Finite Automata Theory and Formal Languages

TMV027/DIT321, LP4 2014


[ News | Prerequisites | Goals | Literature | Assignments | Weekly Plan | Exam | Course Evaluation | Contact Information | Useful Links ]


News

140829: The exams are corrected and you should have already got the result. You can look at the correction at the student expedition any time it is open. If you want to discuss the correction with me, please send me an email with your name and personal number so we book a time for this.
140821: Suggested solution for the exam on August 20th 2014.
140528: Suggested solution for the exam on May 28th 2014.
140520: Protocol for the second evaluation meeting is now available. Check section on course evaluation.
140505: The second evaluation meeting will take place on Thursday 15th of May at 15:15. Contact me (Ana) or any student representative if you have any comments you would like us to discuss.
140429: There will be a consultation time on 30/4 13:15-15:00 in ES51 (or EC) and an exercise class on Friday 2/5 15:15-17 in EF. Check page with weekly plan for more information.
140429: Deadline for assignment 4 has been moved to Monday 5/5 at 23:59.
140411: Protocol for the first evaluation meeting is now available. Check section on course evaluation.
140325: All those registered to the course should have got a mail with the registration to the mailing list of the course fafl(at)lists(dot)chalmers(dot)se. If not please visit this page to register.
Be aware you can only post to the list with the mail address you have been registered to.
Before sending a mail to the list, make sure the question/comment concerns ALL the student in the course. If not, it is better just to mail me (Ana).
140324: The first evaluation meeting will take place on Monday 7th of April at 15:15. Contact me (Ana) or any student representative if you have any comments you would like us to discuss.
140324: The last exercise in assignment 1 contained an error: one should prove that rev(rev(x)) = x! It is already corrected in the pdf that is linked now.
140306: Since the course got many more students than expected the schema has been changed. Check the page with the weekly plan for more information.
140205: Notice that from VT13 this course is divided into 2 courses elements: 1) obligatory weekly written assignments valid 1.5pts and 2) written exam in an examination hall valid 6pts.

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Prerequisites

Knowledge in mathematics, including a course in Discrete mathematics, and in programming.
Here you can find some short notes to refresh your knowledge on basic notions like sets, relations and functions. (We would like to thank Einar Steingrímsson for these notes.)
Note: There are 2 typos in the second page on set theory; the right most B in the distributive laws (1) and (2) should be an A.

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Goals

Content

This course presents both the theory of finite automata, regular expressions and context-free grammars. If time allows, it also includes a short introduction to Turing machines.

Finite automata and regular expressions are one of the first and simplest models of computations. Their mathematical theory is quite elegant and simple. Finite automata are widely used in applications (traffic light, lexical analysis, pattern search algorithm, etc...), and constitute a perfect illustration of basic concepts in set theory and discrete structure.

Context-free grammars have important applications in parsing and analysis of both programming and natural language.

Turing machines were described by Alan Turing in 1937 and they are a powerful model of computation since they help computer scientists understand the limits of mechanical computation by providing a precise definition of an 'algorithm' or 'mechanical procedure'.

Learning Outcomes

After completion of this course, the student should be able to:

Knowledge and understanding:

Skills and abilities: Judgement and approach:

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Literature

Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation, by Hopcroft, Motwani and Ullman. Addison-Wesley. Both second or third edition are fine for the course.

This is how some of the possible versions of the 3rd edition of the book look like:
ISBN 9780321455369 ISBN 9780321476173 ISBN 9781292039053
ISBN 9780321455369 -- ISBN 9780321476173 -- ISBN 9781292039053

It seems it might be an electronic version of the book that one can buy from the publisher. Check this if you are interested.

Observe that the web page of the book contains solutions to some of the exercises in the book.

Have a look also at Thierry Coquand's note on the two definitions for the transition function on strings and why they are equivalent.

Here you can find some short notes to refresh your knowledge on basic notions like sets, relations and functions. (We would like to thank Einar Steingrímsson for these notes.)
Note: There are 2 typos in the second page on set theory; the right most B in the distributive laws (1) and (2) should be an A.

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Exam

No books or written help during the exam.

Day of the exams: 28 May and 20 Aug 2014.
Check the studieportalen for the exam's times and locations.

Grade information: The table below shows the nr of points you need to get in the exam in order to obtain a certain grade. The total nr of points in the exam is 60.

Registration Code Nr of hp Chalmers GU
TMV027 or DIT321 with registration VT13 or later 6 hp 3: >=27, 4: >= 38, 5: >= 49 G: >=27, VG: >= 45
TMV026 or DIT321 with registration before VT13 7.5 hp 3: >=33, 4: >= 43, 5: >= 53 G: >=33, VG: >= 50

Any exercise in the assignments of this course is a typical exam question.
During one of the last lectures we will discuss last year's exams (Exam 130528, Exam 130821).
See the weekly plan for further information.

Here you can find some older exams: Exam 100527 with solutions, Exam 100827 with solutions and exams from 2007 (you may skip exercise 13 of the first exam) with solutions (ignore the comments on derivatives in the solutions since we have not covered that).

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Course Evaluation

The course should have at least 3-4 students representatives from both universities. During the course we should meet a couple of times. In these meetings the student representative should write the minutes. The final meeting should be done after the exam, sometime during the next study period. Representatives from the IT and GU programmes are usually present in this last meeting and take notes.

Students representatives CTH: Julia Friberg, mail: frjulia(at)student(dot)chalmers(dot)se
Emma Gustafsson, mail: guemma(at)student(dot)chalmers(dot)se
Christoffer Henriksson, mail: chrhen(at)student(dot)chalmers(dot)se
Pontus Malm, mail: malmpo(at)student(dot)chalmers(dot)se
Students representatives GU: Hossein Hussain, mail: hossein(dot)hussain(at)me(dot)com
Alexander Reinthal, mail: alexander(dot)reinthal(at)gmail(dot)com
Jonathan Skårstedt, mail: jonathan(dot)skarstedt(at)gmail(dot)com

First meeting April 8th 2014: Protocol
Second meeting May 15th 2014: Protocol

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Contact Information

Lecturer: Ana Bove, mail: bove(at)chalmers(dot)se
Assistants: Pablo Buiras, mail: buiras(at)chalmers(dot)se,
Simon Huber, mail: simonhu(at)chalmers(dot)se,
Inari Listenmaa, mail: inari(at)chalmers(dot)se,
Daniel Hausknecht, mail: daniel(dot)hausknecht(at)chalmers(dot)se and
Andrea Vezzosi, mail: vezzosi(at)chalmers(dot)se

Feel free to contact us if you have any further questions, either after the lectures/exercise sessions or via email.

Course Mailing List

All those registered to the course should have got a mail with the registration to the mailing list of the course fafl(at)lists(dot)chalmers(dot)se. If not please visit this page to register.
Be aware you can only post to the list with the mail address you have been registered to.
Before sending a mail to the list, make sure the question/comment concerns ALL the student in the course. If not, it is better just to mail me (Ana).

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Useful Links

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