Introduction to CS Theory
VCSS 380
Spring 2009

Instructor - Stanislaw Radziszowski

office 70-3657
(585) 475-5193, spr@cs.rit.edu
http://www.cs.rit.edu/~spr
office hours MW 2-3pm and 8-9pm (if nobody comes by 8:15pm I may go home), or send email

Lectures

Monday/Wednesday 12-2pm, room 70-1445

Books

• John C. Martin, Introduction to Languages and the Theory of Computation, McGraw-Hill, Inc., Third Edition 2003 (required textbook).
• M. Sipser, Introduction to the Theory of Computation, PWS Publ., Second Edition 2005 (optional textbook).
• T.A. Sudkamp, Languages and Machines, Addison-Wesley 1988 (optional).
• H.R. Lewis and C.H. Papadimitriou, Elements of the Theory of Computation, Prentice Hall 1981 (optional - standard math oriented text).
• J.E. Hopcroft and J.D. Ullman, Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages and Computation, Addison-Wesley 1979 (optional - very math oriented). New Edition J.E. Hopcroft, R. Motwani and J.D. Ullman, Addison-Wesley 2001.
• James L. Hein, Theory of Computation, Jones and Bartlett Publ. 1996 (logic oriented).
• J.G. Brookshear, Theory of Computation, Formal Languages, Automata, and Complexity, The Benjamin/Cummings Publ. 1989 (optional - easier).

Evaluation

• 45% Homeworks
• 25% Midterm Exam, Monday, April 13, 2009, room 70-1445, 12-2pm.
• 30% Final Exam, Wednesday, May 20, 2009, room 70-1445, 8-10am.

Contents

Introduction to the classical and contemporary theory of computation covering regular, context-free and computable (recursive) languages with finite state machines, pushdown automata and Turing machines. Basis of the Chomsky hierarchy and computability theory. Overview of main ideas of Complexity Theory and Computability Theory. There are no programming assignments.