Bridging Mathematics and Computer Science
As part of a research project supported by the CUNY Adjunct Incubator, James Myer, an Adjunct Professor in the Mathematics Department at Queens College, CUNY is developing “Bridging Mathematics and Computer Science,” a series of events and workshops bringing together faculty and students from the Mathematics and Computer Science departments at Queens College, CUNY to discuss relevant topics in computer science related to mathematics.
Professors in the Mathematics Department teaching MATH 120 are often not well-equipped to discuss the topics of the class in the context of relevant examples in computer science, and so students often fail to see the relevance of the mathematical ideas introduced until much later in their lives, or not at all. This discussion will inspire instructors in the Mathematics Department with relevant examples to discuss in the classroom, and instructors in the computer science department with mathematical ideas useful to their students for solving problems in computer science.
The project plans to further develop this idea through the form of a workshop that occurs each semester where faculty and students from both departments can meet to discuss current events and relevant topics. Instructors of courses with a freer curriculum often have difficulty preparing a course trajectory without several unifying, thematic elements in mind for the course. These workshops would simultaneously inspire instructors of both departments, unify the departments and encourage interdisciplinary collaboration and discussion, and prepare instructors of MATH 120 who teach courses with a freer curriculum. The ultimate hope is that this would encourage regular discussion and collaboration between the Mathematics and Computer Science Departments.
This project is part of the CUNY Adjunct Incubator and is co-sponsored by the Center for the Humanities and the Gittell Urban Studies Collective at the Graduate Center, CUNY.
