Journal of Engineering Education Transformations

Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access
Open Access Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Restricted Access Subscription Access

Enhancing the Learning Ability Using JFLAP for Theory of Computation Course


Affiliations
1 Information Technology, Walchand Institute of Technology, Solapur, Maharashtra, India
2 Computer Science & Engineering, Walchand Institute of Technology, Solapur, Maharashtra, India
     

   Subscribe/Renew Journal


The theory of Computation course is the core subject for Computer Science disciplines. It is based on the automata theory and design of machines like Finite Automata (FA) for regular languages, Pushdown Automata (PDA) for Context-free languages and Turing Machine for Recursively Enumerable languages. Most of the part includes theoretical concepts like theorems, proofs and examples. The most promising part of this course is to solve examples according the given theory concept for a particular machine design. Teaching and learning this course is based on the imagination of theoretical concepts with the design of machine part. For a novice computer science student it is difficult to connect with the theory and a design for solving examples. The study proposes an effective way of teaching this course using Java Formal Languages and Automata Package (JFLAP) tool. It is a preexisting software tool created by Professor Susan Rodger and her students at Duke University. It allows designing and running machines like finite automata, pushdown automata and turing machine with the theorem proofs. It also focuses on conversions of languages from one form to another form easily.The experiment is conducted for the second year computer science and engineering students for the course of Theory of Computation (TOC). The results show that, the ability of problem solving among students increased effectively with more understanding level. The effectiveness of the experiment is verified by the feedback from students and the university results. It is observed that the learners can evaluate them selves for the problems using JFLAP.

Keywords

Theory of Computation, Automata Theory, Simulation, FA Design and Evaluation, Visualization.
Subscription Login to verify subscription
User
Notifications
Font Size


  • Ivan Budiselic, Sinisa Srbljic and Miroslav Popovic, “RegExpert: A Tool for Visualization of Regular Expressions”, IEEE International Conference on “Computer as a Tool”, EUROCON 2007.

  • S. Srbljic, Compiler Design 1: Introduction to Theory of Formal Languages, Automata, and Grammars, (original title in Croatian: Jezicni procesori 1: uvod u teoriju formalnih jezika, automata igramatika”), 2nd Edition, Element, Zagreb, 2002, pp. 46-50.

  • S. Wolfram, the Mathematica Book, 5th Edition, Wolfram Media, 2003.

  • Pemmaraju and S. Skiena, Computational DiscreteMathematics: Combinatorics and Graph Theory with Mathematica, Cambridge University Press, 2003.

  • B. aneva and D. Thiébaut, “Sorting algorithms,” Smith College, http://maven.smith.edu/~thiebaut/java/sort/demo.html.

  • A. Jacobsen, “Data-link network protocol simulation,” University of Birmingham, School of Computer Science, http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~gkt/Teaching/SEM335/dls im/Simulation.html.

  • B. W. Watson, “The design and implementation of the FIRE engine: a C++ toolkit for finite automata and regular expressions,” Computing Science Note 94/22, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands, 1994.

  • Grail+ Project homepage, http://www.csd.uwo.ca/Research/grail/index.html.

  • S. H. Rodger and T. W. Finley, JFLAP: An Interactive Formal Languages and Automata Package, Jones & Bartlett Publishers, Sudbury, MA, 2006.

  • Skuliber, S. Srbljic, and I. Crkvenac, “Using interactivity in computer-facilitated learning for efficient comprehension of mathematical abstractions,” Proceedings of the EUROCON 2001, International Conference on Trends in Communication, Bratislava, Slovak Republic, July, 2001, vol. 2/2, pp. 278-281.

  • Skuliber, S. Srbljic, and A. Milanovic, “Extending the textbook: a distributed tool for learning automata theory fundamentals,” Proceedings of the 9th IEEE International Conference on Electronics, Circuits and Systems (ICECS 2002), Dubrovnik, Croatia, September, 2002.

  • Susan H. Rodger, “JFLAP-Software for Experimenting with Formal Languages” Department of Computer Science, Duke University, July 11, 2007, 2007 Premier Award

  • Eric Gramond and Susan H. Rodger, “Using JFLAP to Interact with Theorems in Automata Theory” Duke University, Durham, CISE-9634475.

  • Peter Linz and Susan Rodger, “JFLAP activities for Formal Languages and Automata” manual, Duke University, Februaury 2011.


Abstract Views: 299

PDF Views: 0




  • Enhancing the Learning Ability Using JFLAP for Theory of Computation Course

Abstract Views: 299  |  PDF Views: 0

Authors

Pratibha S. Yalagi
Information Technology, Walchand Institute of Technology, Solapur, Maharashtra, India
Rashmi K. Dixit
Computer Science & Engineering, Walchand Institute of Technology, Solapur, Maharashtra, India

Abstract


The theory of Computation course is the core subject for Computer Science disciplines. It is based on the automata theory and design of machines like Finite Automata (FA) for regular languages, Pushdown Automata (PDA) for Context-free languages and Turing Machine for Recursively Enumerable languages. Most of the part includes theoretical concepts like theorems, proofs and examples. The most promising part of this course is to solve examples according the given theory concept for a particular machine design. Teaching and learning this course is based on the imagination of theoretical concepts with the design of machine part. For a novice computer science student it is difficult to connect with the theory and a design for solving examples. The study proposes an effective way of teaching this course using Java Formal Languages and Automata Package (JFLAP) tool. It is a preexisting software tool created by Professor Susan Rodger and her students at Duke University. It allows designing and running machines like finite automata, pushdown automata and turing machine with the theorem proofs. It also focuses on conversions of languages from one form to another form easily.The experiment is conducted for the second year computer science and engineering students for the course of Theory of Computation (TOC). The results show that, the ability of problem solving among students increased effectively with more understanding level. The effectiveness of the experiment is verified by the feedback from students and the university results. It is observed that the learners can evaluate them selves for the problems using JFLAP.

Keywords


Theory of Computation, Automata Theory, Simulation, FA Design and Evaluation, Visualization.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.16920/jeet%2F2017%2Fv0i0%2F111735