COMS W3261
Computer Science Theory
Fall 2008
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COMS W3261 Computer Science Theory Fall 2008 |
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| Announcements | ||||||||||
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Class meets 1:10-2:25pm, Mondays and Wednesdays, 825 Mudd. First class is Wednesday, September 3, 2008. Class bulletin board: https://courseworks.columbia.edu |
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| Teaching Staff | ||||||||||
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| Course Overview | ||||||||||
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In Computer Science Theory you will discover the fundamental
models of computation that underly computer hardware, software,
and programming languages, and the limits to what problems
computers can solve.
The course will cover the four important formal languages in the Chomsky hierarchy -- regular sets, context-free languages, context-sensitive languages, and recursively enumerable sets -- as well as the formalisms that generate these languages and the machines that recognize them. The course will also introduce the basic concepts of computability and complexity theory by focusing on the question, "What are the fundamental capabilities and limitations of computers?" The concepts covered in this course will be amply illustrated by applications to modern hardware and software design. |
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| Pre- or Corequisites | ||||||||||
| COMS W3137 Data Structures and Algorithms | ||||||||||
| COMS W3203 Discrete Mathematics | ||||||||||
| Schedule 2008 | ||||||||||
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| Required Text | ||||||||||
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John E. Hopcroft, Rajeev Motwani, and Jeffrey D. Ullman Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation, Third Edition Pearson/Addison-Wesley, 2007, ISBN 0-321-45536-3 |
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| Additional References | ||||||||||
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Michael Sipser Introduction to the Theory of Computation, Second Edition Thomson, 2006 |
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Alfred V. Aho and Jeffrey D. Ullman Foundations of Computer Science, C Edition W. H. Freeman, 1995 |
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| Class Policies | ||||||||||
| Grading |
30 % Homeworks 30 % Midterm 40 % Final |
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| Late Policy | All assignments can be handed in one week after they are due for 50% credit. | |||||||||
| aho@cs.columbia.edu | Updated July 4, 2008 |