Theory of Concurrency, spring 2007 / Theorie van Concurrency, voorjaar 2007

		Universiteit Leiden
Theory of Concurrency, spring 2007
Theorie van Concurrency, voorjaar 2007

Theory of Concurrency is a mandatory course for third year (monodisciplinary) computer science students. From this year on, Theory of Concurrency will be taught in the spring semester, in particular in the sixth semester. The first time was in spring 2007.

Practical information

Teacher: Rudy van Vliet
working place: office 150 of `het Snellius', Niels Bohrweg 1, Leiden
telephone: 071-527 7050
email: rvvliet@liacs.nl
Assistant: Ying Tao
Set up of the course: lectures and exercise classes
Language: The lectures have been given in Dutch. The exercise classes have been given in English.
Lecture times: Wednesdays from 13:45 - 16:30. from 7 February till 2 May 2007, in room 312 of `het Snellius'.
In contrast with the information in the `Studiegids', there has been three hours per week of lectures and/or exercise classes.
Written exam: Friday 1 June 2007, 10:00 - 13:00
Re-examination: Wednesday 22 August 2007, 14:00 - 17:00

Exam of 1 June 2007

The exam of 1 June 2007 has been corrected. You can find the results here, and outside the teacher's office in `het Snellius'. You can get your own solutions (with corrections) from the teacher at his office.
You can find the exam itself here (as PDF).

Exam of 22 August 2007

The exam of 22 August 2007 has been corrected. You can find the results here, and outside the teacher's office in `het Snellius'. You can get your own solutions (with corrections) from the teacher at his office.
You can find the exam itself here (as PDF).

Goal of the course

The goal of the course is to make the student familiar with fundamental notions concerning concurrent systems and with the way to formalize and analyze these notions.
Thus the student acquires an insight into the basic techniques for working with concurrent systems.

We study 'concurrency' as a phenomenon of parallel and possibly mutually dependent processes. Petri nets are used to formally model and analyse such processes. Both structure and behaviour of (concurrent systems modelled as) Petri nets are investigated.

Course material

The course material is in English. It consists of a 'dictaat' (lecture notes) and an 'opgavenbundel' (exercise book).
There is also a list of errata, which you can find as a ps file here.
You can print all this material yourself, but can also buy the printed version (nicely glued together) at the lectures. There are some five copies available still. Price: EUR 8,50 Ilecture notes + exercise book).

Topics of the exam

The exam covered a bit more than the material treated during the semester. That is, sections 9.6 and 9.7, which were hardly/not explained in the lectures, also had to be known for the exam. You can find some questions about these sections at old exams.
Consequently:

the exam is concerned with all material from the dictaat, opgavenbundel and errata, except Chapter 8, Section 9.4, and the parts between an asterisk (*) and the corresponding qed-symbol (a little square).

Material treated

In the course of the semester, we have treated the following material:

7 February 2007: three hours lecture about pages 2-20 of lecture notes.
14 February 2007: one hour lecture about pages 20-23 of lecture notes; two hours exercise class about exercises 4.1, 4.2, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 4.10.
21 Februari 2007: two hours lecture about pages 23-34 of lecture notes; one hour exercise class about exercises 4.9, 4.13.
28 Februari 2007: two hours lecture about pages 34-42 of lecture notes and exercise 5.2; one hour exercise class about exercises 5.1 and 5.3.
7 March 2007: three hours lecture about pages 42-46 and exercises 5.5 and 5.6.
14 March 2007: two hours lecture about pages 47-56; one hour exercise class about exercises 5.7, 5.8 and 5.9(d).
21 March 2007: two hours lecture about pages 56-63, 69-72; one hour exercise class about exercises 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.6.
28 March 2007: two-and-a-half hour lecture about pages 64-69, 73-74; fifteen minutes exercise class about exercise 6.7.
4 April 2007: two hours lecture about pages 74-87; one hour exercise class about exercises 6.9, 6.11(a-b).
11 April 2007: two hours lecture about pages 88-93; one hour exercise class about exercises 7.3, 7.6(b-d).
18 April 2007: two hours lecture about pages 93-99; one hour exercise class about exercises 7.2, 7.8.
25 April 2007: two hours lecture about pages 109-120; one hour exercise class about exercises 9.1, 9.3.
2 May 2007: two hours lecture about pages 121, 129-138, main definitions and results from 139-141; one hour exercise class about exercises 9.7, ....

Some old exams (ps files)

August 2006
January 2006
August 2005
January 2005

Those interested may visit the Petri Nets World (online services for the international Petri net community).

Questions and comments can be sent to:
Rudy van Vliet; rvvliet@liacs.nl
Last modified: 9 January 2012 - http://www.liacs.nl/home/rvvliet/tvc/tvc_vj2007.html