Exploring Maths and CS Projects: Seeking Ideas and Resources

[Maths Absorber]

Hi guys,

I am currently enrolled in the second year of a computer science engineering course. Over the last couple of years, I have become a fortunate prisoner to mathematical fascination.

I was always good at Maths but the schools I went to did not encourage much creativity and the teachers didn't like being asked questions out of the syllabus. (I'm from India). I guess my college teachers can be described in the same way but the major difference is that I now have an Ipad and all the boons that come with it. I have downloaded many many books I would normally have never read or even heard about.

I spend all the time I possibly can studying Maths and can't get enough of it.

I realized that I am putting in a lot of effort but there isn't much to show for it. So, I have decided to undertake a project that I can do which brings together both Maths and Computer Science.

My areas of interest include Discrete Maths, Combinatorics, Problem Solving, Number Theory, Recreational Mathematics, Calculus and many more. I know C, C++ and Java and I'm more than willing to learn more for a project.

Can someone suggest some good project ideas, as well as the prequisites required to perform it, and the resources to get it from?

Many Thanks.

 

[axmls]

How about going to one of your professors and asking for some kind of project? Or better yet, ask how you can get involved with one of their research programs.

 

[Maths Absorber]

Unfortunately, I'm in a college where the quality of professors is kind of poor. So, I don't want to do that. I want to do something that I can do on my own.

 

[axmls]

Unfortunately, I'm in a college where the quality of professors is kind of poor. So, I don't want to do that. I want to do something that I can do on my own.

While I understand your sentiment, this isn't really the way to do things if you plan on going to graduate school. Graduate schools look mainly at your potential to be a good researcher. Projects are one way to show this. Publications are a good way to show it. And letters of recommendation are one of the main ways a lot of people show it. So I don't really know how you can assess the quality of your professors, but I know that if they have Ph.Ds, then chances are they know what kind of projects you can handle best, and they know what's within your reach.

 

[Maths Absorber]

I want to go to graduate school and do my Masters. And, I want to undertake projects and publications. I want to either do it from a top college here or abroad. I assess their quality by the way they talk.

Like someone asked the Maths teacher why Gauss-Siedel method can only be applied to diagonally dominant equations ... The teacher took a while and blinked and said that that was the procedure given. There are many examples of this every single day. Unfortunately, the quality of education here especially at the higher levels is not good. When someone says they have a Masters degree, it doesn't really carry any weight. It just means they were able to clear the exams.

In the entire department of computer science, there are two Ph.Ds. One is the HOD, who is a petty bloke. They treat us like kids ... They call our parents if many people haven't attended class together.
The other guy is always busy and not very approachable.

I read all these stories of people who didn't go to engineering school, taught themselves to program and built cool apps, websites, etc. I want to do something similar ... Build something on my own but preferably connect it with Maths since I spend so much time on it anyway.

Like you said, it's a concrete way of showing what you've done (a project). I can't put down the fact that I've read these 20 books outside the syllabus in my résumé. So, in spite of the massive effort I'm putting in, my résumé would look the same as it would if I spent all that time on TV.