An Introduction to the

Theory of Computation
By
Hossein Rahmani
Slides originally by Book(s) Resources

1
 Introduction
• Lecturer:
– Hossein Rahmani
– Assistant Professor in IUST
– Research Fellow in DKE (Maastricht University)
– Research Area: Knowledge Discovery, Data
Analysis, Data/Graph Mining
– More Information:
• http://webpages.iust.ac.ir/h_rahmani/

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3
 Introduction
• Teaching Assistants
– Female
• Zahra Bashir
• Farnaz Hassani
– Male
• Kiarash Kasiri
• Ali safarpour

4
 Materials and Clarification
• (Main) Book:
– An Introduction to Formal Languages
and Automata, (Fifth Edition)
– Easy to Read
– Several Examples
• Big-Picture is discussed
– Refer to book for details

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 Road Map
(Might change!)
Introduction

Context Free Turing

Finite Automata Machines
Languages

DFA Derivations Other Models

Of TM

Normal Hierarchy of
NFA
Forms Languages

Regular
Pushdown
Expression/
Automata
Grammar
6
 Grading Policy
• Quiz:
– There is a quiz for each main topic of the course
– 2-5 points
• Midterm: 0-6 points
– We may even skip the midterm
• Home-works: 3-6 points
• Final exam: 8-12 points

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 Quiz Time
• Work in Group Session.
• Make the group of 2
• Discuss the problems
• Explore the solution space
– Open book
– Even discuss with me
• Talk and Participate!
– No Divide and Conqure 8
 Cultural Activity 1
• Buy, Wrap, Present a flower to
your mother/father/grandmothers/grandfathers
No others!
• Take a photo
– Not Included: face/Personal info
– Included: Flower
• Send an email
– Subject: Cultural Activity_Nazarieh_Flower_FullName_STDID
• No Other subjects are examined!
– To:
• 1- h_rahmani@iust.ac.ir
• 2-ftm.karimkhani@gmail.com
– Deadline: Esfand 25th, Will not be extended.
• Grad: 0.5 point

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Cultural Activity!

10
 Cultural Activity 2
• Announce Later!
• Grad: 0.5 point

11
 Problem Based Learning
(PBL)
• Traditional Teaching
– Professor -> slides/Blackboard
– Teaching Assistance-> Solve practical
• PBL
– More Student-Centered
– Professor proposes a problem
– Students explore the solution space
– Conditions:
• Number of students

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 Problem Based Learning
(PBL)
• We follow PBL, as much as it is possible
• Do not Expect us and specially TA’s to
solve the problems in the whiteboard.
• Previous Terms were mostly happy with
this approach

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To Care or not to Care!