COMP 454 - Automata, Languages, and Computation

Units: 3
Three hours lecture in the lab per week
Prerequisite(s): MATH 300
Study of the relation of languages (i.e. sets of strings) and machines for processing these languages, with emphasis on classes of languages and corresponding classes of machines. Phrase structure languages and grammar. Types of grammars and classes of languages. Regular languages and finite state automata. Context-free languages and pushdown automata. Unrestricted languages and Turing Machines. Computability models of Turing, Church, Markov, and McCarthy. Applications to programming languages, compiler design, and program design and testing.