CS355

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CS355 Theory of Computation
National University of Ireland,
MaynoothDepartment of Computer Science

• Dr. Aidan Mooney, September 2006

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Relevant courses

• Models of computation
• Discrete structures / Logic
• Data structures and algorithms
• Computational complexity theory

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Course requirements

• Data structures and algorithms
• 1st year undergraduate mathematics

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Course overview

• Language theory
• Three simple machines (finite automata,
  pushdown automata, Turing machines)

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Course detail 1/2

• Mathematical preliminaries
• Regular languages, finite automata, and regular
  expressions
• Nondeterminism and determinism in finite automata
• Properties of regular languages
• Nonregular languages
• Context-free languages, context-free grammars,
  and pushdown automata

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Course detail 2/2

• Nondeterminism and determinism in pushdown
  automata
• Properties of context-free languages
• Non-context-free languages
• Multi-stack machines
• Recursively-enumerable languages and Turing
  machines
• Recursive and nonrecursive languages
• Reductions.

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Course Details

• Course Text
• Michael Sipser, Introduction to the Theory of
  Computation, Second Edition (ISBN 0619217642).

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Course Details

• Contact amooney_at_cs.nuim.ie
• Office 2.105 Callan Building
• Lectures
• Monday 1-2 JH6
• Tuesday 5-6 Callan Hall
• Laboratories
• To be decided
• 3rd and 4th Year Science, CSSE, Bioinformatics
  Students.
• 70 Final Examination, 30 Continuous Assessment.