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Well, I'm currently in my masters in electrical engineering in Germany and we are taught the same stuff. We even have a mandatory course about basic numerical a

Well, I'm currently in my masters in electrical engineering in Germany and we are taught the same stuff. We even have a mandatory course about basic numerical algorithms. What exactly I can do with that I don't know

pfortuny 5y ago
Yes, that is exactly my issue. It is unlikely you are going to use the Gauss-Jordan method (if you find a linear problem of huge size, you are just going to plug it into Matlab or whatever) and it does really not give you any information on the problem. On the other hand, eigenvectors (and the principal components theorem) do give you an idea. I reckon (as of now) that Theory is much more important than methods: these are going to become obsolete very fast, whereas the geometric/qualitative/quantitative insights of theoretical results are what give you understanding. Thanks for the feedback.
- Archit3ch 5y ago
  > if you find a linear problem of huge size, you are just going to plug it into Matlab or whatever It depends on your viewpoint. Are you going to be the user who calls the MATLAB function, or the engineer who implements a specific iterative method, optimizes it for new hardware, and so on? I am trying to make the jump into the second category.
  - pfortuny 5y ago
    No: the person who implements the method is certainly working alongside (or has handy) a say, mathematician/physicist/specialist in numeric computation. I would not ask "just an Engineer" (no offense) to understand how to properly implement such type of methods (mostly because they are full of special cases which require a specialist). Hope you make the jump to that job, which is surely interesting (and pretty hard). Thanks.
  - BeetleB 5y ago
    > Are you going to be the user who calls the MATLAB function, or the engineer who implements a specific iterative method, optimizes it for new hardware, and so on? 99% of engineers will be in the former. Of the remaining 1% who would like to be the ones implementing this stuff, about 90% will not get the job that lets them do it. Of those who do get that job, likely over 50% of them will hate it. Speaking as one who's been through all of this.
    - melony 5y ago
      Finally an honest answer.
mahdi7d1 5y ago
I'm not even in electrical engineering but in Industrial engineering and I still had to take numerical algorithms course this semester. Also had to do the iterations by hand for the exam.

pfortuny 5y ago

Yes, that is exactly my issue. It is unlikely you are going to use the Gauss-Jordan method (if you find a linear problem of huge size, you are just going to plug it into Matlab or whatever) and it does really not give you any information on the problem. On the other hand, eigenvectors (and the principal components theorem) do give you an idea. I reckon (as of now) that Theory is much more important than methods: these are going to become obsolete very fast, whereas the geometric/qualitative/quantitative insights of theoretical results are what give you understanding. Thanks for the feedback.

Archit3ch 5y ago
> if you find a linear problem of huge size, you are just going to plug it into Matlab or whatever It depends on your viewpoint. Are you going to be the user who calls the MATLAB function, or the engineer who implements a specific iterative method, optimizes it for new hardware, and so on? I am trying to make the jump into the second category.
- pfortuny 5y ago
  No: the person who implements the method is certainly working alongside (or has handy) a say, mathematician/physicist/specialist in numeric computation. I would not ask "just an Engineer" (no offense) to understand how to properly implement such type of methods (mostly because they are full of special cases which require a specialist). Hope you make the jump to that job, which is surely interesting (and pretty hard). Thanks.
- BeetleB 5y ago
  > Are you going to be the user who calls the MATLAB function, or the engineer who implements a specific iterative method, optimizes it for new hardware, and so on? 99% of engineers will be in the former. Of the remaining 1% who would like to be the ones implementing this stuff, about 90% will not get the job that lets them do it. Of those who do get that job, likely over 50% of them will hate it. Speaking as one who's been through all of this.
  - melony 5y ago
    Finally an honest answer.

mahdi7d1 5y ago

I'm not even in electrical engineering but in Industrial engineering and I still had to take numerical algorithms course this semester. Also had to do the iterations by hand for the exam.