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I know this might be a personal problem, but I often find some friends in the same problem as me so I think this might be helpful to them after all. I am going to graduate in Computer Science in december, but I still don't feel comfortable enough with mathematics. After trying to read lots of mathematical books, for instance, Markov Processes, Statistics and Artificial Intelligence, I realized I am very deficient when it comes to understanding more elaborated and advanced formulas (or even simple ones) and find it really annoying and hard to make things flow. I usually have interesting adeas with abstract algorithms (like Particle Filters) but when I get to the implementation phase, I struggle to understand simple things involving mathematics.

So, I am really looking forward to improve my knownledge and was thinking about taking an undergraduate course in Mathematics. But, after looking at some curriculum, there seems to be lots of things that maybe is not usefull to me at this time, though I would really enjoy learning. I am currently very interested in Computer Vision, but again find lots of mathematics in image processing and I feel dummy using certain libraries such as OpenCV that does a lot to me but I can't understand what they are doing.

So my question is, would it be more profitable to do some graduation in Mathematics or should I study by myself? What should I look for in Mathematics curriculums? Would it be possible to study Mathematics by myself and improve it to the level where I can understand advanced concepts?

Thank you!

ps1: During my graduation, I studied (because this year is going to be mostly on the final project and technology related) these subjects:

  • Mathematics Foundations for Computer Science
  • Linear Algebra
  • Statistics
  • Quantitative Research
  • Image Processing (basics, mostly on 2D, 3D OpenGL)

ps2: I have been working as a programmer just for financial reasons (though I find it really interesting to develop code in more architectural layers), but I look forward to use programming as a tool for research and science as soon I am capable of doing it.

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    You could start with "Concrete Mathematics: A Foundation for Computer Science", by Graham, Knuth, and Patashnik. I'm no computer scientist, but I think it's valuable in either field to have a good grasp of the other field. I would at least sit in on a class or two, and a discrete math class would be a good one for basics. Can you tell us what math classes you have taken?2012-01-30
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    I absolutely second "It's valuable in either field to have a good grasp of the other field."2012-01-30
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    What do you want to do once you graduate? Work as a programmer, or work as a scientist who uses programming?2012-01-30
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    @John I added in ps2 note.2012-01-30
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    A complex question! In a North American context, which is the only one I am reasonably familiar with, I would discourage getting two undergraduate degrees. Too much time, too many requirements. After the undergraduate degree, one should ideally move on, perhaps to graduate school, perhaps not. There may be *specific* mathematics courses one wants to take, but the vast majority of courses you are asked to take for an undergraduate degree will not be focused enough for your needs.2012-01-30
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    I think you would find a lot of concepts from "Discrete Mathematics" extremely useful, such as Graph Theory, Analysis of Complexity, etc.2012-01-30
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    Speaking from experience, it will benefit you in the long run. You will have a better perspective in problem solving.2012-02-26

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