What Math Courses Should We Teach CS Students?

Coryoth asks: "If you're taking computer science then getting as much mathematics as you can is probably a good idea. Ultimately, however, there are only so many math courses you an squeeze in. Given that, what areas of mathematics should we be teaching CS students for maximum benefit? Traditionally university math courses are structured around the needs of the physical sciences and engineering, which means calculus is what gets offered. While a decent calculus course can teach a certain amount of formality in reasoning, wouldn't CS students be better served with a course in mathematical logic and foundations with its greater degree of formal reasoning and obvious connections to fundamental concepts in computer science? Are courses in abstract algebra and graph theory going to be useful to CS students? Should courses in category theory (yes, it applies to computer science) be required of students going on in theoretical computer science? In short — what areas of mathematics are going to be the most useful and most applicable to computer science students? What courses were of the most value to you?"

Comments

Some Math greater than Other Math

[Dareth]

For CS students, the fundamentals of discrete math and set theory are probably some of the most important. More focus on these in a CS context would be helpful to people such as myself who find math more interesting when it has a purpose. I did not mind the physics and statistical math courses. I could see the point behind them clearly. But doing math just for the sake of doing math never seem to have a purpose.