CISC 4090 R01 Theory of Computation
Department of Computer and Information Science
Dr. Weiss, Spring 2021

Class Times: Monday, Thursday 4:00 - 5:15pm (online)

Instructor: Dr. Gary Weiss (my homepage)
Email: gaweiss@fordham.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday 11am-12pm (except Feb 9 1-2pm)

Teaching Assistant: Shanuka Nanayakkara
Email: snanayakkara@fordham.edu
Office Hours: Monday and Thursday 2-3pm

Links for Online Meetings:
  Regular Class Lectures: https://fordham.zoom.us/j/81156939885
  Dr. Weiss Office hours/other meetings: https://fordham.zoom.us/j/3064143040
  Teaching Assistant office hours/meetings: https://fordham.zoom.us/j/5502181983

Required Text: "Introducton to the Theory of Computation, 2nd or 3rd edition", Michael Sipser, Thomson Course Technology.

The third edition only has minor changes from the second edition and we will not be covering those sections, so feel free to get the cheapest edition. One or two homework exercises differ between the editions but I will alert you to these differences.

Course Website: http://storm.cis.fordham.edu/~gweiss/classes/cisc4090

Course Description: An introduction to the classical and contemporary theory of computation: finite state automata and regular expressions, context-free languages and push-down automata, computability by Turing machines and recursive functions; undecideability problems and the Chomsky hierarchy; introduction to computational complexity theory and the study of NP-complete problems.

Attendance and Class Participation: Although this is an online course, this course is structured as a synchronous course, which means that you should attend the classes during the designated class time. Attendance will be taken and will count towards your grade. This holds even though the classes will be recorded. The next paragraph contains the information for the non-online version of the course, which holds for this course.

It is important to attend every class and to be prepared for every class. Being prepared means completing the assigned readings and being able, and willing, to discuss them in class. Please actively participate in class since this will make the course more interesting for everyone! Participation and class discussion is even more important in this class than in most CIS classes since the material is somewhat theoretical and abstract. For this class more than for most classes, it is helpful to read the material before it is covered in class. There is a lot of terminology and it is easier to absorb after multiple passes through the material.

Homework Homework will play a very significant role in this course. The homework assignments will help to ensure that the concepts from each class are understood and will help you gain a better understanding of the material. Your attention to the homework will likely have a big impact on how you perform on the quizzes and exams. Many of the homeworks may take more than a couple of hours, so make sure you reserve sufficient time to complete the homeworks. It is okay of you do not answer all of the homework problems correctly and the grading scheme (see "Grading" section) is set up so that you will not be penalized for missing a few questions. But it is important that you try, since that will enable you to better understand the answer, when we go over the solutions in class.

Exams There will be a midterm exam and a comprehensive final exam, although the final exam will place more emphasis on the material covered after the midterm. There will be several short quizzes. If there is a quiz during an unexcused absence, a zero will be assigned for the quiz grade.

Grading: The percentages given below are guidelines and may be changed as needed to reflect circumstances in the course. However, any changes to the grading scheme (which are not likely) will be minor and notice will be provided in a timely manner.

Homework	10%
Quizzes	15%
Midterm Exam	30%
Final Exam	40%
Participation	5%

The grading of homeworks is designed to reflect the role of homework in the course: to assist your understanding of the material and prepare you for the exams. It is fine to miss some homework questions as long as you try. Thus, homework only counts for a small part of your overall grade and the grading scheme does provide any penalty for missing a few questions. Late homeworks will not be accepted (we may go over the homeworks on the day they are due). Homework will be graded as follows:

• Satisfactory (a checkmark): You have answered the majority of questions and in most of these cases have demonstrated that you have seriously attempted the vast majority of them. You will receive full credit.
• Partially Satisfactory (checkmark -): You put some effort into the homework, but there are many questions that were not answered at all or are largely blank. You will receive 70% credit.
• Unsatisfactory (an "X"): You either did not turn in the homework on time, or the majority of the questions are unanswered; you clearly did not put much effort into the homework. You will receive no credit.

To ensure you are learning the material, several quizzes will be given throughout the semester (advance notice may not be given). Quizzes will often be given after reviewing the homework solutions, although areas of persistent weakness could be covered on more than one quiz.

Your participation grade includes both attendance and active participation in class.

To map a numerical grade to a letter grade, I wil apply the following mapping to your weighted cumulative average as calculated on Blackboard. The table below shows your minimum letter grade: in some cases I may curve your grade upward.

A:	94-100		C+:	77-80
A-:	90-94		C:	74-77
B+:	87-90		C-:	70-74
B:	84-87		D:	65-70
B-:	80-84		F:	<65

Academic Integrity: All students are subject to the University's academic integrity policy and violations of that policy will be taken seriously and will result in action as specified by the policy. Your homework should be mainly the product of your efforts and copying of homework solutions in never acceptable. However, if you get stuck on a problem, it is okay to discuss the problem generally with another student and discuss solution strategies (this is especially acceptable given the homework grading scheme).

Cheating on an exam will result in a 0 on the exam and therefore is likely to result in an “F” in the course. All occurrences of cheating will be reported to the academic integrity coordinator as per Fordham policy.