In Summer-Fall 2023, Computer Science faculty approved the following updated course description for CS 454, Theory of Computation.

Course Description (updated Summer-Fall, 2023):

This course studies abstract models of computation, including their formal definition, corresponding languages, computing power, and capabilities. Models studied will include finite automata, push-automata/regular expressions, and Turing machines. Related topics will include regular languages, context-free languages, time and space complexity, Classes P and NP, intractable problems and unsolvable problems.

This description brings together at least two recent catalog statements and highlights the primary topics within the field.

In addition, the SSU CS faculty have designated CS 454 as the course that will meet SSU's Upper Division GE Area B Requirement for CS Majors.. Thus, in addition to providing a solid background related to the "Theory of Computation", the course also includes a Signature Project that involves multiple assignments with current, computing-related news events, a paper integrating several key theory-oriented topics, and a self-reflection exercise.

Course Meeting Information:

• Class Meetings: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:00-11:50 am
• Classroom: Salazar 2023

Expanding on the course description, CS 454 has these high-level goals and objectives related to the Theory of Computation:

• Discussion in reasonable depth of finite automata, push-down automata, and Turing machines, and their associated languages.
  • Students should be able to use models with inputs to determine outputs produced.
  • Given simple or intermediate-level problems, students should be able to develop models to solve the problems.
  • Students should be able to recognize when problems or languages are solvable or not solvable with one model or another.
  • Students should be able to analyze the run-time complexity of various machines.
• Discussion of deterministic and non-deterministic models of computation.
  • Students should be able to define what deterministic and non-deterministic models are and how these models can be used for computation.
  • Students should be able to convert non-deterministic models to deterministic ones, or to explain why such transformations are either impossible or not practical.
• Discussion of languages accepted by the different computational models.
  • Students should be able to translate between language models and computational models.
• Discussion of Classes P and NP, and Tractable, Intractable, and Unsolvable Problems.
  • Students should be able to define Classes NP and NP, and Tractable, Intractable, and Unsolvable Problems
  • Students should be able to explain the relationship among classes of problems
  • Students should be able to define and explain the concepts of NP-Hard and NP-Complete problems.
  • Students should have experience reducing some problems to others (e.g.,in polynomial time).

SSU's Upper Division GE Area B Requirement and the Signature Project and SSU's expectations for a Signature Project have additional goals and objectives: For CS 454, these are adapted to include the following:

• Consideration of how computing and technology connects with contemporary life, through a review of selected news stories.
• Exploration, synthesis, and presentation of the high-level concept of NP Completeness—a subject that integrates several topics within the study of the theory of computation.
• Practice in technical writing to present material to both non-technical and technical audiences, and in sharpening perspectives through the writing of a self-reflection related to computer science at SSU and more generally.

Since each component of the Signature Project involves writing a paper, and since students will receive feedback on their papers from the instructor and sometimes from their peers, students will receive guidance to improve their technical writing and enhance its effectiveness.

This course incorporates a variety of activities, From past experience, the time required for these activities will likely vary substantially from student to student and from one part of the course to another. For example, a student may need to devote considerable time and effort when starting a new or different topic, but the workload may drop noticeably when that material is mastered. Similarly, students may have markedly different experiences with technical writing, and the work required for developing a paper may vary substantially.

Such variation in student experiences complicates any estimation of the time individual students may need to devote to homework for this course. However, from past experience, students working steadily on the course likely should expect to allocate 10-15 hours per week to homework. Some students may require additional time for some weeks; some students may complete work in less time for some weeks. Conversations with computer science faculty and others suggest this time allocation is consistent with expectations for many courses at Grinnell College and Sonoma State University.

While the schedule for this course is expected to evolve, a detailed Tentative Class Schedule is posted with readings, labs and worksheets, in-class quizzes and tests, etc. This schedule will be updated as the course evolves.

For variety, this course will utilize a variety of activities, including.

• opening discussion with student questions
• lectures by the instructor with discussion
• polling/clicker questions (as seems appropriate)
• weekly assignments (e.g., labs and worksheets), including some combination of programming and experimentation
• quizzes (40-50 minutes each)
• tests (90-110 minutes).

Course Work will involve a combination of several activities.

• Weekly Assignments (identified, with links, on the Tentative Class Schedule) are designed to provide practice on topics covered in class and the textbook and to extend work with selected topics. Unless otherwise specified on the Tentative Class Schedule, assignments cover material since the previous assignment and are due the second-class day after appearing on the schedule. Thus, an assignment appearing on the schedule on a Tuesday will highlight material covered on that Tuesday and the preceding Thursday, and will be due the following Tuesday.

  Although few programs will be required for this course, any required program submitted for credit must follow the SSU CS Department's C/C++ Style Guide. Examples of complete, annotated programs utilizing this format may be found at this Notes and Examples page.

  Additional notes on submission policies and formats are indicated below in the sections on Collaboration and Academic Honesty and on Grading.

• In-class Quizzes: A 40-50 minute quiz will be scheduled on Tuesday about every other week, except when Tests are scheduled. Altogether about 6 quizzes are scheduled during the semester; in grading, the lowest quiz score will be dropped. These quizzes will focus on basic topics covered recently, but prior to the previous class session.

  • One principle in this course is that students should be able to ask questions about a topic before the material appears on a quiz or test. Following that principle, material introduced the class before a quiz or test will not appear on that exercise. However, all material covered before that class could appear.
  • Since material in this course is cumulative, some recent work may require use of earlier material, so that earlier work could be useful during a quiz or test.

• Tests: Two in-class tests are scheduled for Thursday, March 14, and Thursday, April 25. These tests will focus on the previous 4-6 weeks of the semester, although some earlier material may be covered.

• Signature Assignments: The CS faculty have designated CS 454 as the course with which CS Majors will satisfy SSU's Upper Division GE Area B Requirement for CS Majors.. For this offering of CS 454, the overall Signature Project is divided into three components, together with a fourth possible component for extra credit:

  • required 2-3 page paper reporting a current event
  • required 3-4 page paper describing an NP-complete problem
  • required Self Reflection
  • optional second 2-3 page paper reporting another current event (for extra credit)

  Note that with extra credit for the optional current event paper, a student's average for the overall Signature Project could exceed 100%.

• Exam: With assignments quizzes, tests, and signature assignments incorporated into this course, NO FINAL EXAM is planned for this course.

Deadlines

Worksheets and labs are due at the start of class, two class days after they appear on the Tentative Class Schedule. A penalty of 30% per class meeting will be assessed for any assignment turned in late, even work submitted at the end of a class.

Emergencies and Illness

Although dates for assignments, quizzes, tests, and the final exam are firm, I understand that circumstances arise when you are not able to attend class.

• When circumstances are known ahead of time (e.g., academic activities, athletic events), I expect you to make arrangements with me before the activity occurs. Normally, we will identify an alternative date for the due date, quiz, or test.

• When circumstances cannot be reasonably anticipated (e.g., illness, family emergencies), I expect you to notify me as soon as is reasonably possible. (Email is fine.) In the case of medical problems, I expect a written note from a medical professional or counselor that indicates that your health interfered with the course activity. (I do not need to know any details of the medical problem, but I do need to know that you sought help and that the medical professional believed meeting the deadline would likely interfere with your health.)

Absolute Deadline: All homework must be turned in by Thursday, May 9, at 4:00 pm;
assignments received after that time will not be counted in the grading of the course.

AI-sourced Materials: Use of ChatGPT (or other similar tools or software that generate suggested text) is not permitted in this class for any assignments. This course assumes that work submitted by students – all process work, drafts, brainstorming artifacts, final works – will be generated by the students themselves, perhaps with consultation with non-AI-produced materials. Thus, use of AI tools in this course will be considered a violation of SSU’s Cheating and Plagiarism policy and could result in failure of the assignment or failure of the course.

Written assignments (including written exercises and programs): All work is to be done individually. Further, as noted above, any use of AI-generated materials is explicitly prohibited for this class and will be considered a violation of SSU’s Cheating and Plagiarism policy. However, in preparing answers, students may utilize non-AI-sourced, outside sources (including consultation of in-class slides or the course textbook), provided students follow university-wide rules for quotation and citation.

Although non-AI-based, outside sources may be used (if properly cited), you are still responsible for the accuracy/correctness of what you submit. This foundational principle leads to several notes:

• The rules of this course prohibit the use of CharGPT or other AI-tools.
• If you use outside sources (but not AI-based materials),
  • if you cite the sources, then grading will depend upon the correctness of the material in your answers. There is no penalty for using outside sources.
  • If you do not cite the sources, you have opened yourself to a substantial penalty.
    • If you are caught, then you will be subject to an academic honesty violation. In the past in CS at SSU, penalties have included failure in the assignment or in the course.
• Although the article, ChatGPT answers more than half of software engineering questions incorrectly, focuses upon ChatGPT and encourages readers to use Stack Overflow, numerous sources have noted that some answers on Stack Overflow may contain errors as well.
  • Combining the above points, if you use ChatGPT or similar on an assignment or other class work,
    • If you are caught, you will be subject to an academic honesty violation, which could lead to failure in the assignment or in the course.
    • If you are not caught, there is a reasonable likelihood that the result will be wrong and thus the work would be subject to a substantial point penalty.

Quizzes and tests: All quizzes, tests, and the final exam are closed book and closed notes, and collaboration is not allowed. Students may ask questions of the instructor, but communication with any other person is not allowed.

Signature Assignments (papers comprising the overall Signature Project): Papers are to be written individually; organization and clear/concise writing are essential. Some signature assignments require direct quotation of a news story. Addition use of non-AI-generated, outside references may be useful, provided clear citation is given. Most of the writing, however, must be done by each student. AI-sourced materials may not be used.

Other Graded Work: Should other work be assigned during this class, rules regarding collaboration and citation will be included as part of the activity. AI-based tools, however, will never be allowed!

Citations and References: Following basic principles of academic honesty:

• Ideas and approaches taken from other sources (e.g., books, online materials, other people, even the textbook) must be cited.
• Wording taken directly from another source must be placed in double quotations and cited.
• Every written source (including the textbook) must be identified, with sufficient information that the source can easily be found. For example, specific URLs are required for online sources (a general reference, such as wikipedia.org, is not sufficient, as Wikipedia contains thousands of pages). Also, references to books or articles must include page numbers. In addition, if an answer uses material from past courses or previous work with individuals, the details of that material must be given explicitly.

Further, all citations and references must specify actual sources. Fabricated citations or references will be considered evidence of academic dishonesty and subject to disciplinary action.

Procedures: Throughout the course, any hint of academic dishonesty will be investigated and handled following the SSU Policies on Cheating and Plagiarism.

Following a common practice in the Computer Science Department at Sonoma State University, the standard outcome in CS 454 for the first occurence of a student found responsible for cheating and/or plagiarism is:

• The exercise (e.g., assignment, quiz, quiz revision, test, test revision, or exam) will be assigned a grade of 0.
• At the end of the semester, a final grade semester average will be computed, based on the 0 for the offending activity, and the letter grade for that average will be determined.
• The computed letter grade then will be reduced by a full letter. (Thus, if a student's final semester average would yield a letter grade of B–, then the student's recorded grade would be reduced to C–.)

A second offence typically would yield a semester grade of F for the course. Since all offenses are reported to SSU's Student Conduct Administrator, the student also may be subject to additional outcomes from the University. (At some schools, a second offence may lead to suspension or dismissal.)

Cell phones, text-messaging devices, and other social-networking connections may not be used in this class. If you bring such equipment to the classroom, it must be turned off before the class starts and stay off throughout the class period. Use of such equipment is distracting to those nearby and will not be tolerated.

Assignments

As an upper-level course, answers to assignments must demonstrate care in organization and presentation.

• All assignments must be submitted in paper:
• All work must utilize a dark font (e.g., black, dark blue, dark green, dark red) on a light background (e.g., white, cream, light grey, light tan).
• Solutions must be organized in problem order, and each solution must indicate the problem number being addressed. However, there is no need to include the text of the questions.
• All programs submitted for credit must follow the CS 454 C/C++ Style Guide, which will be discussed in class. For example, since every programming task should yield readable and carefully tested code, the grading of all programs for this course will begin with the following algorithm (expressed in C format):

     if ((no_comments)
          || (missing pre- or post-conditions)
          || (formatting_does_not_show_structure)
          || (long_procedures_not_divided_into_sections_with_clarifying_comments)
          || (no_evidence_of_compilation)
          || (no_test_plan,__no_listing_of_circumstances__OR__no_listing_of_test_cases)
          || (no_test_runs)
          || (no_commentary_on_correctness)
          || (no_certification_regarding_sources_and_help)
          || (use of Bubble Sort or non-approved sorting algorithm)
     return (no_grade);
     

• Solutions to computational problems must include the work involved—presented in a logical order. Scattering computations in multiple sections of the page, or giving only the answer is not adequate and often will lose points.
• When a problem asks for explanations or logical arguments, answers must utilize proper English grammar and follow a logical presentation. For example, statements must be in full English sentences and follow standard rules of English construction. Points may be subtracted for sloppy or poorly constructed English prose or egregious errors in spelling. Typically, occasional mistakes (1-2 per page) likely will not be penalized, although systematic spelling errors may be subject to a penalty. Beyond occasional difficulties, point penalties will depend on the frequency and severity of the errors. See the instructor, if you have questions about writing—I would be delighted to help you with your technical writing skills.

Semester Grades

This instructor's grading philosophy dictates that the final grade should ultimately be based upon each student's demonstration of her or his understanding of the material, not on the performance of the class as a whole nor on a strict percentile basis.

The following scheme is proposed as a base for how the various assignments and tests will be counted in the final grade.

Henry M. Walker

Office: Darwin 116B
Telephone: extension 707-664-4408
E-mail: henry.walker@sonoma.edu and walker@cs.grinnell.edu

Office hours are available with a combination of in-person and Zoom-based sessions, unless announced otherwise in class.

During office hours, I will try to accommodate all students who want to talk with me, largely following a first-come, first-served strategy.

Additional office hours may be scheduled, in response to student demand.

The primary reference for this course is the book, Introduction to the Theory of Computation by Michael Sipser. Currently, both the second and third editions of this book are widely available, and either is acceptable. (The Third edition contains an extra section at the end of Chapter 2, but this section will not be used during the course. Otherwise the books seem to be nearly identical.) Overall any version of this book (paperback, hard cover, international edition) is fine, as long as the version specifies either the second or the third edition.

Current events for the Signature Project in this course may be found at either ACM News or Computer Weekly.

Discussions of NP-complete problems may be found through Web searches or from Computers and Intractability: A Guide to the Theory of NP-Completeness by Michael R. Garey and David S. Johnson, W. H. Freeman and Company, Jan 15, 1979, which is available free from academia.edu and can be ordered from from amazon.com.

Statements in this section are quoted from language recommended by SSU.

Fires and/or Power Outages

Sonoma County has seen an increase in fire activity and public safety power outages that have had an impact on campus operations intermittently since 2017. In the event that we experience a similar disruption to our course this semester, I will communicate with class via email within 24 hours of the disruption around potential changes to assignments, due dates, or readings. If the disruption continues for more than one week of our regular class meetings, I will subsequently follow up on a weekly basis. Please sign up to receive university emergency alerts by texting SSUALERTS to 67283.

Religious Observance

The observance of religious holidays (activities observed by a religious group of which a student is a member) and cultural practices are an important reflection of diversity. As your instructor, I am committed to providing equivalent educational opportunities to students of all belief systems. At the beginning of the semester, you should review the course requirements to identify foreseeable conflicts with assignments, exams, or other required attendance. If at all possible, please contact me (your course coordinator/s) within the first two weeks of the first class meeting to allow time for us to discuss and make fair and reasonable adjustments to the schedule and/or tasks.

Flexibility versus Accommodations

I have designed the course to provide some flexibility for students who experience hardships related to COVID-19 and other illnesses, mental health challenges and family concerns. These include reasonable extensions on assignments, and opportunities to make-up exams. It is important to note that any flexibility that I provide is something that I would offer any student without compromising the learning outcomes or modalities of the course. For instance, I cannot change the course modality to online for a student, nor can I allow a student to use notes in a traditionally closed notes exam. The most important thing that you can do is communicate with me. I can work with you to determine what options there are for you to succeed.

This flexibility should not be confused with the term "accommodations" which is reserved for students referred to me by Disability Services for Students (DSS).

DSS

If you are a student with a disability, and think you may need academic accommodations, please contact Disability Services for Students (DSS), located in Schulz 1014A, Voice: (707) 664-2677, TTY/TDD: (707) 664-2958, as early as possible in order to avoid a delay in receiving accommodation services. Use of DSS services, including testing accommodations, requires prior authorization by DSS in compliance with university policies and procedures. See SSU's policy on Disability Access for Students. 

• Phone: (707) 664-2677
• Phone TTY/TDD: (707) 664-2958
• DSS Website 

Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS)

If you feel stressed or otherwise worried about your circumstances, you are encouraged to contact SSU's Counseling and Psychological Services. In summary, CAPS offers short-term individual and group counseling, workshops, crisis intervention services, consultation, referral, training, and outreach.

• Phone: (707) 664-2153
• CAPS Website 

created August13, 2023 revised Summer-Fall, 2023
For more information, please contact Henry M. Walker at walker@cs.grinnell.edu.

Copyright © 2011-2022 by Henry M. Walker. Selected materials copyright by Marge Coahran, Samuel A. Rebelsky, John David Stone, and Henry Walker and used by permission. This page and other materials developed for this course are under development. This and all laboratory exercises for this course are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.