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Theoretical Computer Science

• Course name: Theoretical Computer Science
• Course number: BS-18

Course Characteristics

Key concepts of the class

• Automata Theory
• Formal Grammars
• Computability

What is the purpose of this course?

A good software developer ignorant of how the mechanics of a compiler works is not better than a good pilot when it comes to fix the engine and he will definitively not be able to provide more than average solutions to the problems he is employed to solve. Like automotive engineering teach us, races can only be won by the right synergy of a good driving style and mechanics. Most importantly, limits of computation cannot be ignored in the same way we precisely know how accelerations, forces and frictions prevent us from racing at an unlimited speed. This course will investigate the prerequisites to understand compilers functioning. Although the act of compilation appears deceptively simple to most of the modern developers, great minds and results are behind the major achievements that made this possible. All starts with the Epimenides paradox (about 600 BC), which emphasizes a problem of self-reference in logic and brings us to the short time window between WWI and WW2 when, in 1936, Alan Turing proved that a general procedure to identify algorithm termination simply does not exist. Another major milestone has been reached by Noam Chomsky in 1956 with his description of a hierarchy of grammars. In this long historical timeframe we can put most of the bricks with which we build modern compilers. The course will be an historical tour through the lives of some of the greatest minds who ever lived on this planet.