Computer programming in the UK undergraduate mathematics curriculum

This paper reports a study which investigated the extent to which undergraduatemathematics students in the United Kingdom are currently taught to programme a computer as a core part of their mathematics degree programme. We undertook an online survey, with significant follow up correspondence, to gather data on current curricula and received replies from 46 (63%) of the departments who teach a BSc mathematics degree. We found that 78% of BSc degree courses in mathematics included computer programming in a compulsory module but 11% of mathematics degree programmes do not teach programming to all their undergraduate mathematics students. In 2016 programming is most commonly taught to undergraduate mathematics students through imperative languages, notably MATLAB, using numerical analysis as the underlying (or parallel) mathematical subject matter. Statistics is a very popular choice in optional courses, using the package R. Computer algebra systems appear to be significantly less popular for compulsory first year coursesthan a decade ago, and there was no mention of logic programming, functional programming or automatic theorem proving software. The modal form of assessment of computing modules is entirely by coursework (i.e. no examination)

Machine Learning for Mathematical Software

While there has been some discussion on how Symbolic Computation could be used for AI there is little literature on applications in the other direction. However, recent results for quantifier elimination suggest that, given enough example problems, there is scope for machine learning tools like Support Vector Machines to improve the performance of Computer Algebra Systems. We survey the authors own work and similar applications for other mathematical software. It may seem that the inherently probabilistic nature of machine learning tools would invalidate the exact results prized by mathematical software. However, algorithms and implementations often come with a range of choices which have no effect on the mathematical correctness of the end result but a great effect on the resources required to find it, and thus here, machine learning can have a significant impact.Comment: To appear in Proc. ICMS 201

Reasoning about Coding Theory: The Benefits We Get from Computer Algebra

Abstract. The use of computer algebra is usually considered beneficial for mechanised reasoning in mathematical domains. We present a case study, in the application domain of coding theory, that supports this claim: the mechanised proofs depend on non-trivial algorithms from computer algebra and increase the reasoning power of the theorem prover. The unsoundness of computer algebra systems is a major problem in interfacing them to theorem provers. Our approach to obtaining a sound overall system is not blanket distrust but based on the distinction between algorithms we call sound and ad hoc respectively. This distinction is blurred in most computer algebra systems. Our experimental interface therefore uses a computer algebra library. It is based on theorem templates, which provide formal specifications for the algorithms