Computer Science 601 Syllabus Spring, 2003

• I am still planning some changes to this syllabus, none in the first few lectures. Most of the links are not yet established, but the dates of exams and homeworks should be accurate.
• Many students find it useful to print out the slides for the lecture before coming to class. Click on the title of each lecture to download the slides from that day in postscript, or on the pdf symbol afterwards if you prefer pdf. I find the postscript slightly better. You can view it by downloading the free ghostview software.

• I urge all Amherst students to come to the (live) classes, but if you miss a class for some reason, the tapes will be available on reserve in the Computer Science main office. Each Wednesday the tapes for that week will be put there. Please try to use this privilege sparingly.

CMPSCI 601: Office Hours, Spring 2003
David Mix Barrington, CompSci Bldg 210, barring@cs.umass.edu	Mon 2:30-3:30, Tues 9:00 -- 11:30, and by appointment. The office hours on Tuesday are primarily for CS 601 students; the office hour on Monday is primarily for undergrad advising.
Kazu Hirata, CompSci Bldg 314, kazu@cs.umass.edu	Mon 12:30-2:00, Tues: 11:00-12:30

Questions and Answers

Please do the indicated readings from the text and handouts BEFORE coming to class.

Date	Lecture	Readings to be Completed Before Class
W, 1/29	1. Introduction plus Finite Automata Review, pdf	[P] Chapt. 1
M, 2/3	2. Myhill Nerode Theorem , pdf	Review [HMU], [LP], or [S] as needed
W, 2/5	3. Context-Free Languages , pdf	Review [HMU], [LP], or [S] as needed;
M, 2/10	4. Turing Machines , pdf	[P] § 2.1 - 2.3, fyi: Turing's original paper
W, 2/12	5. More Turing Machines , pdf	[P] § 2.4 - 2.7; HW 1 due
T, 2/18	No class, snow
W, 2/19	6. Halting and Diagonalization, pdf	[P] § 3.1 - 3.2; fyi: Hopcroft article on TMs
M, 2/24	7. Reductions and Complete Sets, pdf	[P] § 3.3;
W, 2/26	8. Primitive Recursion, Upper Bounds, pdf	notes only
F, 2/28	9. An Undecidable Problem About CFL's, pdf	notes only
M, 3/3	10. Propositional Logic and Circuits, pdf	[BE] Chapts. 1 - 3,HW 2 due
W, 3/5	11. First-Order Logic and Truth, pdf	[BE] Chapts. 4 - 6
M, 3/10	12. The Tarski Game, First-Order Axioms, pdf	[BE] 7 - 9; [P] § 5.1 - 5.2
W, 3/12	13. Axioms and Metatheorems, pdf	[BE] 10 - 11; [P] § 5.3; HW 3 due
3/17 -- 3/21	Spring Break
M, 3/24	14. Completeness and Compactness, pdf	[BE] 12 - 13; [P] § 5.4
W, 3/26	15. Godel's Incompleteness Theorem, pdf	[BE] 19; [P] § 5.5 - 5.6, 6.1 - 6.3; HW 4 due
M, 3/31	Midterm
W, 4/2	16. Complexity: Reachability , pdf	[P] § 7.1 - 7.2 Gödel's Paper;
M, 4/7	17. Nondeterministic Space , pdf	[P] § 7.3
W, 4/9	18. Fagin and Cook Theorems, pdf	[P] § 8.1 - 8.3; HW 5 due
M,4/14	19. NP Completeness, pdf	Chapt. 9
W, 4/16	20. Approximability of NP Optimization Problems , pdf	[P] Chapt. 13;
W, 4/23	21. Alternation , pdf	HW 6 due, Alternation article, [P] § 16.2
W, 4/30	22. Parallelism and Circuits , pdf	[P] § 15.1 -- 15.3,
F, 5/2	23. More Parallelism and Circuits, pdf	notes only, HW 7 due
M, 5/5	24. PSPACE, pdf	[P] Chapt. 19
W, 5/7	25. Random Computation, pdf	[P] § 11.1 - 11.2, 15.4;
M, 5/12	26. Cryptography, pdf	[P] Chapt. 12, HW 8 due
W, 5/14	27. Summary and Conclusions, pdf
M, 5/19	Final Exam: AEBN 119	Final Study Guide