I felt the need to post this blog entry just because I find it so difficult to explain it every single time someone asks me: “if you work as a software programmer why did you decide to study mathematics in a formal way rather than computer science?”. In order to answer that question, let me tell you what I do as a software developer. I’m just a computer enthusiast, probably a geek, who very much enjoys to hack on free source code. I use to work with Unix-like free operating systems like GNU/Linux and all sorts of free software. I really think freedom is crucial to the human knowledge, that’s exactly the philosophy behind everything I do and my way of thinking on life.

So what’s the role of Mathematics on the human knowledge? the answer is quite simple, the whole scientific knowledge depends on it. Carl Friedrich Gauss himself referred to mathematics as “the Queen of the Sciences”. Although the opinions of mathematicians on this matter are so varied, particularly those in pure mathematics who often feel that they’re philosophers instead of scientists as applied mathematicians feel to be, most of them feel that they’re working in an area more akin to logic where beauty, generality, simplicity and intrinsic aesthetics get together. Anyways, this is just another issue considered in the philosophy of mathematics. I, myself, think that the interface between mathematics and its applications in pure and applied sciences like engineering has driven much development in mathematics. Because of that reason, I almost always refer to mathematics as a science and that’s the way I use it as a software engineer. I could say I’m just an applied mathematician involved in Computer Science which is a discipline in its own right within applied mathematics. It basically considers the use of abstract mathematical tools in solving concrete problems in very many different areas.

In conclusion, I decided to study mathematics to improve my skills at programming as well as the logical thought and the basic operations of the mind. Actually, the field of mathematics in which I’m interested most is discrete mathematics, very useful in theoretical computer science; especially in mathematical analysis for symbolic and numerical computation.

By the way, I’d like to study a master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), it has always been kind of my dream. I know it will be so expensive but I’m sure that I’ll find the way to do so. Meanwhile I’m so happy in Brussels studying my bachelor’s degree in mathematics.