Models of Computation

Lecture: Wednesday 12:15 - 13:45, room 2.712
Practice class: Wednesday 14:15 - 15:45, room 2.712

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:

0. Mandatory attendance: max. 4 absences are allowed
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): 2026-10-14
- final test/exam (written): 2026-12-02
- repeat exam (second trial exam in case of unsuccessful exam): 2026-12-09

Slides:

-	slides
1. Introduction	PDF
2. Grammars	PDF

Literature:

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