Handouts and Notes:

• Requirements

• Information about readings and topics to be coverered and other handouts will be posted on the syllabus.

• If some of the symbols that I have been using seem Greek to you, here is a Symbol Table to help you remember what they mean.

What is this course about? This course presents an in-depth introduction to the main models and concepts of the mathematical theory of computation, including: Computability, Complexity, and Logic. I will emphasize the ability to go from a concrete problem to a mathematical model; and, after proving things about the mathematical model, to correctly interpret what we have learned about the concrete problem. For example, we will learn how to tell whether a problem we need to solve is NP complete, or even undecidable, and if so, what to do about it.

Required Textbook: Computational Complexity: A Modern Approach by Sanjeev Arora and Boaz Barak, Cambridge University Press.

Meeting times: T, Th, 2:30 -- 3:45, remote via Zoom. Please turn your camera on when you attend class. First meeting Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021.

Prerequisites: A course on Finite Automata and Formal Languages such as CMPSCI 501.

Questions: We will be using Piazza: Sign Up Here, and please ask questions on Piazza where other students and/or the TA and I can answer and we can all benefit from the discussion.

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Here is a diagram of the world of computability and complexity: