1.10, 2.1)
Wed 20 Sep L07  Quantifiers and Languages (2.3, 2.5) 
Wed 20 Sep D02  A Murder Mystery (1.9)   
Fri 22 Sep L08  Proofs With Quantifiers (2.6)
Fri 22 Sep H01  Homework #1 due at 11:59 p.m. 
Mon 25 Sep L09  Relations and Functions (2.8)
Wed 27 Sep L10  Equivalence Relations (2.10)
Wed 27 Sep D03  Practicing Proofs (2.7)
Fri 29 Sep L11  Partial Orders (2.11)
Mon 02 Oct L12  Divisibility and Primes (3.1)
Wed 04 Oct L13  Modular Arithmetic (3.3) 
Wed 04 Oct D04  Infinitely Many Primes (3.4)
Fri 06 Oct L14  The Chinese Remainder Theorem (3.5)
Fri 06 Oct H02  Homework #2 due at 11:59 p.m.
Mon 09 Oct ---  NO LECTURE (Indigenous Peoples’ Day)
Tue 10 Oct L15  The Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic (3.6) (MONDAY)
Thu 12 Oct X01  FIRST MIDTERM (7-9 p.m., room TBA) on Lectures 1-15

PART II: Induction, Trees, and Searching

Wed 11 Oct L16  Recursive Definition (4.1) (MONDAY)
Wed 11 Oct ---  NO DISCUSSION (makeup for exam) 
Fri 13 Oct L17  Proof by Induction for Naturals (4.3)
Mon 16 Oct L18  Variations on Induction for Naturals (4.4)
Wed 18 Oct L19  Proving the Basic Facts of Arithmetic (4.6*) 
Wed 18 Oct D05  Practicing Induction Proofs (not in book)
Fri 20 Oct L20  Recursive Definition for Strings (4.7)
Fri 20 Oct H03  Homework #3 due at 11:59 p.m.
Mon 23 Oct L21  Induction for Problem Solving (4.11)
Wed 25 Oct L22  Graphs, Paths, and Trees (4.9, 9.1)
Wed 25 Oct D06  More Induction Practice (not in book)
Fri 27 Oct L23  Recursion on Trees (9.3)
Mon 30 Oct L24  General, Breadth-First, and Depth-First Search (9.4, 9.5)
Tue 31 Oct ---  Last Day to Drop With W or Elect Pass/Fail  
Wed 01 Nov L25  BFS and DFS on Graphs (9.6)
Wed 01 Nov D07  Boolean Expression Trees (9.2)
Fri 03 Nov L26  Uniform-Cost and A* Search (9.8, 9.9)
Fri 03 Nov H04  Homework #4 due at 11:59 p.m.  
Mon 06 Nov L27  Games and Adversary Search (9.10*)
Thu 09 Nov X02  SECOND MIDTERM (7-9 p.m., room TBA) on Lectures 16-27

PART III: Regular Expressions, Finite-State Machines, and Computability

Wed 08 Nov ---  NO DISCUSSION (makeup for exam)  
Wed 08 Nov L28  Regular Expressions and Their Languages (5.1, 5.2)
Fri 10 Nov L29  Proving Regular Language Identities (5.4)  
Mon 13 Nov L30  Proving Properties of the Regular Languages (5.5)
Wed 15 Nov L31  What DFA's Can and Can't Do (14.1, 14.2)
Wed 15 Nov D08  Designing Regular Expressions (5.3)
Fri 17 Nov L32  The Myhill-Nerode Theorem (14.3)
Fri 17 Nov H05  Homework #5 due at 11:59 p.m.  
Mon 20 Nov L33  NFA's and the Subset Construction (14.5, 14.6)

THANKSGIVING BREAK

Mon 27 Nov L34  Killing λ-moves: λ-NFA's to NFA's (14.7)
Wed 29 Nov L35  Constructing NFA's from Regular Expressions (14.8)
Wed 29 Nov D09  State Minimization (14.3, adapted)
Fri 01 Dec L36  State Elimination: NFA's to Regular Expressions (14.10)
Mon 04 Dec L37  Two-Way Automata and Turing Machines (15.1*, 15.6)
Wed 06 Dec L38  Turing Machine Semantics (15.8)
Wed 06 Dec D10  Practicing Some Kleene Constructions (14.9, adapted)   
Fri 08 Dec L39  The Halting Problem and Unsolvability (15.10)
Fri 08 Dec H06  Homework #6 due at 11:59 p.m.

Final Exam (cumulative), TBA




Last modified 24 August 2023