Today : Thu, Jan 29, 2026

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Announcements

  • Jan 27 : PPS01 released
  • Jan 17 : First lecture on Jan 19th, 10am at CS15
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Meetings  

Click on the theme item for the meeting plan for that theme.
Click on the meeting item for references, exercises, and additional reading related to it.
  • Theme 1 : Finite Automaton & Regular Languages - 23 meetings

    • Meeting 01 : Mon, Jan 19, 10:00 am-10:50 am
      • Basic Admin data fixed. Notion of Computation. A view from science and engineering sides. Algorithmic Data Processing and Mathematical Theorem proving. Ruler and Compass constructions.

    • Meeting 02 : Tue, Jan 20, 09:00 am-09:50 am
      • The simplest starting point. Modeling the push button switch. What language does the switch "understand"? What problem does the switch solve? Formalizing Algorithmic Problem descriptions. Notion of an alphabet and a language.

    • Meeting 03 : Wed, Jan 21, 08:00 am-08:50 am
      • Alphabets, Strings, Operations on Strings. Languages.

    • Meeting 04 : Fri, Jan 23, 01:00 pm-01:50 pm
      • Modelling a push-button switch. States, Transitions. Formal definition of a finite automaton. Coffee Machine example. Language accepted by the FA. Informal description of a language.

    • Meeting 05 : Mon, Jan 26, 10:00 am-10:50 am
      • Formal definition of the language accepted by a finite automaton. The extended transition function.

    • Meeting 06 : Tue, Jan 27, 09:00 am-09:50 am
      • An example design of an automaton and a formal proof of correctness.

    • Meeting 07 : Wed, Jan 28, 08:00 am-08:50 am
      • Regular languages. Questions that we are after. (1) can we design "better" (in terms of number of states) automaton for regular languages? (2) are there languages that are not regular?
      Closure properties of the set of regular languages. Product construction. Complementation.

    • (Upcoming) Meeting 08 : Mon, Feb 02, 10:00 am-10:50 am
      • Limitations of Finite automaton. Two example languages which cannot be accepted by finite automaton. Proof that they are not regular - demonstrations of how formally exploit the "finiteness" of the number of states.

    • (Upcoming) Meeting 09 : Tue, Feb 03, 09:00 am-09:50 am
      • More examples of non-regularity. Abstraction from the proofs to a formal statement of pumping Lemma. View of the Game with the Demon.

    • (Upcoming) Meeting 10 : Wed, Feb 04, 08:00 am-08:50 am
      • Proof of the pumping Lemma. Applications.

    • (Upcoming) Meeting 11 : Tue, Feb 10, 09:00 am-09:50 am
      • More example applications of the pumping lemma. Strengthened versions of the pumping lemma.

    • (Upcoming) Meeting 12 : Wed, Feb 11, 08:00 am-08:50 am
      • Collapsing states in a finite automaton. Minimization.

    • (Upcoming) Meeting 13 : Fri, Feb 13, 01:00 pm-01:50 pm
      • Quotient construction and its correctness.
      Marking Algorithm and its correctness.

    • (Upcoming) Meeting 14 : Mon, Feb 16, 10:00 am-10:50 am
      • Viewing automaton as a string classifier. Myhill-Nerode relations. From Automata to Myhill-Nerode relations. Using Myhill-Nerode theorem to show non-regularity.

    • (Upcoming) Meeting 15 : Tue, Feb 17, 09:00 am-09:50 am
      • More examples of using Myhill-Nerode theorem to show non-regularity. From Myhill-Nerode relations to Automaton. Using Myhill-Nerode theorem to show optimality of automaton.

    • (Upcoming) Meeting 16 : Wed, Feb 18, 08:00 am-08:50 am
      • Coarsest and Finest Myhill-Neorde Relations with respect to the same language. A characterization for the coarsest Myhill-Nerode relation. Connections to Minimal Automata.

    • (Upcoming) Meeting 17 : Mon, Feb 23, 10:00 am-10:50 am
      • The Two-way Finite Automaton (2way FAs). An example language where 2-way FA design is easier. The formal model of computation. Accepting, Rejecting and Looping.

    • (Upcoming) Meeting 18 : Tue, Feb 24, 09:00 am-09:50 am
      • Proof that 2-way finite automaton accepts only regular languages. A nontrivial use of Myhill-Nerode theorem.

    • (Upcoming) Meeting 19 : Wed, Feb 25, 08:00 am-08:50 am
      • Non-deterministic automaton, motivation, formal definition, examples, and the view as a subset automaton.

    • (Upcoming) Meeting 20 : Mon, Mar 02, 10:00 am-10:50 am
      • Formal proof of the subset construction. A "guess+verify view" of non-determinism. Epsilon-transitions and applying subset construction in that case.

    • (Upcoming) Meeting 21 : Tue, Mar 03, 09:00 am-09:50 am
      • Introduction to regular expressions. Expressing languages using expressions.

    • (Upcoming) Meeting 22 : Fri, Mar 06, 01:00 pm-01:50 pm
      • From Finite Automaton to Regular Expressions. Minimal set of operations for regular expressions

    • (Upcoming) Meeting 23 : Mon, Mar 09, 10:00 am-10:50 am
      • Closure of Regular Languages under Homomorphisms and image of homomorphisms. The Hamming Distance Language is regular for a fixed distance case.

  • Theme 2 : Grammars and Context-free Languages - 14 meetings
  • Theme 3 : Turing Machines & Computability - 15 meetings
  • Theme 4 : Evaluation and Tutorial Meetings - 10 meetings