COMP 350-01, Theory of Computation, Fall 2004

Abstract

CS 350 is a fundamental course about the essence of computing. We will discuss a series of abstract models of computation and investigate their power and limitations. We will explore the inheret limits of computation by looking at problems that simply cannot be described by a computational process. Finally, we will examine the practical aspects of computing by classifying problems with respect to their difficulty in terms of the required computational resources time and space. A lot of the main ideas in CS 350 have direct practical appliations to areas such as compiler theory, programming languages, string matching, etc. This course builds on abstract and mathematical thinking, and aims to further the appreciation for the theory and practice of computer science.