Dropping research pure mathematics with lame excuse that it might help AI and computational modelling is one of the most horrible decision that an administration might make.
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Anonymous
5 years ago
A university without a maths department is a very sad situation. A very poor university too.
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Leo Lobski
5 years ago
Setting aside the obvious necessity of the 'pure' maths research for the more applied fields, teaching and learning of mathematical thinking have an irreducible value of their own: developing a way of thinking that is rigorous, clear, precise, breaks big and difficult problems down into small and manageable ones while being imaginative and creative. This should be at the core of any modern education that strives to equip people with tools for solving some of the most difficult problems, whether scientific, intellectual societal or political. Completely removing mathematical research is thus a step in the dangerous direction of oversimplification and intellectual laziness.
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Fei Qi
5 years ago
I left the area of computation modelling and data science in 2007 because I found some so-called researchers do not really know what they are doing. And those very few valid researchers in the area all possess a PhD in Math and have years of research experience in pure mathematics. Ceasing research in pure mathematics will definitely hurt the research in data science.
D
Daniela Iancu
5 years ago
Without mathematics no other domain will be able to make progress. This is fundamental in education and research.
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Katrina ME Ramsden
5 years ago
Have they no idea pure math is the foundation of ALL
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Margaret Jones
5 years ago
Ridiculous idea and very shortsighted. Once the mathematicians are gone, the university not only loses the current pure maths researchers but also the future potential for generations.
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Sina
5 years ago
Shaping for Excellence: Cut the Accountants
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Takis Konstantopoulos
5 years ago
When universities become industries aiming to generate money, the first thing that happens is that education becomes separated from research. As long as those who do research have been properly educated, this works for a while; obviously, this is not sustainable. The other thing that happens is that the goal becomes the generation of quick income by trivializing education and keeping customers happy. The third thing that happens is that, in the myopic eyes of decision makers, whole areas and departments vanish. Since they never look at history and never consider the future, they simply decide to get rid of what is most valuable in a proper university, namely, areas (such as mathematics) that can result in making people smarter.
Closing pure mathematics is idiotic. Given that, "thanks" to Brexit, hiring proper mathematicians won't be as easy as it used to be, one easily sees that such decisions will have long-term irreversible effects.
See: "The Fall of the Faculty", by Ben Ginsberg, Oxford Univ. Press, 2011, to see that the phenomenon of reducing the actual purpose of a university is not unexplainable. It's what it'll lead to chaos.
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Gerardo
5 years ago
No mamen
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David Rand
5 years ago
If you really want to build a better program in AI, computational modelling, and such, this is the a very silly thing to do. Mathematics is becoming more and more important in our daily lives and pure mathematics provides the basis of this. Kill this and you will end up with second-rate applied stuff. I know because I started as a pure mathematician and then I helped build one of the best applied mathematics operations in the UK. I now work in areas close to AI and computational modelling.
R
Robert Smith
5 years ago
Pure mathematics has been the greatest source of innovation in my industrial research career, and would not be possible without university pure mathematics departments.
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Tobias Heindel
5 years ago
did you know?
no AI w/o math
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Harlen Campbell
5 years ago
This is outrageous. A shortsighted response with long-term consequences dressed in a Trump-like justification.
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Vlad
5 years ago
Are Kepler's results about the orbits of the planets ”applied” mathematics, whereas Apollonius' results about the ellipses ”pure” mathematics?
How can we separate one from the other, and still have the same result ?
No real research can benefit from such a superficial dichotomy: pure versus applied.
T
Tim Swift
5 years ago
A very shortsighted decision; mathematics is a key part of human culture and just happens to underpin all of science and technology as well. However, do not forget to resist other current attempts at making job cuts across universitty campuses.
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Steven Rose
5 years ago
A uniquely dreadful decision
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Mauricio Angelone
5 years ago
This is absolutely deplorable. Pure mathematics research has been a foundational steppingstone for applications. Einstein developed his theory of general relativity in the language of differential geometry which for many years was considered useless. Today general relativity is used as the basis for GPS time accuracy. Without it, we would not have it.
Reconsider.
Demonstrably crazy idea.
Dropping research pure mathematics with lame excuse that it might help AI and computational modelling is one of the most horrible decision that an administration might make.
A university without a maths department is a very sad situation. A very poor university too.
Setting aside the obvious necessity of the 'pure' maths research for the more applied fields, teaching and learning of mathematical thinking have an irreducible value of their own: developing a way of thinking that is rigorous, clear, precise, breaks big and difficult problems down into small and manageable ones while being imaginative and creative. This should be at the core of any modern education that strives to equip people with tools for solving some of the most difficult problems, whether scientific, intellectual societal or political. Completely removing mathematical research is thus a step in the dangerous direction of oversimplification and intellectual laziness.
I left the area of computation modelling and data science in 2007 because I found some so-called researchers do not really know what they are doing. And those very few valid researchers in the area all possess a PhD in Math and have years of research experience in pure mathematics. Ceasing research in pure mathematics will definitely hurt the research in data science.
Without mathematics no other domain will be able to make progress. This is fundamental in education and research.
Have they no idea pure math is the foundation of ALL
Ridiculous idea and very shortsighted. Once the mathematicians are gone, the university not only loses the current pure maths researchers but also the future potential for generations.
Shaping for Excellence: Cut the Accountants
When universities become industries aiming to generate money, the first thing that happens is that education becomes separated from research. As long as those who do research have been properly educated, this works for a while; obviously, this is not sustainable. The other thing that happens is that the goal becomes the generation of quick income by trivializing education and keeping customers happy. The third thing that happens is that, in the myopic eyes of decision makers, whole areas and departments vanish. Since they never look at history and never consider the future, they simply decide to get rid of what is most valuable in a proper university, namely, areas (such as mathematics) that can result in making people smarter. Closing pure mathematics is idiotic. Given that, "thanks" to Brexit, hiring proper mathematicians won't be as easy as it used to be, one easily sees that such decisions will have long-term irreversible effects. See: "The Fall of the Faculty", by Ben Ginsberg, Oxford Univ. Press, 2011, to see that the phenomenon of reducing the actual purpose of a university is not unexplainable. It's what it'll lead to chaos.
No mamen
If you really want to build a better program in AI, computational modelling, and such, this is the a very silly thing to do. Mathematics is becoming more and more important in our daily lives and pure mathematics provides the basis of this. Kill this and you will end up with second-rate applied stuff. I know because I started as a pure mathematician and then I helped build one of the best applied mathematics operations in the UK. I now work in areas close to AI and computational modelling.
Pure mathematics has been the greatest source of innovation in my industrial research career, and would not be possible without university pure mathematics departments.
did you know? no AI w/o math
This is outrageous. A shortsighted response with long-term consequences dressed in a Trump-like justification.
Are Kepler's results about the orbits of the planets ”applied” mathematics, whereas Apollonius' results about the ellipses ”pure” mathematics? How can we separate one from the other, and still have the same result ? No real research can benefit from such a superficial dichotomy: pure versus applied.
A very shortsighted decision; mathematics is a key part of human culture and just happens to underpin all of science and technology as well. However, do not forget to resist other current attempts at making job cuts across universitty campuses.
A uniquely dreadful decision
This is absolutely deplorable. Pure mathematics research has been a foundational steppingstone for applications. Einstein developed his theory of general relativity in the language of differential geometry which for many years was considered useless. Today general relativity is used as the basis for GPS time accuracy. Without it, we would not have it. Reconsider.
Pure mathematics is what keeps this World moving