Maths modules to choose from - advice appreciated

Anything to do with the traditional world of get a degree, get a job as well as its alternatives
guitarplayer
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Re: Maths modules to choose from - advice appreciated

Post by guitarplayer »

Yup the spiral dynamics that got so viral on the forum recently. As I understand it, if you decide to move up here @chenda and have your main residence/job/house in Scotland (basically decide to live here), you could also get that bursary provided the Scot Gov has not funded your prior education and you earn below a certain threshold. Research SAAS if you like, they should have all the info :)

chenda
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Re: Maths modules to choose from - advice appreciated

Post by chenda »

@guiterplayer, thanks for the info, interesting I had assumed they were no longer available.

When I paid for my MA years ago I subsequently found out I could have got a bursury worth £12000. The university never told me it was available. Still grates with me.

ducknald_don
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Re: Maths modules to choose from - advice appreciated

Post by ducknald_don »

guitarplayer wrote:
Sun Dec 05, 2021 3:37 pm
it is also a distance learning uni so there are no physical classes/commuting/other inconveniences.
They were still doing tutorials when I did it although it was clear the financial pressures were mounting.

guitarplayer
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Re: Maths modules to choose from - advice appreciated

Post by guitarplayer »

@ducknald_don, Covid definitely pushed forward getting everything online.
jacob wrote:
Thu Nov 25, 2021 10:53 am
Interesting. I taught myself something like MT365 as a quant. It forms a much greater part of my mental structures than number theory or logic.
How was MT365 (graphs networks, design) useful in working as a quant? Asking because they describe the course as rather broad and I would think of a quant being a rather specialized profession.

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Re: Maths modules to choose from - advice appreciated

Post by jacob »

guitarplayer wrote:
Tue Dec 07, 2021 11:09 am
How was MT365 (graphs networks, design) useful in working as a quant? Asking because they describe the course as rather broad and I would think of a quant being a rather specialized profession.
Depends on what kind of quant. A quant calculating the value of bizarro options would be better off with stochastic processes or complex analysis, etc. but trading is really about exchanging a specific number of shares for a specific price at a specific exchange. The whole market can be seen as a complexly connected abacus.

guitarplayer
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Re: Maths modules to choose from - advice appreciated

Post by guitarplayer »

Thanks @jacob, I see that the OU includes this course (MT365) as an option in their data science degree as well.

guitarplayer
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Re: Maths modules to choose from - advice appreciated

Post by guitarplayer »

basuragomi wrote:
Wed Nov 24, 2021 9:23 am
I would personally go for dynamic systems or graphs. If you're interested in permaculture etc. then modeling a setup as a dynamic system is very powerful. I've been to a few talks by conservationists where they found that predator/prey relationships effectively formed a chaotic system that revolved around an attractor. If you have a permaculture setup where there are multiple stages of resource transfer without intervention it would likely behave the same way. It could be useful for designing a system that minimizes or optimizes your labour/resource input.
I am now learning about systems of non-linear differential equations + direction- and vector fields, based on the case is that of predator-prey system. At the end of the chapter they talk about limit cycles and hint at how systems of n>2 differential equations are contribute to studying chaos which I think those conservationists might have had in mind.

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Sclass
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Re: Maths modules to choose from - advice appreciated

Post by Sclass »

Perhaps you should ask yourself what you want to do with the math first?

I used a lot of complex variable during my engineering education. It was most useful for passing exams in signals and systems classes. Never used it again. Presently we have a lot of good ECAD tools to do all the hard math. If there is a math problem in electronics worth solving somebody sells a tool (or gives it away) already.

So I’m the rare person in electrical filter design that may use complex variable. Yet I don’t. I use ECAD software. I did a recent design that relied on a deconvolution of frequency data and convolution of an input signal to perform a transformation…but the web based ECAD tools did all that for me. I even used an automatic code generator to implement the filter in Silicon. So literally no math. Some wonderful egghead did it all for me so I could focus on developing this womderful device and shipping it to my customers.

So why the hell did I slave through all those dumb math classes. My best guess it is some kind of IEEE legacy shit from the RADAR era. I guess the intent was we’d invent the next Laplace or Fourier transform and publish it. Thus advancing the field. Most of us just became button pressing ECAD users.

If I had to do my education all over again I’d look at it like I look at car repair or home renovations. I study the problem then I acquire only the tools I need to complete the job to my desired level of satisfaction. Nothing more.

zbigi
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Re: Maths modules to choose from - advice appreciated

Post by zbigi »

Sclass wrote:
Sun Jan 23, 2022 5:01 pm

So why the hell did I slave through all those dumb math classes. My best guess it is some kind of IEEE legacy shit from the RADAR era. I guess the intent was we’d invent the next Laplace or Fourier transform and publish it. Thus advancing the field. Most of us just became button pressing ECAD users.
I think most engineering schools want you to understand your domain from the ground up. In my CS degree, we started from math and physics, moved through semiconductors, then onto logic gateways etc., assembly, operating systems, compilers and finally (after 3 years of school) into stuff that is relevant to our day-to-day jobs, such as database engines or distributed systems. I agree that a lot of that effort is wasted if one's going to end up being a code monkey using latest fashionable web framework, which solves 95% of the underlying technical problems for us.

guitarplayer
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Re: Maths modules to choose from - advice appreciated

Post by guitarplayer »

I am going to be taking the successor of the M373 Optimization this year, guess in some way it is possible to have the cake and eat it.

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