How much Maths in good Comp Sci BSc?

[Metro10]

I have heard it said that for a Computer Science degree to be a "good" Comp Sci degree it has to have a certain amount of mathematics contained in it.

I'm wondering what amount of mathematics should be contained in a good Comp Sci degree? Or which mathematical topics should be covered?

If a Computer Science BSc contained the following two modules, Computation Theory and Computer Algebra, would this be considered a good amount of maths? Or should even more maths be contained?

I've shown the module descriptions below.

Computation Theory

Regular and context-free grammars; Finite state machines; Turing Machines; computability; recursive functions; lambda calculus; functional programming languages; correctness of imperative and functional programs.

To give an insight into what can be computed and how algorithms can be described and proven.

Computer Algebra

Introduction to the use of Computer Algebra software in Pure Mathematics and other disciplines. Students are taught to use Mathematica to solve a wide variety of problems.

It is intended that students shall, on successful completion of the module, be able to: perform routine calculations using Mathematica and examine the results critically, modifying Mathematica's default settings if necessary to obtain correct results; use Mathematica to assist in the investigation of realistic mathematical problems, possibly using features from several different areas of Mathematica.

 

[Rattle]

They would cover the most important areas, and almost any science degree will have some statistics. I don't think there are any specific maths subjects that need to be covered seperatelt in a Comp Sci course, but I think the point is that mathematics is an important part of almost all topics in computer science, so if you don't enjoy mathematics you would be unlikely to do well at Comp Sci, just as a good maths background would make it easier to do well.

 

[Nermal]

Is that it for four years? Only one of those is actually a maths course. CS students should be capable of figuring out Mathematica on their own...

 

[Metro10]

Is that it for four years? Only one of those is actually a maths course. CS students should be capable of figuring out Mathematica on their own...

Yes, four years though one of the years is a work placement. The two modules appear to be the only two specific maths modules.

Should the maths in a good Computer Science degree be embedded in the various modules, or separate mathematical modules?

Most importantly, I'm wondering if there are specific mathematical topics that I should be looking for in a good Comp Sci degree?

Thank you

 

[Lsquared]

I think set theory and logic would be included in "discreet mathematics" that you would learn in a good comp sci degree, - at least according to my OH who is a computer scientist

 

[Metro10]

Thanks Lsquared

Actually, there's also this module which appears to be mathematical.

Data Structures and Algorithms

Data Structures; cartesian products, discriminated unions, sets, sequences, trees and graphs; sequential and indexed sequential file models; recursive backtracking; sparse and recursive data structures

To enable the identification and design of appropriate data abstractions and their related operations and to develop an efficient implementation in a nominated programming language.

 

[gearoid]

I think set theory and logic would be included in "discreet mathematics" that you would learn in a good comp sci degree, - at least according to my OH who is a computer scientist

Not wishing to be seen as a pedant but here goes:

Discreet mathematics is mathematics talked about in hushed voices somewhere unobtrusive.

Discrete mathematics would be the course I think.

Much Computer Science requires logic rather than mathematics, but mathematics would help a lot. I struggled with Engineering Mathematics in uni but I've been a commercial programmer/analyst for nearly two decades so it hasn't held me back.

 

[Metro10]

I think these modules also appear to be quite mathematical. What do you think?

Does there appear to be a reasonable amount of maths in the modules I've shown here to potentially give good grounding in Computer Science?

With the modules shown, would you class this as a quantitative degree?


Formal Methods

A rigorous approach to software development. Logical foundations. Specification of data types. Implicit and direct specification of functions and operations. Reasoning about specifications, refinement, axiomatic semantics.

To present a scientific approach to the construction of software systems.

Artificial Intelligence

Course Contents

Module introduction: artificial intelligence - definition, scope, successes and limitations. Logic, propositional calculus, predicate calculus, inference; fuzzy logic; logical programming, PROLOG. Expert Systems, knowledge, domains, rules, inference engine, forward and backward chaining, tree searching, probability and certainty, combining fuzzy facts, apriori probability, applications. Information retrieval and disambiguation. Introduction to pattern recognition and neural networks. Linguistics, grammar, surface structure, deep structure, structure representations, transformations, lexical decomposition, n-gram models, classification, domains. Speech recognition.

Knowledge and understanding of techniques and selected software relevant to the field of artificial intelligence. Ability to identify techniques relevant to particular problems in artificial intelligence. Ability to discuss and provide proofs for basic rules used in artificial intelligence. Ability to identify opportunities for software solutions. Ability to interrogate a knowledge base in PROLOG. Ability to understand and use natural language grammars. Ability to solve specific problems using the rules of artificial intelligence e.g. in pattern recognition.