Computer Science or Computer Engineering?

[Solarion]

And most computer scientists just end up fixing printers, making website changes and doing database backups. It's true.

When you need maths like Calculus is like was said, a very niche market, perhaps working for a bank crunching serious figures or stock market programming.

Edit: I'm not looking to do a degree really, don't need it <---I don't need it.

Just to get really good at what I know already which already.

 

[gkm]

When you need maths like Calculus is like was said, a very niche market, perhaps working for a bank crunching serious figures or stock market programming.

Well, until you want to do some machine learning, or do a nice 3D animation for something, then that stats or math need really kicks in. I have seen some pretty horrible mistakes that people have made in machine learning when they do not have enough stats background to understand the implications of what they are doing and they are just pointing the tools at some data. Same for 3D graphics, where without some linear algebra, all I can say is good luck. Similar situation for many of the other more interesting dev jobs and who wants to be stuck in a rut fixing printers or doing backups.

 

[cguy]

And most computer scientists just end up fixing printers, making website changes and doing database backups. It's true.

When you need maths like Calculus is like was said, a very niche market, perhaps working for a bank crunching serious figures or stock market programming.

Edit: I'm not looking to do a degree really, don't need it <---I don't need it.

Just to get really good at what I know already which already.

Calculus, algebra and stats aren't really niche though. Most developers doing anything related to building technology, analyzing input/output or performance data, algorithms, modeling, optimization, etc. will need it, that is why it is generally a compulsory 1st year course. There are plenty of people who don't need it of course, but millions of developers use it daily - it is definitely not niche.

Also, nobody from my CS Hons (and onwards) class is fixing printers, doing backups or fixing websites. Most have successful careers overseas, others have high ranking positions at SA companies or successful businesses.

 

[[)roi(]]

I would actually advocate stats over almost anything else. It is the basis of decision theory, machine learning and data science. I personally wish I did more of it at university.

Category theory is interesting, but was only taught as a graduate maths class when I was at university (I touched on it briefly in general topology) - reason being, without a background in abstract algebra, topology and analysis, there are less practical contextualizations for the abstractions. I also think that one would be hard pressed to justify the utility of the course (similar to topology - it can make one a better mathematician or abstract computer scientist, but direct utility tends to be very niche, so it is relegated to postgrad study).

Your opinion on "stats over almost anything else" is contrary to the top CS undergraduate tracks. As for category theory, situations change, prior to mainstream adoption of the functional paradigm it was considered as you implied to be a niche topic, but that's no longer the case (certainly not for the last decade); many FP tracks have now incorporated some basic form of basic Category / Type theory.

 

[cguy]

Your opinion on "stats over almost anything else" is contrary to the top CS undergraduate tracks. As for category theory, situations change, prior to mainstream adoption of the functional paradigm it was considered as you implied to be a niche topic, but that's no longer the case (certainly not for the last decade); many FP tracks have now incorporated some basic form of basic Category / Type theory.

If by "top CS undergraduate tracks", you mean those such as MIT and Stanford you would be wrong. Stats is included as part of their core mathematics modules.

 

[[)roi(]]

If by "top CS undergraduate tracks", you mean those such as MIT and Stanford you would be wrong. Stats is included as part of their core mathematics modules.

I never said none, rather challenged your opinion of its importance "over almost anything else"; proportionately its quite minimal, and yes MIT & Stanford, but its certainly not limited to them.

 

[gkm]

Given how we are dealing with more data than ever before, I would also highly recommend to do stats on top of basic math. Pretty much all other math fields also have significant value, so should also be included based on personal interest. I just think basic math and stats covers a lot of the current trending areas in computer science.