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HOME RESEARCH TEACHING

Introduction

The course is for introducing you to the beautiful and profundly impactful world of Theory of Computing (TOC). The following three questions encompass our main learning goals:

1. What is computation?

How different is the iMac Pro really from Apple III?

2. Can we compute our way out of everything?

How about predicting Stack Overflow errors at compile time?

3. What can we compute efficiently?

The computational version of are we there yet?

At the end of the course I hope you would have learnt something about the nature of computing, universality in computing, and limitations of computing. You can check last year's version here.

Logistics and Resources

Lecture hours: M-W 2-3:50: Mong Learning Center
  • Zoom link.
  • Lecture 10 will be held in Discussion Section, Rolfe 1200 on Nov 1st from 2 - 3:50 pm.
  • Lecture 15 will be held in Discussion Sections, Rolfe 1200 on Nov 22nd from 2 - 3:50 pm.
Course notes: We will use ScribbleTogether.
Course team:
  • Alan Joel: I am a second-year PhD student advised by Alexander Sherstov. My research interests are in computational complexity theory, pseudorandomness, and coding theory. In my spare time, I read non-fiction, solve crosswords, and watch TV shows/movies. I can be reached at ajoel@cs.ucla.edu.
  • Arvind Vepa: I’m a fifth year PhD student focused on applications of machine learning in health care. In my free time, I enjoy spending time with my partner and going out to try different types of food in LA. Email: amvepa@g.ucla.edu
  • Yimeng(Kobe) Wang: Hi all!. I'm a third year PhD student broadly interested in various areas in Theoretical Computer Science. In my spare time, I like to read and to watch/play sports. Feel free to talk to me about anything. Email me at: kobewang1998@gmail.com
Discussion Sections Hours: Fridays. Expand for hours.
  • 1A: F 2pm-3:50pm. Royce Hall 362
  • 1B: F 2pm-3:50pm. Franz Hall 1260
  • 1C: F 2pm-3:50pm. Rolfe Hall 1200
Office Hours: Exploit these!
  1. Instructor office hours: M: 12 - 1; W: 10 - 11. Engineering VI 463.
  2. TA office hours:
edStem: Our online space for asking, answering questions, and posting links to class material. Register to our class server here.

We will make use of edStem extensively. It will be our main way for communicating with each other. Please ask questions here so that others may also benefit from the knowledge.

We will also use it for releasing homework solutions. Homeworks themselves will be posted on the class website.

Register using the link emailed to your address on file (with CCLE). You can also register via the link above along with the code provided in first lecture.

Homework submission: Homework will be released on Gradescope and you will have to submit via Gradescope; Due 9:59PM (Pacific time) on due date.

We will use Gradescope for homework and they have to be submitted by 10PM on their due date. Things to keep in mind: 1) Within a week of the course, you should receive a registration link from Gradescope. If you don't receive it before the first homework, contact the TAs immediately; this will give you access to the website. 2) Watch this one-minute video with complete instructions. Follow them to the letter! The simple guidelines make the process considerably smoother. 3) Make sure you start each problem of a homework on a new page. 4) To generate a PDF scan of the assignments, you can follow the instructions here; you can also use the scanners in the library.

Homework writing: LaTeX recommended highly

It is strongly recommended to use LaTeX or other word processing software for submitting the homework. Grades will take into account both the correctness and the quality of the solutions. Correctness is a prerequisite but clarity is also important: you are responsible for communicating your solution in a legible and understandable way.
Some helpful guidelines: (1) Start early to use office hours. (2) Serious/honest attempts count - there will be reasonable partial credit for attempts that show understanding of the problem/concepts involved.

Textbook: Introduction to Theoretical Computer Science by Boaz Barak

The textbook is available for free on the web with many other very useful resources. We will follow this very closely. Another great textbook to peruse is the classical Introduction to Theory of Computation by Michael Sipser.

If you are interested in learning more about TOC, for advanced but high-level overview these two books are highly recommended.

Homeworks on Gradescope

Grading

Homeworks: 6 x 4 pts.

All Homeworks are except HW4 are released on Monday (by 7PM Pacific); HW4 is released on Wednesday due to Veterans day holiday. All homeworks will be due by 9:59 PM Pacific on the due date.

Homework Coverage and Dates: Expand to see details.
  • HW 1 Oct 7 - 14: Lectures 1,2,3,4.
  • HW 2 Oct 21 - 28: Lectures 5,6,7,8.
  • HW 3 Nov 4 - Nov 13: Lectures 9,10,11.
  • HW 4 Nov 11 - 18: Lectures 12,13.
  • HW 5 Nov 25 - Dec 2: Lectures 14,15,16,17.
  • HW 6 Dec 2 - Dec 6: Lectures 18,19
Exams: 25, 24, 27 pts. We will have three non-cumulative exams in the course. Exams 1, 2 will be held in class on Oct 30, Nov 20 respectively. Exam 3 will be held on Dec 9th as per university calendar and will also only be for 110 minutes.
Exam Coverage and Dates: Expand to see details.
  • Exam 1 Oct 30, 2 - 3:50 (Lecture hours): Lectures 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8.
  • Exam 2 Nov 20, 2-3:50 (Lecture hours): Lectures 9,10,11,12,13.
  • Exam 3 Dec 9, 11:30 - 1:30 pm (university schedule, Dodd Hall 147): Lectures 14,15,16,17,18,19.

Syllabus

Broad outline of the course content.

  • Introduction: 2 Lectures (Chapters 0,1,2)
  • Circuits: 3 Lectures (Chapter 3,5)
  • Automata: 4 Lectures (Chapter 6)
  • Turing Machines: 3 Lectures (Chapter 7,8)
  • Universality and Computability: 3 Lectures (Chapter 9)
  • Restricted Models of Computation: 2 Lectures (Chapter 10)
  • Special topic: Quantum computing or Recursion theorem or Godel's Incompleteness - 3 lectures

Course Policies

  • There will be no makeup exams for the course. If the above dates do not work for you, you need to talk to me within the first week of classes.
  • Regrade requests need to be submitted electronically on Gradescope within a week of receiving the graded work. Requests later than a week will not be handled (mainly to keep things flowing).
  • If you are unsatisfied with the online response for your regrade request, bring it up during TA office hours. If that also does not resolve it, and only then, you can bring it up during instructor office hours (so that we have time to discuss course material during the limited office hours).
  • We will use edStem for questions and discussions. Please ask questions related to assignments on that platform and not via email. Use this platform so that others can also benefit from your questions; if you want to communicate a private question, you can also do that on edStem.
  • Collaboration on homeworks is encouraged, but each student must write their solutions independently and should clearly mention the collaborators. Keep in mind that just attempting the homeworks itself will get you reasonable partial credit and will go a long way towards better performance in the exams (which carry significantly more weight). You should never share your written solutions with someone else or copy from someone else's written solutions. Under no circumstances may you use solution sets to problems from previous year courses or from similar courses elsewhere or other resources on the web.
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