CS 280 Instructor Page
Course Name: Computer Models and Limitations
Instructor:
Prof. Lane A. Hemaspaandra
Graduate TA:
Scott Ames
The Course Catalog Description: This course studies
fundamental computer models and their computational
limitations. Finite-state machines and pumping lemmas, the Chomsky
hierarchy, Turing machines and algorithmic universality,
noncomputability and undecidability, tradeoffs between power and
formal tractability.
Textbook:
Introduction to the Theory of Computation, Michael Sipser,
(the brand new) third edition, 2012.
Be careful
not to accidentally get the first or second edition.
Prerequisites (very important): CSC162 OR CSC172 OR MTH172.
Course Information Document/Syllabus:
Here (version 1.15, last updated 2013/4/1/8:36PM).
Other
Important
Links:
Some of My Favorite Bits of Science Wisdom:
-
After solving a challenging problem, I solve it again from scratch,
retracing only the *insight* of the earlier solution. I repeat this
until the solution is as clear and direct as I can hope for. Then I
look for a general rule for attacking similar problems, that *would*
have led me to approach the given problem in the most efficient way
the first time. -- Robert Floyd
-
In computer science, elegance is not a dispensable luxury, but a
matter of life and death. -- Edsger Dijkstra
-
Imagination is more important than knowledge. -- Albert Einstein
-
They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see
nothing but sea. -- Francis Bacon
Other Odds and Ends (Mostly Quotations):
-
I don't believe it. Prove it, and I still won't believe it.
--Life, the Universe and Everything
-
It was mentioned on CNN that the new prime number discovered
recently is four times bigger then the previous record.
-
Sooner or later society will realize that certain kinds of hard work
are in fact admirable even though they are more fun than just about
anything else. -- Donald E. Knuth
-
Getting tenure doesn't really change anything.
However, not getting tenure changes everything.
-
My late friend Stan Ulam used to remark that his life was sharply
divided into two halves. In the first half, he was always the
youngest person in the group; in the second half, he was always the
oldest. There was no transitional period.
-- Gian-Carlo Rota, "Indiscrete Thoughts"
-
Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Some
can avoid it. Geniuses remove it.
-- Alan Perlis, Epigrams in Programming
-
More Quotes from Dijkstra:
* None of the programs in this monograph, needless to say, has been tested on a machine. (From "A Discipline of Programming.")
* Computer science is not about computers, any more than astronomy is about telescopes.
* The question of whether computers can think is just like the question of whether submarines can swim.
-
"Supposing a tree fell down, Pooh, and we were underneath it?" [said Piglet.]
"Supposing it didn't," said Pooh after careful thought.
Page Maintained by: Lane A. Hemaspaandra