Assignments & Projects

• Instructions:
  All assignments are to be physically handed in as a paper copy in class at the start of class on the respective due date.
• Bonus marks for using LaTeX:
  LaTeX is a standard tool in the theoretical computer science community for typesetting mathematical content such as equations, matrices, sums, integrals, etc. As such, I would encourage you spend time to learn it, and based on a suggestion from a student from class, I will promote the use of LaTeX as follows. Any assignment or project handed in which is prepared in LaTeX will receive bonus marks (NOTE: To receive the bonus, the file must be prepared using the template tex file provided for the relevant assignment). The amount of bonus marks will be specified on top of each assignment. To be clear, to "prepare the assignment in LaTeX" means to write your solutions as a .tex tile, compile the .tex file into a pdf file, and hand in a print-out of the pdf file. Note that some questions may require a drawing as part of the solution (such as a DFA state diagram); any such drawings may be done the old-fashioned way via hand, and handed in alongside the remaining questions done via LaTeX. Further comments:
  • In a nutshell, to use LaTeX, you'll need three things: (1) A LaTeX distribution (similar to a JDK for Java) (2) a LaTeX editor in which to prepare tex files (similar to an IDE such as Eclipse for Java), and (3) an introductory tutorial to teach you how to code in LaTeX. Click here for a relatively out of date link which should nevertheless help you with this setup, regardless of your platform.
  • Click here to obtain a .tex template file which you can fill out for your assignment solutions. (Click here to see what the compiled version of the template should look like.)

• Assignment 1: Due Thurs, August 31, at the start of class.
• Assignment 2: Due Thurs, September 14, at the start of class.
• Assignment 3: Due Thurs, September 28, at the start of class.
• Assignment 4: Due Thurs, October 12, at the start of class.
• Assignment 5: Due Thurs, Nov 2, at the start of class.
• Assignment 6: Due Tues, Nov 28, at the start of class.
• Assignment 7: Due Thursday, December 7, at the start of class.