CMPSCI 401: Spring 2011

Syllabus and Course Schedule

Prof. David Mix Barrington

Reading assignments are from Sipser, An Introduction to the Theory of Computation, second edition, available at the Textbook Annex.

Class meetings are MWF 1:25-2:15 in LGRC (the low-rise) room 203. There are two evening midterm exams -- the regular classes those days are cancelled though I may use the first one as a makeup for snow cancellations.

PART I:   Automata and Formal Languages

Wed 19 Jan L01  Course Overview (0.1)
Fri 21 Jan L02  Basic Definitions (0.2) 
Mon 24 Jan L03  Review of Proof Techniques (0.3,0.4)
Wed 26 Jan L04  Deterministic Finite Automata (1.1)
Fri 28 Jan L05  Nondeterministic Finite Automata (1.2)
Mon 31 Jan L06  Regular Expressions, Proof of Kleene's Theorem (1.3)
Wed 02 Feb L07  NO CLASS (snow)
Fri 04 Feb L08  Non-Regular Languages (1.4)
Mon 07 Feb L09  The Myhill-Nerode Theorem (1.4 plus)
Wed 09 Feb L10  Context-Free Languages and Grammars (2.1) 
Fri 11 Feb L11  PDA's, Equivalence of CFL's and PDA's (2.2)
Mon 14 Feb L12  Non-Context-Free Languages, More Equivalence (2.3)
Wed 16 Feb X01  FIRST MIDTERM (7-9 pm, location TBA) on Lectures 1-12 (no lecture)
Fri 18 Feb L13  Properties of the Context-Free Languages (2.3) 

PART II: Turing Machines and Computability

Mon 21 Feb ---  NO CLASS (Presidents' Day) 
Tue 22 Feb L14  Turing Machines, with Examples (3.1) (MONDAY SCHEDULE)
Wed 23 Feb L15  Variants of Turing Machines (3.2)
Fri 25 Feb L16  Representing Algorithms as Turing Machines (3.3)
Mon 28 Feb L17  Decidable Languages (4.1) 
Wed 02 Mar L18  The Halting Problem (4.2)
Fri 04 Mar L19  Proving Languages to be Undecidable (4.2) (DAVE AWAY) 
Mon 07 Mar L20  More on Chapter 4 as needed (4)
Wed 09 Mar L21  Undecidable Problems in Formal Language Theory (5.1) 
Fri 11 Mar L22  Post's Correspondence Problem (5.2)

SPRING BREAK

Mon 21 Mar L23  Mapping Reducibility and More Undecidable Problems (5.3)
Tue 22 Mar ---  Last Day to Drop With W
Wed 23 Mar L24  More on Chapter 5 as needed (5)
Fri 25 Mar L25  The Recursion Theorem (6.1)
Mon 28 Mar X02  SECOND MIDTERM (7-9 pm, location TBA) on Lectures 15-25 (no lecture)
Wed 30 Mar L26  A Definition of Information (6.4)

PART III: Complexity Theory

Fri 01 Apr L27  Time Complexity (7.1)
Mon 04 Apr L28  The Class P (7.2)  
Wed 06 Apr L29  The Class NP (7.3)
Fri 08 Apr L30  NP Completeness (7.4)
Mon 11 Apr L31  The Cook-Levin Theorem (7.4)
Wed 13 Apr L32  Some NP-Complete Problems (7.5)
Fri 15 Apr L33  Space Complexity Definitions (8.1) 
Mon 18 Apr ---  NO CLASS (Patriots' Day)
Wed 20 Apr L34  The Class PSPACE and Savitch's Theorem (8.1,8.2,8.3) (MONDAY SCHEDULE)
Fri 22 Apr L35  Logarithmic Space (8.4)
Mon 25 Apr L36  Reachability, L, NL, NL-Completeness (8.4)
Wed 27 Apr L37  Circuit Complexity (9.3)
Fri 29 Apr L38  The NC and AC Classes (9.3,10.5)
Mon 02 May L39  Course Review and Evaluations 

Final Exam (cumulative) during exam period as arranged by the University


Last modified 4 February 2011