CS320 Fall 2024

Computer Science 320 (Theory of Computation) Fall 2024

Preliminary Version: under construction. All content here is subject to change.

Handouts and notes from class will be added over the course of the semester.

Access your CUNY zoom acccount:
Office hours: Mondays 10.30am to 11.30am in SB A222.
Exams will be in person at Queens College. No make up exams will be given. If you miss a midterm, your final exam score will be used in its place. If you miss the final you will get a WU for the course, or only in the case of good, sufficient and unforeseen reasons you might qualify for an incomplete grade for the course.
The required textbook is: Introduction to the Theory of Computation, 3rd edition, by Michael Sipser
A recommended textbook is: Problems in Computation Theory, by Professor Obrenic. This is a collection of problems and solutions that have been used as exam questions in CS320. Our exam problems will be similar. To obtain a copy of the Problem Book submit a request to: Problem Book Printer uploading the 1-page file: CSCI_320_Queens_College_2024_Summer.pdf
In your order, reference this file name, select "booklet" as the product type, and declare 417 to be the page count of each individual copy. Furthermore, in the comment section, write: "This is a textbook. The file uploaded to the order is the title page.".
If several copies of the Problem Book are bought together (say for a group of classmates) then the price per copy is much lower than if only one copy is ordered. See the Printer's web page before ordering.
Planned class topics (subject to minor change). Notes and additional detail will be added after classes.
- 08-28-24 Class 01: Terminology: sets, N, R, alphabets, strings, pairs, tuples, products of sets, power sets (Sipser: 0.1, 0.2;) Notes
- 09-04-24 Class 02: Functions, injective, surjective, bijective, cardinality, countable, uncountable, ℵ0 (Sipser: 0.2, 0.3, 0.4;)
- 09-09-24 Class 03: Proofs of countability and uncountability (Sipser: 4.2;)
- 09-11-24 Class 04: Examples of countable and uncountable sets (Sipser: 4.2;)
- 09-16-24 Class 05: Regular operations, regular expressions (Sipser: 1.3;)
- 09-18-24 Class 06: Regular expressions (Sipser: 1.3;)
- 09-23-24 Class 07: Context-free grammars and languages (Sipser: 2.1;)
- 09-25-24 Class 08: Context-free grammars; closure properties (Sipser: 2.1;)
- 09-30-24 Class 09: Context-free grammars (Sipser: 2.1;)
- 10-07-24 Class 10: Deterministic finite automata (Sipser: 1.1;)
- 10-09-24 Class 11: Non-deterministic finite automata (Sipser: 1.2;)
- 10-15-24 Class 12: Kleene’s theorem (I); closure properties of regular languages (Sipser: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3;)
- 10-16-24 Class 13: Kleene’s theorem (II); regular grammars and finite automata (Sipser: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3;)
- 10-21-24 Class 14: Finite automata (Sipser: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3;)
- 10-23-24 Class 15: Pumping lemma for regular languages (Sipser: 1.4;)
- 10-28-24 Class 16: Catch up, review
- 10-30-24 Class 17: Test #1 — First Midterm
- 11-04-24 Class 18: Pumping lemma for context-free languages; closure properties of context-free languages (Sipser: 2.3;)
- 11-06-24 Class 19: Turing machines, elementary constructions, halting, acceptance (Sipser: 3.1;)
- 11-11-24 Class 20: Recursive and recursively enumerable languages; variants, simulations (Sipser: 3.2)
- 11-13-24 Class 21: Variants, simulations, universal Turing machine, non-determinism; halting problem (Sipser: 3.2;)
- 11-18-24 Class 22: Halting problem, reductions, Rice’s theorem (Sipser: 3.1–3.3; 5.1–5.3;)
- 11-20-24 Class 23: Rice’s theorem; algorithms, unsolvable problems (Sipser: 3.1–3.3; 5.1–5.3;)
- 11-25-24 Class 24: Catch up, review
- 12-02-24 Class 25: Push-down automata (Sipser: 2.2;)
- 12-04-24 Class 26: Test #2 — Second Midterm
- 12-09-24 Class 27: Push-down automata, simulations (Sipser: 2.2)
- 12-11-24 Class 28: Push-down automata, closure properties of context-free languages, simulations (Sipser: 2.2)
- Test #3 — Final: 8.30am to 10.30am, Wednesday, December 18, 2024. (Unless changed by the College.)