1400-1500 MW and 1600-1730 TTh, or by appointment. My office is MH 218. Email to smithj "AT" cs.sjsu.edu is usually better for reaching me than the phone (408-924-5153), since I check messages more frequently, and I'm often too busy with a student to answer the phone.
The text is Hopcroft, Motwani, and Ullman, Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation. Other references will be available in the library's course reserves. It's a good idea to bring the text to class every day.
We will cover Section 1.5, Chapters 2-7, and much of Chapters 8 and 9 of the text. The major topics covered will be alphabets and languages, finite automata, context-free grammars and languages, and Turing machines and computability. I will be assuming that you know the material in Sections 1.1-1.4; it's a good idea to check this material to see whether it's familiar to you. There will be a brief review of mathematical induction as we cover Section 1.5.
The course will be graded on a 1000-point basis: 200 points on problem sets; 600 points on 4 in-class tests; 200 points on the final exam. All tests will be open book and open notes. Electrical and electronic devices are not permitted (except for preapproved hardship cases).
For each exam or assignment, numeric grades are given and intervals for each letter grade are assigned (usually 92% for A, 90% for A-, 88% for B+, 82% for B, 80% for B-, etc.). Your course grade will be determined by comparing the sum of your numeric grades to the sum of the intervals, except that I often give a higher than this to students who have just one poor grade, or who have been improving throughout the course. The sum of the points available on all tests and assignments will be 1000, plus 0 to 20 points of extra credit. My standards for the I grade, for makeup exams, and for extending assignment due dates are quite strict. At a minimum, I expect documentation of why you cannot complete the work in the expected time.
Extra credit will not be considered in the determination of grade brackets. So for example, if the range for an A- is 900-920 points, then a student who gets 15 points of extra credit and 910 regular credit points will get a grade of A (based on 925 of 1000 total points) rather than an A- (based on 925 of 1020 total points). There will be from 0 to 30 extra credit points in the course.
All tests will be open book and open notes. Electrical & electronic devices are not permitted (except for preapproved hardship cases).
The separate web pages entitled Assignments, Collaboration, and Course Calendar are part of the official greensheet for this course, and you are responsible for knowing their contents. The first two of these give specifications for turning in assignments in this course. All three of them, along with other useful documents, are available from the class home page at
Students should know that the University’s Academic Integrity Policy is available at http://www.sa.sjsu.edu/download/judicial_affairs/Academic_Integrity_Policy_S07-2.pdf. Your own commitment to learning, as evidenced by your enrollment at San Jose State University and the University’s integrity policy, require you to be honest in all your academic course work. Faculty members are required to report all infractions to the office of Student Conduct and Ethical Development. The website for Student Conduct and Ethical Development is available at http://www.sa.sjsu.edu/judicial_affairs/index.html.
Instances of academic dishonesty will not be tolerated. Cheating on exams or plagiarism (presenting the work of another as your own, or the use of another person’s ideas without giving proper credit) will result in a failing grade and sanctions by the University. For this class, all assignments are to be completed by the individual student unless otherwise specified. If you would like to include in your assignment any material you have submitted, or plan to submit for another class, please note that SJSU’s Academic Policy F06-1 requires approval of instructors.
The most important consequences of the policy are that, unless unless I explicitly specify otherwise, work you turn in for this class should be entirely your own, and you should not share your work with anyone else. Some elaboration of the policy as it applies to my classes is available on the class web site.
If you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a disability, or if you need to make special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please make an appointment with me as soon as possible, or see me during office hours. Presidential Directive 97-03 requires that students with disabilities requesting accommodations must register with the DRC (Disability Resource Center) to establish a record of their disability.
If MH 222 must be evacuated, please use the stairwell to your left as you exit the room. Do not attempt to use the elevators. Do bring your belongings, as you may not be able to reenter the building promptly. When you exit the stairwell, proceed to the Paseo de San Carlos (the grassy strip on the opposite site of MH from the parking garage).