Mathematics for computer science (Fall 2010, MIT)
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Mathematics for computer science (Fall 2010, MIT)
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Re: Mathematics for computer science (Fall 2010, MIT)
#2Shame that chapter about State Machines is not there (yet?), but a great stuff nonetheless, wish my studies were so "to-the-point".
Re: Mathematics for computer science (Fall 2010, MIT)
#3Thanks for sharing that. Justtook a quick look at it for now, but it really seems to be a great document (at least in my case, who end up studying alone).
Re: Mathematics for computer science (Fall 2010, MIT)
#4It's junk, badly watered down, silly, and shows how really bad computer science is at mathematics, even the mathematics they might need.
Stay far away.
It has some logic: When I was a math grad student, I taught about the same in a course 'Mathematics for Elementary Education Majors'. Anyone who has done much in proofs already knows this stuff.
It has some watered down versions of some topics commonly taught in a college course in 'abstract algebra' or a 100 year old course in 'Theory of Equations', but take a real course in abstract algebra instead.
It tries to do some probability theory, but this effort is the worst: Not even a junior level high school course should do probability so poorly.
Re: Mathematics for computer science (Fall 2010, MIT)
#5Having taken this class, it is billed as a breadth-first introduction to a ton of topics in mathematics. It is not meant to go into any of them in depth, but to give you a taste of many different topics in one short semester. We were told to consider it a wine tasting, not a night out at a bar. This is one of the first classes a CS major at MIT is expected to take.
To that end, I think it more than fulfills its goals. I certainly learned a lot, even if some of it I already knew; and I went on to take more in depth classes on the few topics I really was interested in, which was exactly what the course was intended for.
Re: Mathematics for computer science (Fall 2010, MIT)
#6Here are the three versions of this course at OpenCourseWare:
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-comput...
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-comput...
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-comput...
Re: Mathematics for computer science (Fall 2010, MIT)
#7It's junk, badly watered down, silly, and shows how really bad computer science is at mathematics, even the mathematics they might need. Stay far away. It has some logic: When I was a math grad student, I taught about the same in a course 'Mathematics for Elementary Education Majors'. Anyone who has done much in proofs already knows this stuff. It has some watered down versions of some topics commonly taught in a col…
If you're a math grad student, this book probably does not apply to you. Students who are interested in learning the basics of mathematics for computer science will not be looking to learn about abstract algebra, or, as your handle suggests, Hilbert Space and other higher maths. If they want to learn more, there are other courses geared for taking them. However, you must understand that many of the students in the class have never even gotten their feet wet: never taken an analysis or algebra or a beginning combinatorics class. Many of them will not go on to be math majors and mathematicians. But I do believe that the skills that they learn from this course and textbook are useful in their subsequent courses: their introductions to algorithms and their introductions to AI. You seem to be very knowledgeable in mathematics, but your level is not what everybody wants, and certainly not what they need.
Re: Mathematics for computer science (Fall 2010, MIT)
#8It's junk, badly watered down, silly, and shows how really bad computer science is at mathematics, even the mathematics they might need. Stay far away. It has some logic: When I was a math grad student, I taught about the same in a course 'Mathematics for Elementary Education Majors'. Anyone who has done much in proofs already knows this stuff. It has some watered down versions of some topics commonly taught in a col…
During my first semester in college I took a course that used these notes. It was perhaps the most valuable course I took in college, as I subsequently became a researcher in theoretical computer science (and honestly taught myself a lot of the rest). The value in this type of course is that it introduces very green high school graduates to the type of thinking necessary to reason about proofs. The time required to build up the theory of groups/rings/modules/fields or measure-theoretic probability (is that what you want CS freshman doing?) would be wasted, as those topics are largely beside the point of the course. A sprinkling of conditional probability will at least give them something to remember in their randomized algorithms class.
Re: Mathematics for computer science (Fall 2010, MIT)
#9It's junk, badly watered down, silly, and shows how really bad computer science is at mathematics, even the mathematics they might need. Stay far away. It has some logic: When I was a math grad student, I taught about the same in a course 'Mathematics for Elementary Education Majors'. Anyone who has done much in proofs already knows this stuff. It has some watered down versions of some topics commonly taught in a col…
Note this is a course in EECS department.
Where are you from? In US, at least in NY state, junior level high school course can't cover probability into that extent.
Not all CS people need all those math, some of them just want to be programmers. In fact even if they become computer scientists in academia, not all of them need to know abstract algebra.
The course is about breadth instead of depth. If you septate the contents into 'real' courses, it will increase the huge amount of course load.(but, I heard MIT students can handle the load...so idk)
MIT has [course 18-C](http://www-math.mit.edu/academics/undergrad/major/course18c....) for people who does like math and CS.
Re: Mathematics for computer science (Fall 2010, MIT)
#10It's junk, badly watered down, silly, and shows how really bad computer science is at mathematics, even the mathematics they might need. Stay far away. It has some logic: When I was a math grad student, I taught about the same in a course 'Mathematics for Elementary Education Majors'. Anyone who has done much in proofs already knows this stuff. It has some watered down versions of some topics commonly taught in a col…
If you're a math grad student, this book probably does not apply to you. Students who are interested in learning the basics of mathematics for computer science will not be looking to learn about abstract algebra, or, as your handle suggests, Hilbert Space and other higher maths. If they want to learn more, there are other courses geared for taking them. However, you must understand that many of the students in the cl…
I'm with HilbertSpace here. "Mathematics is a language of science" was said by a great one. A thin tourist-level english-spanish (russian-chinese, ...etc ) phrasebook is good only to make sure that fish is ordered instead of chicken when fish is what one does want.