Formal Foundations for Teaching Support Systems in Theoretical Computer Science

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Thomas Zeume
• Subject Area: Theoretical Computer Science
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 448468041

Theoretical foundations are the backbone of diverse applications of computer science. Correctness of hardware and software is verified with formal methods originating from automata theory and logics; information extraction from modern databases relies on our understanding of the foundations of logics and complexity theory; and also representation of knowledge and inference in intelligent systems requires a solid theoretical basis. Modern, technology-assisted teaching of the foundations of theoretical computer science -- basics in logic, formal language theory, complexity theory, and computability theory -- as well as its methods, thus, has high significance for future computer scientists. Yet building technology for theoretical computer science education that assists students with individualized, well-designed feedback and instructors with high-quality analyses of progress is a challenging task, which in many cases requires new sophisticated methods and tools from theoretical computer science itself. The goal of this project is (A) to systematically identify and formalize theoretical challenges arising in the context of teaching support systems for theoretical computer science; and (B) to provide conceptual solutions to these challenges by exploring and addressing them with existing or newly-developed theoretical methods. The developed methods shall be integrated prototypically into a teaching support system for theoretical computer science.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants