Models of Computation


Lecture: Wednesday 14:15 - 15:45, room 1.819
Practice class: Wednesday 16:00 - 17:30, room 1.817

Lecturer: Tamás Lukovszki

Content:

Classical models of computing: finite automata, pushdown automata, Turing machines(TM), variants of TMs, partial recursive functions, undecidability, time and space complexity, random access machines (RAM), circuits, cellular automata. Models of parallel and distributed computing. Unconventional models of computing.

Requirements, evaluation:

1. Active partitipation and work in pactice classes: solving and discussing excercises
2. passing >=50% of the 10 min. tests at the beginning of the practice classes
3. Successful exams (grade is computed as average of 2 exams)

Important dates:

- midterm test/exam (written): 2024-10-16
- final test/exam (written): 2024-11-27
- repeat exam (second trial exam in case of unsuccessful exam): 2024-12-04

Slides:

- foliák
1. Introduction PDF
2. Grammars PDF
3. Programmed grammars, matrix grammars, random context grammars, L-systems PDF
4. Regular expressions, finite automata PDF
5. Finite automata, DFA, NFA, minimal DFA, regular pumping lemma PDF
6. Probabilistic automata, Pushdown automata, Context-free languages PDF
7. Turing machines, Variants, Church-Turing thesis, Recursively enumerable languages PDF
8: Diagonalization, Decision problems, undecidability PDF

Literature:

J. E. Savage, Models of Computation: Exploring the Power of Computing, Brown University, 1998. https://cs.brown.edu/people/jsavage/book/pdfs/ModelsOfComputation.pdf
M. Sipser, Introduction to the Theory of Computation, 3rd edition, Cengage, 2012.