CS 341
Automata Theory
Elaine Rich
Spring, 2012
Classes:
|
|
Unique |
Time |
Room |
Final Exam
Time |
Final Exam Location |
|
|
53005 |
T,TH 9:30-11:00 |
JGB 2.218 |
Thursday,
May 10
2:00-5:00 |
MEZ 1.306 |
Textbook:
I have
written a text book for this class.
It is: Automata, Computability and
Complexity: Theory and Applications, Prentice-Hall, 2008. It should be available at the Coop or
online from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.
There is a website that goes
along with the book. It is
organized into pages that correspond to the chapters of the book. On those pages, you will find links to many other useful sites.
If you would like another
book as a supplementary text, I recommend Introduction to the Theory of
Computation, Michael Sipser. Brooks/Cole,
1996.
Staff
|
|
|
|
Office |
Office
Hours |
|
|
Elaine
Rich
|
ACES 2.442
|
Wednesday,
10:00 – 11:00 and 4:00 -5:00 |
|
|
|
Navid Yaghmazadeh |
TBD |
TBD |
|
|
|
Zeeshan Siddiqui |
TBD |
TBD |
|
|
|
Dustan Levenstein |
TBD |
TBD |
Regular study sessions led
by your proctor, TAs and the ACM
On MONDAY evenings, there
will be somewhat organized study sessions.
They’ll be from 6:00 to 8:00 in GAR 3.116. The sessions will start
on February 6. These sessions will be run mostly by students who have taken CS
341 in the past and actually liked it (aided by our TAs). If you're having any
difficulty at all working on the problems on your own, make sure to come to
these sessions.
Grading
I think we all wish that we
could have courses without grades. You hate worrying about grades. I hate
having to assign grades. But grades are essential to insuring that your degree
has the value it deserves. So we have to have a grading system and that system
has to have three essential properties:
For this class, I will assign
grades using the following formula:
If you believe that we have
made a mistake in grading any of your work, you have a week from the time it
was returned to submit to us a written description of the problem. After that
week, no grading issues will be revisited.
Exams
There will be two midterm
exams and a final. All exams are open book, meaning you may bring the textbook
(or one other book) to the exam. But you may not bring other things (e.g.,
homework answers, old exams).
The two midterm exams will be
given on TUESDAY EVENINGS. Students
with a conflict at this time should inform the instructor at least two weeks
before the exam. Arrangements for a makeup the following Wednesday morning will
be made. The exam schedule is as follows:
|
|
Date |
Time |
Room
|
|
Midterm
1 |
Tuesday,
Feb. 21 |
7:00 - 9:00
pm |
JGB
2.324 |
|
Midterm 2 |
Tuesday,
April 3 |
7:00 - 9:00
pm |
JGB
2.324 |
|
Final |
Thursday,
May 10
|
2:00 - 5:00
pm |
TBD |
Homeworks
The only way to learn the
material in this class is to practice. It's like learning to play the piano.
You can't learn much just by watching someone else. You actually have to do it
yourself. You should plan to spend at least five hours every week working
problems.
Most weeks there will be a
homework assignment that you will be asked to turn in. The homework assignments will be posted
on the class website. I will bring
homework answers to class and hand them out then. Extra copies of homework
answers, plus graded homeworks not picked up in
class, will be available in the racks in ACES 5.258. Homeworks will
not be accepted once the answers have been distributed.
Most (probably all) of the
homework assignments will contain some problems marked with an asterisk. Those problems are optional. They won’t be graded. We provide them so that you can get
additional practice. Solutions to
them will be included with the other homework solutions.
See the class
policy on academic integrity for the rules on working with other people on
homework assignments. The rules described there will be strictly enforced. If you copy answers from anyone (and
this includes copying my answers as handed out in previous semesters), you will
fail the class.
Class Attendance and
Quizzes
Most of the material that
will be covered in class is in the book. However, we will use the class time to
clarify issues and to work additional problems. It is important that you come.
To encourage class
attendance, there will be take-home quizzes handed out during class. There will
be about 10 of them during the semester. To get a copy of the quiz, you must be
in class. None will be handed out later, nor will they be available on the web.
You may not make copies of the quiz; only originals will be accepted. Quizzes
must be handed in at the class following the one at which they were handed out.
Each student must hand in his or her own quiz. No make ups will be allowed. We will
drop one quiz score so you can miss one without any penalty.
Piazza
Piazza
is a free online gathering place where students can ask, answer, and explore
24/7. Read more at www.piazza.com. We will use Piazza for important
class announcements. In addition,
you can use it to post questions and get answers both from other students and
from the instructors. Once
registration has settled down, we will enroll everyone in the class Piazza
forum.
Students with Disabilities
Any student with a documented
disability (physical or cognitive) who requires academic accommodations should
contact the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, Services for
Students with Disabilities at 471-6259 (voice) or 471-4641 (TTY for users who
are deaf or hard of hearing) or http://www.utexas.edu/diversity/ddce/ssd/
as soon as possible to request an official letter outlining authorized
accommodations.
Academic Integrity
You should read carefully the
class policy on academic integrity. Cheating of any
form will not be tolerated and will result in a failing grade in the class.
Religious Holidays
By UT
Austin policy, you must notify me of your pending absence at least fourteen
days prior to the date of observance of a religious holy day. If you must miss
a class, an examination, or an assignment in order to observe a religious holy
day, you will be given an opportunity to complete the missed work within a
reasonable time after the absence.
Additional Class Policies
You should read CS Department Code of
Conduct. The policies described there will be followed in this class.