National Computing Education Accreditation Council

NCEAC

NCEAC.FORM.001-D

COURSE OUTLINE
INSTITUTION University of Management & Technology, Lahore
Course Description:

Course Code
CS3043
Course Title Theory of Automata (ToA)
Credit Hours 3
Course Instructor Tayaba Anjum
Contact Email: [email protected]; Office: STD-506 – Cabin: 4
Lectures
Tuesday/Friday (9:30-10:45)
Counselling Hours Monday/Thursday (12:30 – 2:00)
Tuesday/Friday (11:00-2:00)
Prerequisites by None
Course(s) and
Topics
Assessment ● Home Assignments + Class Activities (Approx. 10) 15%
Instruments with ● Quizzes (Approx. 8) 15%
Weights ● Mid / Sessional Exam 30%
(homework, ● Final Exam 40%
quizzes, midterms,
final, programming
assignments, lab
work, etc.)
URL (if any) https://lms.umt.edu.pk/course/
Textbook (or
Laboratory Manual Introduction to computer theory, Daniel I. A. Cohen, 2nd Edition
for Laboratory
Courses)
Reference Material RefA: Automata, Computability and Complexity: Theory and Applications, by Elaine Rich, 2011
RefB: An Introduction to Formal Languages and Automata, by Peter Linz, 4th edition, Jones &
Bartlett Publishers, 2006
RefC: Theory of Automata, Formal Languages and Computation, by S. P. Eugene, Kavier, 2005,
New Age Publishers
Course Theory of automata is a course to explore the theoretical foundations of computer science. In this
Goals/Objectives course, students learn to classify machines by their power to recognize languages from the
perspective of formal languages. The aim of this course includes:
a) Introduction of the basic theory of Computer Science and formal methods of computation
like automata theory, formal languages and grammars
b) differentiate between regular, non-regular and context-free languages.
c) acquire concepts of computational theory and models such as automata and Turing
Machines.

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 National Computing Education Accreditation Council
NCEAC

NCEAC.FORM.001-D

Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs):

CLOs Description Domain & BT Level *

CLO 1 Explain and differentiate the different concepts in C1 (Knowledge)

automata theory and formal languages C2 (Understand)
CLO 2 Prove properties of languages, grammars and automata C5 (Evaluate)
with rigorously formal mathematical methods
CLO 3 Design of FA, RE, CFG, PDA, and TM C6 (Create)

CLO 4 Transform between equivalent NFAs, DFAs and REs C3 (Apply)

* BT= Bloom’s Taxonomy, C=Cognitive domain, P=Psychomotor domain, A= Affective domain

Mapping of CLOs to Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs):

CLOs/PLOs CLO 1 CLO 2 CLO 3 CLO 4

PLO 1: Academic Education

PLO 2: Knowledge for Solving Computing

Problems
PLO 3: Problem Analysis

PLO 4: Design and Development of Solutions

PLO 5: Modern Tool Usage

PLO 6: Individual and Teamwork

PLO 7: Communication

PLO 8: Computing Professionalism and Society

PLO 9: Ethics

PLO 10: Life Long Learning

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 National Computing Education Accreditation Council
NCEAC

NCEAC.FORM.001-D

Tentative Course Plan

Week Topics Chapter Assessment CLOs
Introduction
Introduction to Theory of Automata, Introduction to
CLO 1,
1 Formal Languages, Finite vs. Infinite Languages, Ch 2 and Ch 3
Operations performed on strings, Kleene Closure
property
Regular Expression (RE) CLO 1,
2 Ch 4 Quiz 1
Introductions to RE, strings generation from RE CLO 3
Finite Automata (FA)
Assignment 1 CLO 1,
3 Introduction and defining FA, Rules of constructing a Ch 5
CLO 3
FA, Realizing the acceptance and rejection of strings
Finite Automata (FA)
CLO 1,
Constructing Transition Table, Relationship of FA with
4 Ch 5 Quiz 2 CLO 3,
RE, Introduction to NFA, DFA vs. NFA, related
examples
Transition Graphs (TG)
Assignment 2 CLO 1,
Introduction to TG and Generalized (TG), Difference
5 Ch 6 CLO 3,
between TG and GTG, Examples of TG and GTG,
Introduction to Non deterministic Finite Automata (NFA)
CLO 1,
Kleen’s Theorem CLO 2,
6 Introduction to Kleene’s Theorem, turning TG into RE, Ch 7 Quiz 3 CLO 3,
Converting RE to FA, Unification CLO 4,

CLO 1,
Finite Automata with Output
CLO 3,
7 Moore Machines, Mealy machines, Moore=Mealy, Ch 8
CLO 4,
Revision of topics for Mid Term

8 Mid –Term Midterm Exam

Regular Languages (RL) CLO 1,
Introduction to Regular Languages, Closure Properties of CLO 3,
9 Ch 9
Regular Languages (R.L), Product, Intersection, CLO 4,
Complement of RL
Non-Regular Languages CLO 1,
10 Introduction to Non regular Languages, Proving the Non- Ch 10 Quiz 4 CLO 2,
regularity using Pumping Lemma property
Context Free Grammars (CFG) CLO 1,
11 Introduction to CFG and CFL, Generative Grammars, Ch 12 Assignment 3 CLO 3,
Trees, Ambiguity, Total Language Tree
Grammatical Format
CLO 3,
Killing 𝛬 productions, Killing Unit Productions,
12 Ch 13 Quiz 5 CLO 1,
Chomsky Normal Form (CNF), Derivation Trees/ Parse
Tree/ Syntax Tree, Left most and right most derivations
Push Down Automata (PDA)
CLO 1,
Introduction to PDA, Pushdown Stack
13 Ch 14 Assignment 4 CLO 3,
● DPDA vs. NPDA
● How the strings are parsed using PDA
CFG =PDA CLO 1,
Ch 15
14 Constructing a PDA for different CFG, Difference CLO 4,
Ch 11
between PDA and FA

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 National Computing Education Accreditation Council
NCEAC

NCEAC.FORM.001-D

Decidability
Equivalence and finiteness
Turing Machines (TM)
CLO 1,
Introduction to TM, Complexity issues and analysis, P Quiz 6
15 Ch 19 CLO 3,
and NP problems, Revision of the course and problems
discussion
16 Final Final Exam

Laboratory None
Projects/Experiments Done
in the Course
Programming Assignments 1 programming assignment
Done in the Course
Class Time Spent on (in 3 hours per week
credit hours)
Oral and Written
Communications

*-Tentative Mapping of CLOs to Direct Assessments

CLO Quiz-1 Quiz-2 Quiz-3 Quiz-4 Quiz-5 Quiz-6 A-1 A-2 A-3 A-4 Midter Final
m
1 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
2 ✓ ✓ ✓
3 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
4 ✓ ✓ ✓

Instructor Name: Dr Tayaba Anjum

Instructor Signature ____________________________