COMP2270

Formal Languages and Automata

Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

10 Units 2000 Level Course

Available in 2014

Callaghan Campus	Semester 1

Previously offered in 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006

Introduces Formal Languages and their application to Safety-Critical Systems and Proofs of Correctness.
Discusses automata and their relationship to regular, context-free and phrase-structure languages. The computability theory is presented, including Turing machines, decidability and recursive functions.

Objectives

(1) To introduce students to the structure of automata and formal languages
(2) To give students understanding of the limitations on the capabilities of computers
(3) To give students an understanding of Formal Languages and their application to Safety-Critical Systems and Proofs of Correctness.

Content

(1) Formal Languages
(2) Safety-Critical Systems
(3) Proving Programs Correct.
(4) Finite automata and regular languages
(5) Push-down automata and context-free languages
(6) Turing machines and phrase-structured languages; Church-Turing Thesis
(7) Decidability
(8) Recursive functions

Replacing Course(s)

N/A

Transition

N/A

Industrial Experience

Assumed Knowledge

SENG1120, MATH1510

Modes of Delivery

Internal Mode

Teaching Methods

Lecture
Tutorial

Assessment Items

Essays / Written Assignments	as per course outline
Examination: Formal	A final examination according to the university's examination timetable.

Contact Hours

Lecture: for 3 hour(s) per Week for Full Term
Tutorial: for 2 hour(s) per Week for Full Term

Compulsory Components

Compulsory Course Component

Students must obtain 40% in the final exam to pass the course.
Student achieving >25% but less that 40% will be offered an alternate assessment if, and only if, all other assessment items have been submitted.
Students obtaining <25% will not be offered an alternate assessment, and will fail the course, unless students have submitted Adverse Circumstances in accordance with the Adverse Circumstances Policy.

Timetables