Foundations of informatics - a bridging course

This course is listed in Aachen online as Foundations of informatics - a bridging course and listed in Bonn Basis as Foundations of Informatics - a bridging course.

Dr .Michael Nüsken (contact person)
Prof. Dr. Thomas Noll
PD Dr. Walter Unger

• 7 - 11 October 2019, b-it 0.109 (Michael Nüsken) and online.
• 14 - 18 October 2019, b-it 0.109 (Michael Nüsken) and online.
• 02 - 06 March 2020, room see below (Thomas Noll).
• 09 - 13 March 2020, room see below (Walter Unger).

First meeting: Monday, 7 October, 9⁰⁰.

Schedule as planned so far:

Week 1/2

• Kick-Off meeting: Mon, 7 October 2019, 09⁰⁰-11⁰⁰, b-it 0.109.
  Bring your own devices and make sure that you have access to the computer science network, pools and computers.
• Collect meeting 1: Fri, 11 October 2019, 11⁰⁰-13⁰⁰, b-it 0.109.
• Collect meeting 2: Fri, 18 October 2019, 11⁰⁰-13⁰⁰, b-it 0.109.

All other teaching in this part is online. To participate

• either come to the kick-off
• or email me explaining your reasons.

Week 3

Mon 10⁰⁰ - 12³⁰ and 14⁰⁰ - 17⁰⁰, b-it 0.109, each block includes 30 minutes break.
Tuesday is a self-learning day.
Wed-Fri 10⁰⁰ - 12³⁰ and 14⁰⁰ - 17⁰⁰, RWTH, each block includes 30 minutes break.

Week 4

Mon 10⁰⁰ - 12³⁰ and 14⁰⁰ - 17⁰⁰, b-it 0.109, each block includes 30 minutes break.
Tue-Fri 10⁰⁰ - 12³⁰ and 14⁰⁰ - 17⁰⁰, RWTH Aachen, Ahornstrasse 55, Building E1, Raum 4017 (Seminarraum des i1) , each block includes 30 minutes break.

Possibly, your study advisor cares for first network access.

You may use eduroam.

For b-it accounts:

• You need to be inscribed at Aachen or Bonn in the first place.
• Next, you need to get a Uni Bonn ID at the HRZ.
• Finally, you may apply for a Student Account for Media Informatics or Guest to gain access at Bonn.

• The course takes place at the b-it on Campus Poppelsdorf, Bonn and some parts online.
• The courses of the Media Informatics program only start after the first two weeks of the bridging course.
• A similar agreement for the Software Systems Engineering program does not exist, you have to arrange with the collision.
• For some students this course is compulsary. That means: you have to pass the exam eventually. To write it you have two occasions every year, typically in April and June.
• You have to register for the exam in your respective program (ie. not with us!).

All material for Week 1/2 is in the online course which is available from September 2019 to June December 2020.

This week will deal essentially with three subjects:

• Linear Algebra (Gauß-Jordan-algorithm, expansion, dim ker A + dim im A = n, ...),
• Probabilities (Definitions, conditional probabilities, random variables, expected runtime of a random exit loop, some applications, ...),
• Integers modulo N (Definition, inversion and extended Euclidean algorithm, square and multiply, exponentiation, Theorem of Lagrange, of Euler and Fermat's little theorem, RSA correctness and efficiency, ...).

You might enjoy solving the geocache Felix Bauklötze.

Agenda

• foundations (first examples, asymptotic notation, solving recurrence equation)
• sorting (QUICKSORT, sorting in linear time)
• data structures (linked lists, binary search trees)
• graph algorithms (elementary (breadth-first, depth-first), single-source shortest path)

Literature

• Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest, and Stein, Introduction to Algorithms, 3rd edition, MIT Press, 2009.
• Goldreich, Computational Complexity: A conceptual perspective, Cambridge University Press, 2008.
• Knuth, TAOCP, Vol. 1 -- Fundamental Algorithms, 3rd edition, Addison-Wesley.

For organisational details, please refer to this web site.

Regular Languages

• Formal Languages
• Finite Automata
• Regular Expressions
• Minimization of Deterministic Finite Automata
• The Pumping Lemma

Context-Free Languages

• Context-Free Grammars and Languages
• Context-Free and Regular Languages
• Decidability Problems of Context-Free Languages
• Closure Properties of Context-Free Languages
• Pushdown Automata

1. Introduction to computability
2. Undecidable problems; halting problem; theorem of Rice
3. Recursive enumerability; PCP; Hilbert's tenth problem
4. Introduction to complexity
5. NP-completeness of selected graph problems
6. NP-completeness of selected number problems

For slides email Walter Unger.

Equivalent V4+Ü4.
Note that all Media informatics courses only start in the third week of the lecturing period, so that everybody can participate in this course.

For some MI-students this course is obligatory, for the others it's optional. There are no credits for this course.