Ask Slashdot: How Important Is Advanced Math In a CS Degree?

AvailableNickname writes "I am currently pursuing a bachelor's in CompSci and I just spent three hours working on a few differential equations for homework. It is very frustrating because I just don't grok advanced math. I can sort of understand a little bit, but I really don't grok anything beyond long division. But I love computers, and am very good at them. However, nobody in the workforce is even going to glance at my direction without a BSc. And to punish me for going into a field originally developed by mathematicians I need to learn all this crap. If I had understood what I was doing, maybe I wouldn't mind so much. But the double frustration of not understanding it and not understanding why the heck I need to do it is too much. So, how important is it?"

Re:depends on what you're going into

[JBMcB]

If you're developing business software you're going to need stats. It's inevitably going to rear it's ugly head sooner or later.

Re:depends on what you're going into

[FilmedInNoir]

Advanced calculus/linear algebra is a must for game engine development. I try to read articles about rotating 3D objects.... *WHOOSH* over my head. But I've done well for 13 years doing IT client/server programming and just looking up the occasional algorithm for lat/long distance calculations, permutations, etc. Still need to be able to translate math formulae into a computer language though.

Re:depends on what you're going into

[Anonymous Coward]

Differential equations - control theory and anything that brings you in contact with engineers (or if you want to work in finance)
Linear algebra - signal processing, computer graphics (don't even think about doing computer graphics without knowing linear algebra)
Logic - system modeling and software verification, and basically everything else
Calculus, discrete mathematics - high performance computing, simulation, communication, anything that brings you in contact with physicists

Re:depends on what you're going into

[Fallon]

I had this discussion with some developers at my previous job, and their consensus was they didn't really use all that much advanced math compared to what is required on most college degrees. These developers were writing satellite simulation software & dealing with orbital mechanics... I tend to think that colleges require advanced math to make things hard & because it's advanced, not for practical reasons for 90% of their students. Yet another reason college tuition is skyrocketing & a degree is loosing value compared to more specific certs.

Re:depends on what you're going into

[Bob the Super Hamste]

Too true. I just finished working 5 hours on a proof with another guy in the office to show that something had complete coverage of the state space, will always produce the correct output for all inputs. Now it is time to code once I finish my lunch. Granted some of that time was spent simplifying the final solution. I use higher math almost every day, granted it ins't diffeq, but I often use linear algebra, boolean algebra, discrete math, and proofs (the non shapes part of geometry). I don't use calculus or stats in my current line of work but in my previous job stats was a big part of it writing insurance code.

Re: depends on what you're going into

[Anonymous Coward]

It is impossible to write code for orbital mechanics if you don't know math. These guys may just have a different notion of what advanced math is. I don't consider differential equations advanced math. Advanced math is stuff like Hilbert spaces and topology. Differential equations are practically physics