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Re: Engineering or Math?
Posted:
Nov 14, 1997 6:12 AM
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>As an electrical engineer with a BS, I'm frustrated by not knowing all the
>math I need to fully grasp the theories involved in many areas of my job.
>For example, the statistical skill necessary in the analyzation of noise or
>in evaluating or simulating data. Also, I wish I understood the realm of
>orthogonal functions more to better understand communications/digital
signal
>processing coding ideas better. My question is basically this: I have
>heard it said from the engineering side that mathematicians are not worthy
>of as much respect as engineers because what they learn is far afield--even
>the applied math being somewhat suspect. Still, isn't it better to learn
>the math first and apply it later? As engineers we seem to limit ourselves
>to learning just the part that is useful to us and not one bit extra. What
>do you math people have to say about this? Do you agree that studying math
>gives you a greater perspective than the engineer? Do you think that your
>work is worth the time you've put into it? I ask because I am considering
>leaning more toward math and less toward engineering in my future
education.
>I would love to hear your opinions.
IMHO, I would think that math's people do have a broader view...
For example, I'm currently working as a consultant in the computers
area, yet I'm taking a math's course...
I do this because I think that a math course helps you develop the
skills to quicker reasoning and thinking and also teaches you the way to
work out a great variety of problems in many areas.
IMHO, an engineer learns the necessary math to use in his area and
learns how to see physically. A mathematician would learn more math, without
paying such attention to it's physical applications. But the physical
applications are easy to conjure if you can understand the concept of
geometry in R^n, for example :)
I might yet add, that some of the math that I learned aren't much useful
to engineers, since that are all theory, but let's also remember that it's
from this theory that you derive real applications, so...
I don't know which kind of math's they taught you, but besides Calculus
and Algebra, I consider Numerical Analysis, Probability, Geometry,
Optimization and such important areas for anyone connected with Math and
Physics...
I do advise you to try to grasp more Math if you can, by reading good
books and such, or getting an Master degree on it...
I repeat this is my own uneducated opinion, but still my best one...
Rui Santos
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