Formal languages; finite automata and regular expressions; properties of regular languages; pushdown automata and context-free grammars; properties of context-free languages; introduction to Turing machines and computability.
4
UnitsLetter
Grading1, 2, 3
PasstimeNone
Level LimitEngineering
CollegeA pretty solid prof who is excited about the material, gives good examples, and is very responsive to questions during lecture. Attending lecture is very important though, and I made the final much harder for myself by missing the last few.
Take thorough notes in class, especially about examples and proofs, as they often show up on tests. The tests are challenging, but not unfair or unreasonable. However, the TAs that graded the homework when I took his class were hopeless. I had to get every single assignment regraded because of mistakes, but it worked out fine in the end.
Great lectures. Homework was difficult and needed the help of TA's to complete. Tests were not hard.
Great lectures. Clear and to the point. Homework was graded hard, go to TA office hours for homework help to get full credit. Midterm was not hard, final was alright. Test did not have things not covered in lecture or incredibly hard problems.
If you're just here to learn then take the class, the material is very interesting. But man the grading was rough I swear the people in this class are smarter than the average cs class the median was always so high in the quizzes...
Fun class, interesting concepts, and he is one of my faves.