Aahhh, Mathematics in Computer Science. ACM just featured an entire issue of the Communications of the ACM magazine solely on Math in Computer Science. There is no denying the fact that CS students all over the whole do not like the mathematical inclination of some programmes. UP is guilty of providing too many Math and UP students are also guilty of hating it, too! When I was teaching Java programming as an elective and C as a language for programming 1, I mostly gave simple mathematical problems and lo and behold, the students today find it quite difficult to solve these problems. Shesh! Again, I do not blame the university entirely but mostly the primary and secondary institutions providing poor mathematical aptitude! NAKAKAINIS. I mean, these students think of just passing Calculus or Discrete Math and after that, they NEVER apply it in their programming assignments or tasks. Shesh!
Programming is something that should be part and parcel of a CS student life (or any computer scientist for that matter). They should LOVE programming rather than see it as a chore. I'm listening to an audible book, Hacker Ethics, and these hackers simply find a thrill in accomplishing something by programming. This is NOT the case for most CS students. Sayang! As for UPD CS (notice that I did not state UP since all UP CUs have their own CS programmes), unfortunately it is the very nature of the university that gives freedom to our students to enter into contests with or without the supervision of the university. And yes, I do agree that UPD CS team(s) would have performed better but unfortunately... never mind. hehehe.. don't you worry, UPD now has an ACM Student Chapter (the first in the country, I believe) and we shall be talking about that in the near future. :-) [disclaimer: the UPD CS team were NOT selected by the university. The students organized themselves and joined.] --o000o-- Prof. Rommel Palma Feria, MSc, MIEEE, MACM Director, University Computer Center University of the Philippines - Diliman Quezon City 1101 Philippines Voice: +63 2 9268837 Fax: +63 2 9204803 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using DeskNow Lite - Free mail & collaboration server http://www.desknow.com -- Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [EMAIL PROTECTED] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Official Website: http://plug.linux.org.ph Searchable Archives: http://marc.free.net.ph . To leave, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/plug . Are you a Linux newbie? To join the newbie list, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/ph-linux-newbie
