Computer Science Theory from a Practical Point of View

For the past several years, we at Baylor Computer Science, have been teaching a course entitled "Foundations of Computer Science." The objective of this course is to teach practical applications of mathematical machines, especially finite state machines and push-down automata. Undecidability and NP-Completeness are also covered. This course does not emphasize proofs and is not a substitute for a standard theory course. Instead, it is designed to give basic information about theoretical machines and their practical applications. The objective is to give students new tools for solving problems rather than presenting pure theory for its own sake.