How much Maths in good Comp Sci BSc?

M

Metro10

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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
Computer Algebra
 
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.
 
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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...
 
Nermal said:
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...
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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
 
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
 
Thanks Lsquared

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

Data Structures and Algorithms
 
Lsquared said:
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
Click to expand...

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.
 
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
Artificial Intelligence
 
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