Instructor: Ivan Avramovic
Email: iavramo2-at-gmu.edu
Hours: 12:00-1:00pm Tue/Thu, 4609 Engineering Building

Assistant: Bahman Pedrood (bpedrood-at-gmu.edu)
Hours: 2:00-3:00pm Wed/Fri, 4201 Engineering Building

Prerequisites: CS211 and MATH125 (C or better in both)
Textbook: Hamburger and Richards, Logic and Language Models for Computer Science, Third Edition

Webpage: https://mason.gmu.edu/~iavramo2/classes/cs330m19.html
Piazza: https://piazza.com/ for questions and discussion

Description

This course is an introduction to two kinds of formal systems - languages and logics - with important applications to computer science. The study of formal languages underlies important aspects of compilers and other language processing systems, as well as the theory of computation. Various systems of logic and automatic reasoning are put to use in artificial intelligence, database theory and software engineering. The entire course will give you practice in precise thinking and proof methods that play a role in the analysis of algorithms. The programming assignments provide practical experience with some theoretical topics.

Outcomes

1. Students will understand the concepts and relevance of logic, formal languages and automata theory, and computability.
2. Students will be able to do mechanical formal proofs, program correctness proofs and solve problems in first-order logic.
3. Students will be able to solve problems in elementary machine models: designing finite-state, pushdown and turing machines.
4. Students will be able to solve problems in formal languages: writing regular expressions, regular grammars, and context-free grammars.

Topics

• Logical proofs
  • Propositional Logic (including truth tables; boolean algebra)
  • Rules of Inference (proof by deduction)
  • Mathematical Induction
• Predicate Logic (including quantifiers)
• Program Verification (including loop invariants)
• Regular Languages and conversions:
  • Regular Grammars
  • Finite Automata (including deterministic and non-deterministic FAs)
  • Regular Expressions
• Context-Free Languages
  • Context-Free Grammars
  • Push-Down Automata
• Turing Machines

Grades

• Homework: 0%
  • homework will be assigned each class but not collected or graded
• Quizzes: 30%
  • the lowest quiz score is dropped
  • there will be a quiz each class (except when displaced by exams)
• Exams (2): 40% + 30%
  • exams are not cumulative
  • exams are closed-book, but one sheet (8.5"x11", 1-sided) of hand-written or printed (original work only, no photocopies!) notes is allowed; no copying note sheets from other students; the better score of the two exams will receive the greater weight
• note: there will be no programming assignment this semester

Policies

• please do not use laptops, cellphones, or similar electronic devices during class without special permission
• it is a departmental requirement that all undergraduate Computer Science students taking CS330 must see their advisor during the semester and submit documentation of their visit; failure to do so will result in an Incomplete grade. For the summer semester only, it is sufficient to fill in and submit the form without meeting with your advisor.

Honor Code

Programming assignments are an individual effort, no group work is allowed. This includes the sharing of test cases. Any direct contribution on a quiz, exam, note sheet or programming assignment will be treated as a violation of George Mason's Honor Code.