CSC B36 --- Fall 2004

Tentative Course Outline



Dates Topics Readings Homeworks and midterm
Week 1
Sep 11-15

 - Matematical preliminaries (to be read on your own and partially covered in first tutorial)
- Well-ordering, simple induction and complete induction; common pitfalls in inductive proofs

Chapter 0

Chapter 1
Wed Sep 13:
HWK 1 out 
Week 2
Sep  18-22
- Correctness of iterative programs; loop invariants; termination
2.1 - 2.6

Week 3 
 Sep 25-29
- Correctness of recursive programs
- Functions defined by induction
- Sets defined by induction; structural induction
2.7 - 2.8
Chapter 3
  (excl. 3.2.2)
Chapter 4
Wed Sep 27:
HWK 1 due, 2 out

Week 4 
 Oct 2-4
 - Propositional logic: motivation; syntax, semantics, truth tables, logical implication and logical equivalence 5.1-5.5

Week 5
 Oct 9-13
Monday Oct 9 is Thanksgiving --- no lecture

-  Propositional logic: propositional "laws", conjunctive and disjunctive normal forms, functional completeness, the design of digital circuits


5.6 - 5.11
Wed Oct 11:
HWK 2 due, 3 out
Week 6 
 Oct 16-20
 - Predicate logic: use of quantifiers to express predicates; syntax and semantics, logical implication and logical equivalence, first-order "laws"  6.1 - 6.6

Week 7
 Oct 23-27
- Predicate logic: application to relational databases;  subtleties in expressing predicates as first-order formulas; prenex normal form 
6.7 - 6.11
Midterm
(date TBA)
Week 8
Oct 30-Nov 3
- Formal languages, regular expressions, deterministic finite-state automata (DFSA)
7.1 - 7.3
Wed Nov 1:
HWK 3 due, 4 out
Week 9
Nov 6-10
- Nondeterministic finite-state automata (DFSA) and their equivalence to NFSA; closure properties of FSA-accepted languages
7.4 - 7.5

Week 10
 Nov 13-17
- Equivalence of regular expressions and FSA; nonregular languages and the Pumping Lemma
7.6 - 7.7
Wed Nov 15:
HWK 4 due, 5 out
Week 11
Nov 20-24
- Context free grammars and their relation to regular languages
8.1 - 8.4


Week 12
 Nov 27-Dec 1
- Pushdown automata and their equivalence to context-free grammars
8.5 - 8.6
Wed Nov 29:
HWK 5 due
Makeup for Thanksgiving
Mon Dec 4

- Overflow material, tying loose ends, course wrap-up & evaluation