Handouts and Notes:

• This year we will be using Piazza to encourage discussion about the course material, homeworks, etc. Please make sure that you are signed up and reading the messages I send from Piazza.

• Requirements

• We will cover all of Sipser, with perhaps some supplementary material added. Since this is the first year we are using Sipser, I'm not certain yet how long it will take.

• Very important is that by the evening before each class at the latest, you will read the material for the upcoming class and email me with your thoughts, observations, questions and answers about the chapter. I will use your observations and answer your questions in a fairly interactive class where we will consolidate and build on what we've read. I'll send you notices in advance via Piazza of the sections to be read.

• If some of the symbols that I have been using seem Greek to you, here is a Symbol Table to help you remember what they mean.

TA: Mark McCartin-Lim

What is this course about? This course presents an in-depth introduction to the main models and concepts of the mathematical theory of computation, including: Computability, Complexity, and Logic. I will emphasize the ability to go from a concrete problem to a mathematical model; and, after proving things about the mathematical model, to correctly interpret what we have learned about the concrete problem. For example, we will learn how to tell whether a problem we need to solve is NP complete, or even undecidable, and if so, what to do about it.

Text: The following required textbook -- which we will supplement with papers and class notes -- will be available at the Textbook Annex:

• Introduction to the Theory of Computation, 2nd Edition by Michael Sipser, (2006), Course Technology, ISBN-10: 0534950973.

Meeting times: M,W 10:35 -- 11:50, CMPS 140. First meeting Mon., Jan. 23, 2012.

Prerequisites: Mathematical maturity at the level of Comp Sci 250 is a minimal requirement. One nice book that helps with mathematical background is, How to Prove It by Daniel Velleman.

Most students will have had an undergraduate course in Automata and Formal Languages such as Comp Sci 401. For students who don't know this material, it would be helpful to get the text in advance and read its first two chapters.

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Here is a diagram of the world of computability and complexity: