General Information

• Class Location and Meeting Times
  Lecture: MTWTh, 12:30 - 1:50, Center Hall, Room 216
  Discussion: Thursday, 2 - 3:50, Center Hall, Room 214, except during the weeks of July 11th and July 25th (the exams weeks), when they will be moved to Wednesday, 2 - 3:50 in a room to be announced.
  
• Instructor John Glick
  email: jglick@cs.ucsd.edu
  Office: Computer Science and Engineering Building (EBU3B), Room 2004
  Phone: To be determined
  Office hours: Monday and Wednesday 9:30-10:30, and Monday 2 - 4. However, my office will not be available until July 5th (or maybe a little after). I will put a note on the website when I can get into my office. Until then my after class office hours will be wherever we can find near the classroom, and my morning office hours will have to be by email appointment.
• TA Leo Porter
  email: leporter@ucsd.edu
  Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday 11 - 12, and Friday 10:30 - 12:30, EBU 6307
  
• TA Nan Zang
  email: nzang@cs.ucsd.edu
  Office Hours: Wednesday 2- 4, EBU 6307, except on July 13th and July 27th, when they will be from 9 - 11.
  
• TA Jan Voung
  email: jvoung@cs.ucsd.edu
  Office Hours: Tuesday 2 - 4, EBU 6307, except during the week of June 27th (the first week of class), when his office hours will be Friday 1 - 3.
  
• Required Text
  The required text is Introduction to the Theory of Computation, Second Edition, by Michael Sipser (Thomson, ISBN 0-534-95097-3). There are some significant changes in this new edition, most notably the addition of many exercises and the solutions to selected exercises. The numbering of exercises and problems have changed in the new edition.
• Tentative List of Topics to be Covered
  All of chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4, sections 5.1 and 5.3, and as much of chapter 7 as we have time for at the end of the quarter. You should be prepared to review chapter 0 material (on mathematical background) as needed as the quarter progresses.
• Written Assignments
  Approximately every other class I will give you a written assignment consisting of problems from the textbook. Two of the problems from each assignment should be turned in and will be graded (and I will tell you which two problems when I make the assignment). Do not turn in the other problems, but you should still solve them. I encourage you to work independently on the assignments. The benefit to you in doing the assignments comes not so much knowing what the answers are but from having worked your way to the solution on your own. However, working in groups can the assignments can be useful. The only thing that I require is that you do work with others on the problems, you must write up your solutions on your own. Do not come up with one written solution to a problem and then have everyone copy it. You should not copy of solutions from any other source, whether it be another student in the class, a solutions manual, or a web source. Each assignment is to be turned in by the end of the second class after it is assigned. I will not accept late assignments.
• Exams
  There will one midterm, on Thursday, July 14. It will be during the regular class meeting, and I will give you the entire class to work on it. There will also be a final on July 28 (during the regular class meeting time on the last day of class). For both exams, you will be responsible for all of the assigned reading, lecture material, written assignments, and programming assignments up to the date of the exam. The exams may be scheduled for a different lecture hall than the regular class meeting. Watch out for announcements of the location of exams. The exams will be closed book and closed note, with no calculators allowed. Of course, you cannot receive any kind of external help on an exam. You must take the midterms during their scheduled times - I will not give any makeup midterms. If a verifiable extraordinary circumstance prevents you from taking one of them, I will give additional weight to your final (equal to the sum of the weights of the midterm and the final in the table below). You must also take the final during its scheduled time. If a verifiable extraordinary circumstance prevents you from taking it then, I will work out something with you. You must bring a valid picture id with you to both exams.
• Grading
  Your grade will be based on your weighted average of the assignments and exams. The weights are:
  • Written assignments - 15%
  • Midterm exam - 35%
  • Final exam - 50%
  I do not grade on a strict scale, but you will do no worse than the scale shown below.
  • A: 93 and above
  • A-: at least 90 but less than 93
  • B+: at least 87 but less than 90
  • B: at least 83 but less than 87
  • B-: at least 80 but less than 83
  • C+: at least 74 but less than 80
  • C: at least 69 but less than 74
  • C-: at least 65 but less than 69
  • D: at least 55 but less than 65
  • F: below 55
  We will not regrade problems from the assignments or exams unless we made an error in adding points or if your answer is correct yet points were deducted. You will not be allowed to take an incomplete unless there is a reason that prevents you from completing the work of the course. Just getting behind is not a sufficient reason.