Computational Models
0368-2200


  Spring 2008


School of Computer Science, Tel Aviv University

http://www.cs.tau.ac.il/~rosenric/TA/cm08b/Cm08.htm

Ricky Rosen: Monday 13:00-16:00, Orenstein 103

Recitations:

Wednesday 14:00-15:00, Schreiber 008 

Wednesday 15:00-16:00, Schreiber 006

Dr. Miri Priesler: Wednesday 10:00-13:00, Dach Lecture Hall

Recitations:

Thursday 12:00-13:00, Schreiber 007 

Thursday 14:00-15:00, Holtzblat 007

Instructor:

Dr. Miri Priesler
Ricky Rosen


Teaching Assistant:

Ricky Rosen
Jonathan Berant

Exercise Grader:

 

Roza mailbox: 276

General Announcements:

  • Previous exams and quizzes in Computational Models course.
  • You should submit your home assignments directly to the grader's mail box (276).
  • You can collect your checked home assignments from room 114.


Class Bulletin-Board:

Date

Announcement

10.05.2008

 

Due to the junior staff demonstration, the Monday class will start at 14:10 and not at 13:10.

18.05.2008

Handouts1- eliminating epsilon-transitions

21.05.2008

Ricky’s class: Make up lecture on Friday 23.05.08, 13:10-14:00

and Friday 30.05.08, 8:10-10:00

04.06.2008

There will not be make up recitations on Friday 13.06.2008 (Jonathan’s class)

10.06.2008

There will not be make up recitations on Friday 20.06.2008 and Friday 18.07.2008.

There will be make up recitations on Friday 27.06.2008 (for the Thursday 14-15 class) and on Friday 11.07.2008 (for the Thursday 12-13 class).

11.06.2008

The make up recitation on Friday 11.07.2008 will be in Schreiber 006 instead of Schreiber 007.

08.07.2008

EX1 is returned!!! Grades

10.07.2008

Notes: HAMPATH£pUHAMPATH

14.07.2008

Notes: SAT£pHAMPATH (from Prof Benny Chor)

15.07.2008

Turing test?  http://www-ai.ijs.si/eliza-cgi-bin/eliza_script

 

29.07.2008

Ex4 is returned! Grades

03.08.2008

Ex5 was returned! Grades

solutions are online

04.08.2008

Review class on Thursday, August 7th in Dach at 14:00 (to both Miri’s and Ricky’s students)

06.08.2008

Change of time: Review class on Thursday, August 7th in Dach at 17:30

06.08.2008

Ex2 was returned! Grades

06.08.2008

NEW: The instructions section of the coming exam at: instruction

13.08.2008

EXAM SOLUTIONS here

20.08.2008

Exam remarks here

16.09.2008

EXAM SOLUTIONS here



Home Assignments:

Assignment

Handed
Date

Submission
Deadline*

Solution

Assignment 1

22.05.2008

05.06.2008

Solution1

Assignment 2

05.06.2008

19.06.2008

Solution2

Assignment 3

19.06.2008

03.07.2008

Solution3

Assignment 4

03.07.2008

17.07.2008

Solution4

Assignment 5

17.07.2008

31.07.2008

Solution5


* Please submit the exercise directly to the grader mail box, until the hour 23:59 of the submission deadline.


Homework submission is in singles only. External sources (books, journal articles, web pages) can be used but should be clearly quoted.
Solving assignments independently is the key to understanding the material and to success in exams, and is strongly encouraged.

 

There will be 5 points bonus for printed exercises.


Course Outline

The course deals with fundamental questions of computer science:

  • What is “computation”?
  • What is a computer?
  • Where does theory “meet” computation?
    1. What can computers do?
    2. What can they not do?
  • Why are some problems computationally hard, while very similar ones are computationally easy?
  • Is verifying the correctness of a solution to a problem easier than solving it? (not as easy at it sounds)
  • Is there a good reason to prove theorems?

 

These questions were mostly raised during the 20th century, and they accompanied and guided the actual development of computers.
Many of these and related questions were resolved, but some (especially those dealing with computational hardness) retained their status
as "key open problems" into the 21st century.

Prerequisites

The course is a required course for Computer Science students, and "extended intro to Computer Science" is a prerequisite. "Discrete Math" 
is recommended, though not required. Students from other disciplines are encouraged to contact the instructor.

Course Requirements and Important Dates:

  • 5 homework assignments. (Best 3 out of 5 will be part of the grade.)
  • Final exam on date: 11.08. 3 hours, closed book exam, except for 2 double-sided pages.
  • Course grade =TBA, most likely: min(100 , (0.1*assignment grade)+final exam ).

      A passing grade in the final exam is a necessary condition for a passing grade in the course.

 


References:

  • Sipser, Introduction to the Theory of Computation.
  • Hopcroft and Ullman, Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation.


Other Related Books:

  • Papadimitriou, Computational Complexity.
  • Corman, Introduction to Algorithms.
  • Jones, Computability and Complexity.
  • Davis, Segal and Weyuker, Computability, Complexity, and Languages (2d ed).
  • Otomatim vesafot formaliot, Open University, vols. A and B.
  • Lewis and Papadimitriou, Elements of the Theory of Computation (2nd. ed.).
  • David Harel, Algorithmics- The spirit of computing, ch. 8-9.
  • A. Ben-Amram, Algorithm and Programs: Introduction to Programming Languages, Computation and Complexity (Hebrew).