Announcements

• [March 17] Slides of Wednesday and Friday Week 10 posted.
• [March 16] Answers to Homework 5 of Week 9 have been posted.
• [March 16] Answers to Midterm 2 of Week 8 have been posted.
• [March 15] Slides of Monday of Week 10 posted.
• [March 13] Slides of Friday of Week 9 posted.
• [March 9] Slides of Monday and Wednesday of Week 9 posted.
• [March 7] Homework 5 of Week 9 is announced.
• [March 5] Homework 5 will be announced after class of Monday March 6.
• [March 2] Slides of Wednesday Week 8 posted, which contains additional information about the Midterm of Friday March 3.
• [March 1] Answers to Homework 3 and Homework 4 posted.
• [Feb 27] Slides of Monday Week 8 posted.
• [Feb 27] Slides of Week 7 posted.
• [Feb 21] Slides of Week 6 posted.
• [Feb 20] Homework 4 of Week 6 has been posted.
• [Feb 16] Note that Homework 3 is due before 5pm on Friday the 17th of February.
• [Feb 11] Answers to Midterm posted.
• [Feb 10] Slides and Homework of Week 5 posted.
• [Jan 31] Answers to the homework of Week 2 posted.
• [Jan 30] Slides of Monday Week 4 with test exercises for the Midterm have been posted.
• [Feb 10] Slides and Homework of Week 5 posted.
• [Jan 28] Slides of Week 3 have been posted.
• [Jan 25] Answers to Homework of Week 1 posted.
• [Jan 22] Homework of Week 2 is announced.
• [Jan 14] Homework of Week 1 is announced.
• [Jan 13] Slides of Week 1 have been posted.
• [Jan 12] There will be no Discussion Session on Friday January 13.
• [January 8, 2006] Installment of the CS138 Discussion Group.
• [October 14, 2005] Installment of the CS138 web site of Winter 2006.

Course Info

Description:

• Formal languages; finite automata and regular expressions; properties of regular languages; pushdown automata and context-free grammars; properties of context-free languages; introduction to computability and unsolvability (Turing machines) and computational complexity.

Required Textbook:

• The required reader will be available at The Alternative in Isla Vista.

Prerequisites:

• Prerequisite: Computer Science 40; open to computer science and computer engineering majors only.
• Not open for credit to students who have completed Computer Science 136.

Grading/Exams:

• Five homeworks (5 x 5%) + two midterms (2 x 10%) + one final (50%) + participation (5%).

Weekly Schedule:

• Monday 11:30: Homework due; homework boxes are in Engr. I, room 2108
• Monday 12:00-12:50: Class in Trailer 932
• Wednesday 12:00-12:50: Class in Trailer 932
• Wednesday 13:00-15:00: Office hours WvD (Engr. I, 5109)
• Thursday 13:00-15:00: Office Hours YTN (Phelps 1413)
• Friday 9:00-9:50: Discussion/return of homework in Psychology 1802
• Friday 12:00-12:50: Class in Trailer 932
• Weekend: Announcement of new homework

Discussion Group:

• This course has a Google Discussion group at http://groups.google.com/group/CS138-UCSB-Winter2006. It seems that you need a Gmail account to use the group, although it is also possible to post a message by mailing it to CS138-UCSB-Winter2006@googlegroups.com. This Discussion Group is an experiment, so comments and suggestions are encouraged.

Contacting/Questions:

• I prefer that you use my office hours for your questions, rather than doing a lengthy Q&A exchange via email. Ideally, you could email me about the issue in advance so that I can look into it before my office hour session. Thanks.

Schedule and Slides

• Week 1 [January 9 - January 15]
  Monday Jan 9: Class starts
  Wednesday Jan 11:
  Friday Jan 13: (No Discussion Session today)
  Topics: Formalities, overview of course, notion of computability and complexity, automata theory, computational problems as language decision problems, mathematical techniques, mathematics of formal languages [pp. 1-19, Reader]
  Slides Week 1: (ppt|pdf)
  Homework 1, due Monday January 23, 11:30.
  Answers to Homework 1
  
  
• Week 2 [January 16 - January 22]
  Monday Jan 16: No class (Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.)
  Wednesday Jan 18: Ömer Egecioglu will lecture today's course
  Friday Jan 20: (First Discussion Session today)
  Topics: Finite automata, regular languages, some closure properties, More closure properties, Nondeterministic Finite Automata, NFA=DFA [pp. 22-38, Reader]
  Slides Week 2: (ppt|pdf)
  Homework 2, due Monday January 30, 11:30.
  Answers to Homework 2
  
  
• Week 3 [January 23 - January 29]
  Monday Jan 23: Homework 1 due
  Wednesday Jan 25:
  Friday Jan 27:
  Topics: NFA=DFA, closure of RL under regular operations, Applications and properties of regular expressions, Generalized Nondeterministic Finite Automata, RL=RE, Nonregular languages, pumping lemma, examples of applications of the pumping lemma [pp. 34-48, Reader]
  Slides Week 3: (ppt|pdf)
  
  
• Week 4 [January 30 - February 5]
  Monday Jan 30: Homework 2 due
  Wednesday Feb 1: Q&A session for Midterm
  Friday Feb 3: Midterm on Finite Automata and Regular Languages (answers)
  Topics: Pumping Lemma, Exercises for Midterm
  Slides Monday Week 4: (ppt|pdf)
  
  
• Week 5 [February 6 - February 12]
  Monday Feb 6:
  Wednesday Feb 8:
  Friday Feb 10:
  Topics: Context free languages
  Slides Week 5: (ppt|pdf)
  Homework 3, due Friday February 17, 17:00.
  Answers to Homework 3
  
  
• Week 6 [February 13 - February 19]
  Monday Feb 13:
  Wednesday Feb 15:
  Friday Feb 17: Homework 3 due, 5pm
  Topics: Chomsky and other normal forms, CYK algorithm
  Slides Week 6: (ppt|pdf)
  Homework 4, due Monday February 27, 11:30.
  Answers to Homework 4
  
  
• Week 7 [February 20 - February 26]
  Monday Feb 20: No class (Washington's Birthday)
  Wednesday Feb 22:
  Friday Feb 24:
  Topics: pushdown automata
  Slides Week 7: (ppt|pdf)
  
  
• Week 8 [February 27 - March 5]
  Monday Feb 27: Homework 4 due.
  Wednesday Mar 1:
  Friday Mar 3: Scheduled Midterm on Context Free Languages and Pushdown Automata (answers)
  Topics: Pumping lemma for context free languages
  Slides Monday Week 8: (ppt|pdf)
  Slides Wednesday Week 8: (ppt|pdf)
  
  
• Week 9 [March 6 - March 12]
  Monday Mar 6:
  Wednesday Mar 8:
  Friday Mar 10:
  Topics: Turing machines, computability theory, Halting problem, unsolvable problems
  Homework 5, due Tuesday March 14, 11:30.
  Answers to Homework 5
  Slides Monday and Wednesday Week 9: (ppt|pdf)
  Slides Friday Week 9: (ppt|pdf)
  
  
• Week 10 [March 13 - March 19]
  Monday Mar 13:
  Tuesday Mar 14: Homework 5 due.
  Wednesday Mar 15: Q&A
  Friday Mar 17: All questions answered
  Topics: Some more on computability theory, Q&A for Final
  Slides Monday Week 10: (ppt|pdf)
  Slides Wednesday and Friday Week 10: (ppt|pdf)
  
  
• Finals Week [March 18 - March 24]
  Tuesday March 21, 12-3pm: Final examination
  
  
• April 2, 2006: Begin Spring Quarter

	This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.
Created October 14, 2005 / last updated March 17, 2006 by vandam@cs