EECS 395/495-0-20: Introduction to the Theory of Computation

Spring 2009

Lecturer: Lance Fortnow

Lectures: MWF 10:00-10:50 in Tech LR5

Office Hours: Wednesdays 11-12

Facebook Group: Northwestern EECS Theory of Computation

This course replaces Math 374 and in future years will have the permanent course number EECS 335. This course can be used towards fulfilling the CS breadth and depth requirements in theory. 

Description: This course gives an introduction to the mathematical foundations of computation. The course will look at Turing machines, universal computation, the Church-Turing thesis, the halting problem and general undecidability, Rice's theorem, the recursion theorem, efficient computation models, time and space (memory) bounds, deterministic and nondeterministic computation and their relationships, the P versus NP problem and hard problems for NP and beyond.

Textbook: Computability and Complexity Theory by Steve Homer and Alan Selman

Final: Download here. Due Thursday, June 11 at 4 PM.

Assignments:

·         Assignments should be turned in during class, in the instructor’s mailbox in Ford 3-320 or by email or fax. Please staple sheets together and don’t forget to put your name on the assignment.

·         Assignment 1, Due Wednesday April 8.

·         Assignment 2, Due Friday April 17.

·         Assignment 3, Due Friday April 24.

·         Assignment 4, Due Friday May 1.

·         Assignment 5, Due Friday May 15.

·         Assignment 6, Due Friday May 22

·         Assignment 7, Due Wednesday June 3