Course syllabus

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This page gives a basic overview of CS350 for Semester 1 2021. All course material is in Modules.

Course Overview Digital Course Outline Staff
Class Representatives Meeting Times Course Resources
Assessments Course Expectations Getting Started

 

Course Overview

The aim of this course is to present mathematical models for computers and computation, classical and quantum, and to prove results about what can and cannot be computed. It deals with idealized computers which operate on idealized input and output. For example, one proves that it is impossible to write a computer program that takes as input any computer program and tells whether or not that program will finish running or continue forever (the halting problem).

 Various methods to evaluate algorithmic complexity and prove undecidability, as well as efficient strategies, classical and quantum, for problem-solving will be presented. The Church‐Turing Thesis will be critically discussed.

Digital Course Outline

A full overview of the course is provided in the Digital Course Outline

Staff

Course Coordinator

Professor Cristian (Cris) S. Calude, cristian@cs.auckland.ac.nz, webpage
Room 839, B810 Building.

Lecturers

Tutor and marker

Tutor Yan Kolezhitskiy ykol002@aucklanduni.ac.nz 
Marker Manuel Aguero, jagu688@aucklanduni.ac.nz

Class Representatives

Class reps can act as an intermediary between students in the class and the lecturers and tutors. You can share with them any suggestions/complaints/remarks about the lectures. The class reps are not a part of the teaching team.

Holly Sutcliffe, hsut050@aucklanduni.ac.nz, is the class rep.

Meeting times

Lectures

Monday  12:00PM to 1:00PM SCIENCE B303, Room 102
Tuesday 12:00PM to 1:00PM BLT 204, Room 204
Friday  12:00PM to 1:00PM SCIENCE B303, Room 102

Tutorials

There will be 11 tutorials, you are required to participate in at least 7 of these to get full marks for participation (3% of total grade). Tutorial streams are as followed: Tuesday 8:00am - 9:00am, 9:00am - 10:00am, 10:00am - 11:00am, in 303-G14.

There will be three marked tutorials worth 2%: 23th March, 27th  April, and 25th May. Mark is best 2 out of 3

Course Resources and Getting Help

Piazza: Piazza is the main forum we will be using for asking and answering questions. In a large class like this it works well so you are encouraged to participate asking and answering questions there.

Assessments and Pass Requirements

Assessment will be determined as follows:        

The coursework consists of one quiz worth 30%,  three assignments worth 5% each, and tutorial work 5%.  The coursework thus contributes 50% of the final mark.

Assignments:   Assignment 1 will be due on 28 March 2021.  Assignment 2 will be due on 9 May 2021. Assignment 3 will due on 6 June 2021. All assignments must be prepared using an appropriate word-processing application [LaTeX: \LaTeX  is advised, but other word-processing applications are acceptable, diagrams may be hand-drawn], converted to PDF format, and uploaded in Canvas before 23:55 of the due date.

Mid-term Quiz:   The Quiz will be on 29 March, 18.00-19.30 on Canvas.

Exam: The exam will be on 11 June, 17.30-20.00, open book, online. 

This information can be found below:

https://cdn.auckland.ac.nz/assets/auckland/students/academic-information/exams-and-final-results/before-your-exams/1213-exam-timetable.pdf.

It is your responsibility to ensure your online exam is successfully submitted on time.  20% of the exam is multi-choice questions, to be completed online. The other 80% is to be typed or hand-written, converted to PDF, and uploaded to the exam. The last half-hour of the exam (i.e. from 19:30-20:00) is intended for this conversion and upload time. If you do not start your upload before 20:00, you have not submitted your exam on time. Do not leave this file upload to the last minute, in case of software glitch, user error, or network drop.

Student Learning Expectations

Getting Started

The course material is arranged in Modules. 

Course summary:

Date Details Due