• Site Map

• Lectures

• Homework

• Tests/Exam

• Main Webpage
  • General
  • Netiquette
  • Feedback
  • Contact
  • Dates
  • Grading
  • Consideration
  • Remarking
  • References
  • Links

Main Course Webpage

General information

For your convenience, you can submit your homework electronically through the CDF 'submit' command. Use assignment name "En" for Exercise number n and "An" for Assignment number n. Please submit only one file, in plain text (ASCII) or in PDF — other formats cannot be accepted. Please try to include the cover page with your submission, or at least have all of the information found on the cover page (full name, student number, CDF/UTOR email address, and a list of every source of information you consulted to complete the homework).

During the term, you can access your grades on the CDF secure website for students.

• This term's Course Information Sheet (Adobe PDF document).
• Guidelines for Avoiding Plagiarism.
• Previous offerings of this course: Fall 2007; Summer 2007; Winter 2007; Fall 2006; Summer 2006; Winter 2006.
• The Course Discussion Board (or Forum) will be used for all announcements.

Netiquette

Here are some guidelines for electronic communication (email and forum postings). These are meant to allow us to better cope with the potentially high volume of email we receive, and to answer all of your queries more efficiently.

• Please use email for all personal matters; post all other questions/comments on the course forum.
• Please use a descriptive subject line — be specific (for email, always include the course number).
• To help prevent your messages being incorrectly tagged as spam, please email or post from your UTORmail account (www.utorid.utoronto.ca) and avoid using HTML or MIME.
• We will generally answer queries within two business days (not counting weekends), although we may take longer during particularly busy times (e.g., around assignment due dates). For your own sake, please do not rely on getting same-day answers (which we do not have the resources to guarantee, unfortunately).

Giving feedback

Rather than wait until the official course evaluations at the end of the term, by which point it's too late to make a difference, please feel free to get in touch with me at any point during the term with any suggestion or complaint that you have about any aspect of the course. In particular, don't hesitate to let me know if there are aspects of the course that you particularly like, so that I can keep them that way, or if there are specific aspects that you dislike, so that I can make changes (or discuss with you my reasons for doing things that way).

If you are uncomfortable bringing your concerns directly to me, you might consider mentionning it to your TA so that they can pass them on to me. Failing that, feel free to use any means that make you more comfortable to give me feedback: writing a letter and slipping it under my door, sending anonymous e-mail, etc. (But don't abuse that: it's hard to get a discussion started when you cannot reply to the other person, and some of those issues undoubtedly require discussion!)

Note that this does not mean that I will accept unfounded complaints! If you have a complaint or criticism that you are ready to discuss in a reasonable manner, that's great. If you are merely unhappy about your marks (or for whatever other reason) and you have nothing constructive to say (e.g., "this course is terrible", with no thought about why or how it is terrible), then you should wait and think it over until you come up with something more concrete that we can work with. Remember that the goal is to help improve the course — not just to vent. But in that case, please do think about it and let me know!

Contact information

Instructor

End-of-term Office Hours

Regular Office Hours

Tutorials

R 10 in room BA 2185, for students whose last name starts with A–K

R 10 in room BA 2195, for students whose last name starts with L–Z

Lectures

TR 1 in room SS 2108

Important dates

• Homework exercises and assignments are due by the start of tutorial on their due date. They may also be deposited in the CSC236H drop box in room BA 2220 before the start of tutorial on their due date. Late exercises or assignments cannot be accepted, as the TAs will go over solutions during that week's tutorial.
• See below for how to request special consideration in case of illness or other unusual circumstances.

Grading scheme

• Exercises are to be completed individually, to help you cement your own understanding of the course material.
• Assignments are to be completed in small groups (2-3 students), to help you learn together by working through more difficult problems. (Details of the mechanisms for this will be provided on the Homework page.)
• Term Tests will be closed-book; you will be allowed one aid sheet for the final exam.
• On tests and exam, answering "I don't know" (and nothing else) is worth 20%, to encourage awareness of (and honesty about) your level of understanding. This does not apply to exercises and assignments, where you have time to ask questions and learn.
• In order to pass the course, you must achieve a mark of at least 33.33% on the final examination and, separately, at least 33.33% on on all three term tests (combined). In other words, you will automatically fail the course (your final mark will be lowered below a passing grade) if your mark on the final exam is below 33.33% or if your combined mark on the term tests is below 33.33%, irrespective of your computed final mark.
• See above and below for the exercise, assignment and test dates, and for the course policies on special consideration and remarking requests.
• Check the Homework page and the Tests/Exam page for more information and policies specific to each exercise, assignment or term test.

Policy on special consideration

If you are unable to complete homework or if you miss a term test due to major illness or other circumstances completely outside of your control, please contact your instructor immediately in order to receive special consideration. Note that special consideration will be considered on an individual basis and will not be given automatically.

In order to receive special consideration, you must fill out the following Request for Special Consideration form and bring it to your instructor together with your supporting documentation.

In the case of illness, medical documentation must be supplied on the standard University of Toronto Student Medical Certificate (Adobe PDF document). You can also obtain a paper copy of this certificate from your college registrar or in your registration handbook. (A simple "note" from your doctor is unfortunately not acceptable.)

Policy on remarking requests

• All remarking requests must be received within one month of the date when the assignment or test was returned. (It is your responsibility to pick up your assignment or test from the instructor during office hours, if you were not in lecture or in tutorial when it was returned.)
• Your mark will decrease if the marker sees something that was incorrectly awarded too high a mark.
• If there is a simple addition mistake in your assignment or test, just show the work to your instructor (not your TA).
• For all other remarking requests, please print this remarking form, fill it in completely, and attach it to your assignment or test. (Remarking requests will not be considered if the remarking form is missing or incomplete.)
  You must be specific and clearly demonstrate that the marking scheme was not followed correctly for your assignment or test. Note that marks are awarded based on merit, not on need, so statements like "I worked really hard" or "I really need those marks" are unfortunately not good reasons.
• Give the form and your assignment or test directly to the marker or to your instructor. Remember to submit your work together with the form.
  If you are comparing your work to that of another student, hand in BOTH assignments or tests (your request will be ignored otherwise).
• If you are still not satisfied after getting back your remarked assignment (or after having a meeting with the marker), contact your instructor to discuss your situation.

Textbook and references

Required textbook

• Course Notes for CSCB36/236/240, "Introduction to the Theory of Computation", Copyright 1998–2006 by Vassos Hadzilacos. Custom published by utpprint.

The textbook will be used for readings and exercises throughout the term.

Note that this is identical to last year's version.

Additional references

• Michael Sipser: Introduction to the Theory of Computation, 2nd edition, Copyright 2006 Thomson Course Technology, ISBN: 0-534-95097-3.
  (Good introduction to formal language theory in the first two chapters.)
• Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest, Stein: Introduction to Algorithm (2nd edition). McGraw-Hill (2001), ISBN: 0-07-013151-1.
  (Good general-purpose reference.)

Useful links

• The Computer Science Community Bulletin Boards.
• Writing Resources at the University of Toronto.
• The CSSU Home Page.
• The CDF Home Page.
• The Department of Computer Science Home Page.
• The Faculty of Arts and Science Home Page.
• The University of Toronto Home Page.
• ROSI