Introduction to the Theory of Computation 2025
- Instructor:
Chih-Jen Lin, Room 413, CSIE building.
- TAs: Sheng-Wei Chen
- TA email: D09944003@ntu.edu.tw
- TA hour : (a) TBD (b) TBD, Room 530, CSIE building.
Your HW and exam scores, with solutions to exams
- Time: Monday 10:20am to 1pm.
We will do two 10-minute breaks at around 11:10am and 12:10pm. The class
ends at 1pm.
- Place: Room 102, CSIE building
-
This course will be taught in English.
- Textbook: Michael Sipser,
Introduction to the Theory of Computation, third
edition, Cengage Learning, 2012
We will mainly teach Chapters 1-4, part of Chapter 5, and part of Chapter 7.
-
FAQ of this course is here
-
We have pre-recorded all lectures and will broadcast them in the class.
In the class I will give additional comments while the video is being played.
Course Outline
- Automata and Languages
Mathematical models of computation
- Computability Theory
Problems CAN and CANNOT be solved by computers
- Complexity Theory
Why some problems are hard but some are easy?
Why taking this course?
From authors of the textbook
- Theoretical CS has some fancy/big ideas
- Relevant to practice (e.g., modern cryptography)
- Abstract way of thinking the computers. Help you
to design more beautiful ones
Slides are based on contents in the textbook though we add some extra materials.
-
Chapter 0 (
part 1:
slides
video
)
-
Chapter 1
-
Chapter 2
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Chapter 3
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Chapter 4
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Chapter 5
-
Chapter 7
Homework
Once every two weeks. Please write your homework/reports in English and do NOT submit lately. See
FAQ about how to submit your homework.
- HW1: Please see NTU COOL, due on 23:59, September 14th.
Exams
Weights of three exams will be decided at the end of
the semester.
- Midterm 1: October 13th (week 7)
- Midterm 2: November 17th (week 12)
- Final: December 15th (week 16)
(Sample exam questions: 1,
2,
3)
For midterms, discussions will be in the following week.
Grading
30% homework, 70% Exam. (tentative)
Some (usually 10%) may fail if they don't work hard.
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