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CSE34151 Administration Page

Prerequisites:

Discrete Mathematics (CSE 20110) or equivalent. You especially need to be comfortable with sets, tuples, functions, relations, and graphs; and writing proofs by contradiction and by induction.
Good familiarity with at least one programming language.

Required text

Michael Sipser's Introduction to the Theory of Computation, in either the 2nd or 3rd edition:

	2nd Edition, 2005 ISBN: 0-534-95097-3 Links: Amazon errata
	3rd Edition, 2012 ISBN: 1-133-18779-X Links: Amazon errata A copy of this edition will be on reserve in the Engineering Library.
	3rd International Edition, 2012 ISBN: 1-133-18781-1 Links: Amazon errata

Honor Code:

This class follows the binding Code of Honor at Notre Dame. In addition the CSE Guide to Honor Code gives additional detail on what is construed by CSE as different levels of sharing and copying. Unless explicitly allowed by the assignment rules, the graded work you do in this class must be your own. In the case where you are allowed to collaborate with other students, as in projects, make sure to fairly attribute their contribution.

In addition, all handouts and other materials created for this course by the professor are copyrighted material of the professor. Re-posting copies of any of these materials to any location is both an honor code violation and a violation of copyright law.

All work that you submit must be your own; that is, it must represent your own understanding, in your own words. Discussion of problems is encouraged, but writing solutions together or looking at other students' solutions is not allowed. Any print or online resources that you use must be cited properly; use of solution manuals is not allowed.

Attendance

Students are expected to attend all classes. Foreseeable absences should be discussed with the instructor ahead of time.

Grading

The following components will make up each student's grade (total of 100%):

Homework: 40%
Projects: 20%
Midterm 1: 10%
Midterm 2: 10%
Final: 15%
In class Quizzes: 5%

All individual grades will be made available via Sakai.

The following table reflects the minimum grade you are guaranteed to receive for different aggregate scores.

Grade	Minimum Percentage
A	93.3
A-	90
B+	86.7
B	83.3
B-	80
C+	76.7
C	73.3
C-	70
D	60

The instructor reserves the right to lower these minimum thresholds once all grades are in. Also the instructor may also scale different components, especially exam grades, based on actual score distributions. No such scaling will, however, lower the points for any student, only elevate them.

In-Class Quizzes

Occasional short quizzes will be given at start of class, with scoring done by students during class. Grades on quizzes are based solely on turning in the quiz in class, with self-assigned "scores" used by the instructor to judge state of overall class understanding, and identify most important topics to review. Students are encouraged to mark up their quiz with corrections to their answers as we review them in class. Quizzes will be returned. Every student is permitted two "free" missed quizzes grade. Student self-assigned grades are:

5: I fully understood this
4: I missed a minor point
3: I had some difficulty with topic
2: I had significant difficulty
1: I had no idea how to proceed

Homework

Each homework assignment must be performed and submitted by each student individually, in accordance with the ND Honor Code (see above). Most homework will have three sets of problems, of which only the latter two need be written up and submitted for grading:

A list of practice problems from the book that are relevant to the topic and have solutions in the book. These are provided as reference on and may help in understanding the topics addressed by the latter two lists.
Some problems from the book.
Some additional problems not from the book.

All homework will be submitted electronically, with submission instructions to be released later.

Exams

All exams will be given in class and will be open book and notes, but no electronic support of any kind (esp. from Turing-equivalent devices). Topics for each test will emphasize the new material since the prior test, plus some problems on topics from the prior test which the instructor deemed presented difficulty. At the current time the schedule for exams are as follows:

First Midterm: Thursday February 15, 2018
Second Midterm: Tuesday March 18, 2018
Final: TBA

Projects

Several projects will be assigned during the semester. Groundrules for these projects can be found on the Projects page. Submission and scoring of these projects will be announced.

Late Policy

In the case of a serious illness or other excused absence, as defined by university policies, submissions will be accepted late without penalty by the same number of days as the excused absence. Otherwise, you may submit some problems on time for full credit, and other problems late with a penalty of 20% per day (rounded down to the nearest point). No problem can be submitted more than once. Once a problem set is returned or is discussed in class, however, no further submissions will be accepted.

Students with Disabilities

Any student who has a documented disability and is registered with Disability Services should speak with the professor as soon as possible regarding accommodations. Students who are not registered should contact the Office of Disability Services.

Copyright

All course materials written by the instructor and published on this website are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, which prohibits reuse for commercial purposes. All course materials written by the instructor and distributed privately (including through Sakai) should not be redistributed in any way; doing so is a violation of both US copyright law and the University of Notre Dame Honor Code.