COMS W3261 Computer Science Theory

8/31/15, 4:19 PM

COMS W3261
Computer Science Theory
Fall 2015
Announcements
Class meets 1:10-2:25pm, Mondays and Wednesdays, room TBA.
First lecture is Wednesday, September 9, 2015.
Teaching Staff
Name
email
Office hours
Location
Prof. Al Aho aho@cs.columbia.edu Mondays and Wednesdays 3:00-4:00pm 513 CSB

Course Overview
In Computer Science Theory you will learn computational thinking and get to know the
fundamental models of computation that underlie modern computer hardware, software, and
programming languages. You will also discover that there are limits on how quickly computers can
solve some problems and that there are some problems that no computer can solve.
The course will cover the important formal languages in the Chomsky hierarchy -- the regular sets,
the context-free languages, and the recursively enumerable sets -- as well as the formalisms that
generate these languages and the machines that recognize them. The course will introduce the basic
concepts of computability and complexity theory by focusing on the question, "What are the
fundamental capabilities and limitations of computers?" The course will also introduce the untyped
lambda calculus, the model of computation underlying functional programming languages.
The concepts covered in this course will be amply illustrated by applications to current
programming languages, algorithms, natural language processing, and hardware and software
design. The topics covered in Computer Science Theory are required background background to
many Computer Science upper division courses in programming languages, compilers, natural
language processing, computer hardware and logic design, analysis of algorithms, computational
complexity, learning theory, and cryptography.
http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~aho/cs3261/

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COMS W3261 Computer Science Theory

8/31/15, 4:19 PM

Pre- or Corequisites
COMS W3137 Data Structures and Algorithms
COMS W3203 Discrete Mathematics
Schedule 2015
Date

Lecture

Reading

Sep 9

1. Introduction to CS Theory

HMU, Ch. 1

Sep 14

2. Finite Automata and Regular Languages

HMU, Ch. 2

Sep 16

3. Regular Expressions

HMU, Ch. 2, Sects. 3.1, 3.3.1

Sep 16

Homework Assignment #1

Due Sep 28

Sep 21

4. Equivalence of Regular Expressions and Finite Automata HMU, Ch. 3

Sep 23

5. Properties of Regular Languages

HMU, Sect. 4.1, 4.2

Sep 28

6. Decision Problems for Regular Languages

HMU, Ch. 4

Sep 30

7. Context-Free Grammars

HMU, Ch. 5

Sep 30

Homework Assignment #2

Due Oct 12

Oct 5

8. Pushdown Automata

HMU Ch. 6

Oct 7

9. Equivalence of CFG's and PDA's

HMU, Sect. 6.3

Oct 12

10. CNF, Pumping Lemma, CYK Algorithm

HMU, Ch. 7

Oct 14

11. Closure and Decision Properties of CFL's

HMU, Ch. 7

Oct 14

Homework Assignment #3

Due Oct 26

Oct 19

12. Turing Machines and Computability

HMU, Ch. 8

Oct 21

13. Variants of Turing Machines

HMU, Ch. 8

Oct 26

14. Algorithms and the Church-Turing Thesis

HMU, Ch. 8

Oct 28

15. The Diagonalization and Universal Languages

HMU, Sects. 9.1-9.2

Nov 2

Academic Holiday

Nov 4

Midterm

Lectures 1-15

Nov 9

16. Undecidable Problems

HMU, Ch. 9

Nov 11

17. Post's Correspondence Problem

HMU, Sects. 9.4-9.5

Nov 11

Homework Assignment #4

Due Nov 23

Nov 16

18. Complexity Theory; The Classes P and NP

HMU, Sect. 10.1

Nov 18

19. Satisfiability

HMU, Sects. 10.2-10.3

Nov 23

20. NP and co-NP

HMU, Sect. 11.1

Nov 25

Recitation

http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~aho/cs3261/

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COMS W3261 Computer Science Theory

Nov 30

21. Introduction to the Lambda Calculus

Nov 30

Homework Assignment #5

Dec 2

22. The Lambda Calculus II

Dec 7

23. The Lambda Calculus III

Dec 9

Final Review

Dec 14

Final Exam

8/31/15, 4:19 PM

Due Dec 9

Lectures 1-23

Required Text
John E. Hopcroft, Rajeev Motwani, and Jeffrey D. Ullman
Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation, Third Edition
Pearson/Addison-Wesley, 2007, ISBN 0-321-45536-3
Additional References
Michael Sipser
Introduction to the Theory of Computation, Third Edition
Cengage Learning, 2013
Alfred V. Aho and Jeffrey D. Ullman
Foundations of Computer Science, C Edition
W. H. Freeman, 1995
An online version of this book is available here.
Class Policies
Grading

15 % Best four homeworks out of five

40 % Midterm
45 % Final

aho@cs.columbia.edu

http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~aho/cs3261/

Updated August 16, 2015

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