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From: jma@duke.UUCP (Jon M. Allingham)
Newsgroups: net.cse
Subject: Re: Math and CS
Message-ID: <6991@duke.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 7-Mar-86 10:15:29 EST
Article-I.D.: duke.6991
Posted: Fri Mar  7 10:15:29 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 8-Mar-86 23:50:43 EST
References: <256@hropus.UUCP> <6400005@ccvaxa> <77@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Reply-To: jma@duke.UUCP (Jon M. Allingham)
Organization: Duke University
Lines: 39
Summary: 

In article <77@umcp-cs.UUCP> mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate) writes:
>A side note on math and CS-ers:
>
>I too have noticed that computer science types tend to have trouble with
>math.  Here at UMCP they are required to take the first two calculus
>courses, and you've never heard such wailing and gnashing of teeth (except
>in the elementary CS courses, which baffle EVERYONE).  I'm not sure why this
>is, but I suspect it has to do with the supposed effects of woodpeckers on
>buildings built by CS people.
>
>C. Wingate

That's interesting. I went to an engineering school and was required to
take the 2 year calculus sequence (with the exception of the very last
quarter which was a second course in differential equations) that everyone
took, plus discrete math and a course in probabiltiy and statistics. We
also had to take 1 year of physics and 2 quarters of chemistry or biology!

As a graduate student now, there are times when I wish I had had even more
math, in particular the differential equations course which we didn't have
to take!

I don't see how a school can teach Computer Science without requiring a
hefty dose of math. You can't do much analysis of algorithms,
communtications systems etc. without a fair understanding of probability and
statistics, and really understanding P & S ( as opposed to looking up
formulae in books ) requires a good understanding of integral and
differential calculus + infinite series etc. It's amazing even at the
graduate level how many people can't handle double integrals and functions
with anything other than 'x' as the variable!

In case you're wondering, my degree was a B.S. in Information and Computer
Science (Ga. Tech), and the School of ICS was in the College of Science
and Liberal Studies, not the College of Engineering. (Lucky for us, otherwise
we would have had to take 'def. bods' and a whole bunch of other engineering
courses!)
-- 
Jon M. Allingham	Duke University/AT&T Bell Laboratories
			{mcnc,decvax}!duke!jma