Paul Willoughby

Summary

When I was a child, I was intrigued by the idea of working with computers but I never dreamed I would end up with a degree in mathematics. Throughout my primary education, I found math to be tedious and boring and declined the chance to take calculus in high school. I ended up going to St. Mary's College of Maryland. At the time, St. Mary's did not have a computer science major; computer science was part of the math department and you had to be a math major to study computers. At first, I didn't like taking all of the math classes. However, the more classes I took, the more I began to actually like the subject. Choosing to be a math major is something I will never regret.

How does a solid mathematics background help those interested in becoming software or computer engineers? First, all computer science theory is grounded in mathematics, particularly discrete mathematics. Second, writing software requires a complete understanding of logic. This is also found in mathematics. Third, and most importantly, most real world problems that we try to solve using computers are described in mathematical terms. Generally, developing software to solve real-world problems involves the following process: analyze the problem space and define the requirements of the solution, translate the problem into mathematical processes, code it, verify and validate it, and release it to the user.