CS 4384: Automata Theory

Course Information

Title: CS 4384: Automata Theory
Course Registration Number: 81438
Times: MW 2:30-3:45
Location: ECSS 2.306
Instructor: Dr. Kevin Hamlen (hamlen AT utdallas)
Instructor's Office Hours: W 3:45-5:45 in ECSS 3.704
Teaching Assistant: Emrah Cem (Emrah.Cem AT utdallas)
TA's Office Hours: Tu 11:30-1:30 in ECSS 4.703

Final Grades Released

Final exam scores (the FinExam row), final averages (the FinAve row), and final letter grades (the FinAveLetter row) are now available through eLearning. If you wish to see your exam, please email me for an appointment by the end of Thursday 12/15 at the latest.

Course Summary

This course covers foundational theory and practice of finite state machines, regular expression matching, and context-free grammars. The following are the course learning objectives:

1. design of finite state automata and regular expressions
2. conversion amongst DFAs, NFAs, and regular expressions
3. prove that a language is not regular
4. design of push-down automata and context-free grammars
5. conversion amongst push-down automata and context-free grammars
6. prove that a language is not context-free

Through taking this course, students will learn the theoretical and practical significance of automata theory and its application to important real-world problem domains, such as parsing, programming language design, security policy specification, natural language processing, and many others. The material will also be linked to important theoretical foundations of computer science, such as complexity theory.

The course is open to undergraduates and must be taken for letter grade only.

Prerequisites: CS 3305 Discrete Math for Computing II

Grading

Homework (30%): There will be 6 homework assignments assigned at a rate of approximately one assignment every 2 weeks. Problems will consist of discrete math and proofs. There may also be some programming problems to be completed in the language of your choice. Homeworks must be submitted by the start of class on the due date. No late homeworks will be accepted.

Quizzes (15%): Pop quizzes will be administered during class on randomly chosen dates. The quizzes will typically be short, consisting of about 5 multiple-choice or short-answer questions, and are intended to help the student stay current with the material presented in lectures.

Midterm (20%): A midterm exam will be administered in class on Wednesday, October 19. It will cover all material up to that date, including DFAs, NFAs, regular expressions, regular closure properties, regular emptiness, finiteness, and equivalence decision algorithms.

Final (35%): The final exam for the course is scheduled for Monday, December 12th at 2:00pm. The exam will be cumulative, covering all material in the course. Students will have 2 hours and 45 minutes to complete it.

Homework Policy

Students may work individually or together with other students presently enrolled in the class to complete the assignments, but they must CITE ALL COLLABORATORS AND ANY OTHER SOURCES OF MATERIAL that they consulted, even if those sources weren't copied word-for-word. Copying or paraphrasing someone else's work without citing it is plagiarism, and may result in severe penalties such as an immediate failing grade for the course and/or expulsion from the computer science program. Therefore, please cite all sources!

Students may NOT collaborate with students who are not currently enrolled in the class. In particular, it is a violation of the class homework policy to collaborate with a student who took the class in a previous semester or to consult their old homework solutions. These sources are off-limits because such "collaborations" tend to involve simply copying or paraphrasing someone else's answer to a similar homework problem, which does not show that you have learned the material yourself and does not prepare you for the exams.

Texts

Lectures and homework assignments for the course will be self-contained, so there is no mandatory textbook. However, students are strongly encouraged to obtain one of the following recommended texts, both of which cover all material in the course:

• Michael Sipser. Introduction to the Theory of Computation, 2nd Edition. Thomson Course Technology, 2006.
  • This text is recommended for students who want a gentle, user-friendly, yet comprehensive introduction with helpful examples and practice problems.
• John E. Hopcroft, Rajeev Motwani, and Jeffrey D. Ullman. Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation (3rd Edition). Addison Wesley, 2006.
  • This text is more mathematical and includes material beyond the scope of the course. If you think you might go on to pursue an advanced degree, this is the one you should buy. The first edition (still available from some used sellers) is widely regarded as one of the classic masterpieces of the field.

In addition, homework 4 requires students to learn the basics of the JavaCC parser-generator. Documentation for it can be found online at that link.

Tentative Course Schedule