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 formal foundations of 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. However, building technology for education of formal foundations of computer science that assists students with individualised, 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 formalise theoretical challenges arising in the context of educational support systems for formal foundations of computer science; and(B) to provide conceptual solutions to these challenges by exploring and addressing them with existing or newly developed theoretical methods. The project results will be prototypically integrated into an educational support system. This system will be made available to teachers of the formal foundations of computer science. In addition, the educational data collected as part of the project will be made available for downstream research on computer science education.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants