Theory of Computation (CS422) in Fall 2015 at KAIST's School of Computing

The Theory of Computation provides a sound logical foundation to computer science. By comparing various formal models of computation with respect to their capabilities, it identifies both fundamental features and ultimate limitations of contemporary digital computing machinery. Rigorous notions of efficiency are captured by famous complexity classes such as P and PSPACE; and concepts like oracles or polynomial-time reduction permit to compare computational problems with respect to their algorithmic cost: NP-hardness results thus serve as 'beacons' of intractability.
Lecturer: Martin Ziegler

Lectures: classroom #111 in building N1

Schedule: Tuesdays and Thursdays 2:30pm to 3:45pm

Language: English

Teaching Assistant: 김미진

Office hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 16:00 to 17:15 N1 #403

Attendance: 10 points for missing less than 5 lectures, 9 when missing 5 lectures, and so on: 14 or more missed lectures earn you no attendance points.

Grading: The final grade will be composed as follows (small changes reserved): Homework 20%, Midterm exam 30%, Final exam 40%, Attendance 10%.

Exams: There will be a midterm exam (Oct 22nd 13h00 to 15h30) and a final exam (Dec 17, 13h00 to 15h30).

 

Synopsis

We make a special pedagogical effort to avoid the arduous Turing machine formalism and instead employ a variant of WHILE programs.
  1. Motivation and Examples:
  2. Computability Theory
  3. Complexity Theory
  4. Advanced Topics
 

Homework/Assignments:

Regularly recalling, applying, and extending the definitions, theorems, and proofs from the lecture is essential for comprehension and successful study. Therefore consider it as a courtesy that we will create homework assignments and publish them on this web page: usually on every other Thursday, leaving you 11 days to prepare and turn in your solution on Tuesday before the lecture (2:29pm). This deadline is strict so that we have time to review your submissions before we discuss the assignment on Thursday!

 

Literature:

  You are expected to buy some of these (or similar) books — latest for the midterm exam: leaving you enough time to thoroughly browse and compare them in the library, first.

 

E-Learning: