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Frank Pfenning
  

15-453 Formal Languages, Automata, and Computation
Schedule

Except for supplementary handouts, all readings are in the textbook Introduction to the Theory of Computation, Michael Sipser, PWS Publishing Company, 1997 (Errata, 2nd printing).

Note that lectures may cover material which is not in the textbook, so the reading cannot replace class attendance.

The schedule is subject to change throughout the semester.

Date Lecture Reading Homework Due
Mon Jan 17 Martin L. King Day    
Wed Jan 19 Overview   Ch. 0  
Fri Jan 21 Finite Automata   Ch. 1, pp. 31-54  
Mon Jan 24 Applications of Finite State Machines   Handout 3  
Wed Jan 26 Model Checking   Handout 4  
Fri Jan 28 Non-Deterministic Finite Automata   Ch. 1, pp. 53-58,
  Handout 5 		  Assignment 1
Mon Jan 31 Regular Expressions   Ch. 1, pp. 64-76  
Wed Feb 2 Nonregular Languages   Ch. 1.4, pp. 77-83  
Fri Feb 4 Context-Free Grammars   Ch. 2.1, pp. 91-101   Assignment 2
Mon Feb 7 Regular Grammars   Handout 9  
Wed Feb 9 Pushdown Automata   Ch. 2.2, pp. 101-110  
Fri Feb 11 PDAs and Context-Free Grammars   Ch. 2.2, pp. 111-114   Assignment 3
Mon Feb 14 Non-Context-Free Languages   Ch. 2.3, pp. 115-119  
Wed Feb 16 Review   Ch. 1 & 2  
Fri Feb 18 Midterm I   Practice Midterm I   Assignment 4
Mon Feb 21 Turing Machines   Ch. 3.1, pp. 125-135  
Wed Feb 23 Variants of Turing Machines   Ch. 3.2, pp. 134-138  
Fri Feb 25 Non-Deterministic Turing Machines   Ch. 3.2, pp. 138-140  
Mon Feb 28 Decision Procedures   Ch. 4.1, pp. 151-158  
Wed Mar 1 The Halting Problem   Ch. 4.2, pp. 159-168  
Fri Mar 3 Reductions   Ch. 5.3, pp. 189-194,
  Slides in HTML and PostScript 		  Assignment 5
Mon Mar 6 Midsemester Holiday
Wed Mar 8 Some Undecidable Problems   Ch. 5.1, pp. 171-176  
Fri Mar 10 Computation Histories   Ch. 5.1, pp. 176-182   Assignment 6
Mon Mar 13 Mapping Reductions   Ch. 5.3, pp. 189-194  
Wed Mar 15 Post Correspondence Problem   Ch. 5.2, pp. 183-189  
Fri Mar 17 Tiling   not in book   Assignment 7
Mon Mar 20 The Lambda-Calculus   not in book  
Wed Mar 22 Review   Ch. 3-5, pp. 125-196  
Fri Mar 24 Midterm II   Practice Midterm II  
Mar 27-31 Spring Break
Mon Apr 3 Time Complexity   Ch. 7.1, pp. 225-234  
Wed Apr 5 Polynomial Time   Ch. 7.2, pp. 232-236  
Fri Apr 7 Some Problems in P   Ch. 7.2, pp. 236-241  
Mon Apr 10 Verifiers   Ch. 7.3, pp. 241-244  
Wed Apr 12 The Class NP   Ch. 7.3, pp. 244-248   Assignment 8
Fri Apr 14 Spring Carnival
Mon Apr 17 Polynomial Time Reductions   Ch. 7.4, pp. 248-253  
Wed Apr 19 NP-Completeness   Ch. 7.4, pp. 253-260  
Fri Apr 21 The Importance of SAT   Lecture notes; Addendum   Assignment 9
Mon Apr 24 The Vertex Cover Problem   Ch. 7.5, pp. 260-262  
Wed Apr 26 The Hamiltonian Path Problem   Ch. 7.5, pp. 262-268  
Fri Apr 28 Space Complexity   Ch. 8.1-8.2, pp. 277-282   Assignment 10
Mon May 1 PSPACE-Completeness   Ch 8.3, pp. 283-288  
Wed May 3 Review   Ch. 7.1-8.3, pp. 225-288  
Fri May 5 Reading Day (no class)
Fri May 12 Final, 8:30-11:30, WeH 7500    

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fp@cs
Frank Pfenning