The following documents outline the notes for the course CS 162 Formal Languages and Automata Theory. Much of this material is taken from notes for Jeffrey Ullman's course, Introduction to Automata and Complexity Theory, at Stanford University.

Note: Some of the notes are in PDF format. Viewing these files requires the use of a PDF Reader.

Notes by Lecture Schedule

• 1: Introduction. Finite Automata and DFAs.
  • Why Study Automata?, Powerpoint
  • Finite Automata, Powerpoint
  • DFAs, Powerpoint
• 2: Regular Expressions and Regular Languages.
• NFAs, Powerpoint
• Regular Expressions, Powerpoint
• Regular Expressions in Unix/Linux/Cygwin, Powerpoint
• Extra: Tutorial about regular expressions in egrep
• Extra: Lexical analyzer Lex (for reference and applications of regular languages)
• Regular Languages Decision Properties, Powerpoint
• 3: Regular and Context-Free Languages.
• The Pumping Lemma, Powerpoint
• Regular Language Equivalence and DFA Minimization, Powerpoint
• Regular Language Closure Properties, Powerpoint
• Context-Free Grammars, Powerpoint
• Parse Trees, Powerpoint
• Extra: YACC (for reference and application of CFGs)
• 4: CFLs and Push-Down Autamata.
• Push-Down Automata , Powerpoint
• Equivalence of PDAs and CFGs , Powerpoint
• Midterm I
  
• 5: Decision Problems for CFLs.
• Chomsky Normal Form, Powerpoint
• Pumping Lemma for CFLs, Powerpoint
• Decision Properties and Parsing (CYK) Algorithm, Powerpoint
• Extra: More on the CYK Algorithm
• 6: Turing Machines.
• Turing Machines, Powerpoint
• Turing Machines Examples
• Extra: Turing's original paper
• "Programming" Turing Machines, Powerpoint
• 7: Decidability and the Church-Turing Thesis.
• Undecidable Problems, Powerpoint
• The Church-Turing Thesis and Turing-completeness, Powerpoint
• Wikipedia page on the Church-Turing Thesis
• Wikipedia page on Turing completeness
• Rice's Theorem, Powerpoint
• Extra: The PCP Problem, Powerpoint
• Midterm II
  
• 8: Time complexity. P and NP. NP-completeness.
• P and NP, Powerpoint
• NP-Completeness, Powerpoint
• Satisfiability, Powerpoint
• NP-Complete Reductions, Powerpoint
• 9: NP-completeness, continued.
• More NP-Complete Reductions, Powerpoint
• Approximation Algorithms, Powerpoint
• 10: Space complexity.
• Space Complexity and Interactive Proofs, Powerpoint
• Final Exam