[sdiy] Help for a budding young engineer...

[Thomas Strathmann]

Am 8/11/10 18:44 , schrieb Olivier Gillet:
> The 2 best classes I had while at university are automata/language
> theory - just for the beauty of it and because the instructor was
> truly inspiring - and an inference/learning theory class - the art of
> looking at input/output pairs and figuring out what kind of processes
> could go inbetween is relevant to almost everything I do.

If you're going to recommend CS courses I have to add that in addition 
to automata theory one should also learn about logic (predicate 
calculus, natural deduction, model theory). Some people actually like 
logic better than automata theory (which can get very tedious if you do 
more interesting proofs). Logic is also much more useful in the real 
world because of it's applications in modelling, artificial 
intelligence, robotics etc. For an EE who wants to do embedded work both 
are essential when it comes to model checking or dealing with 
correctness issues in digital design at the gate level. Some theoretical 
computer scientists like automata and complexity theory better than 
logic or the other way around. It's comparable to calculus vs. linear 
algebra. But perhaps an EE should not meddle in the affairs of the CS 
for he is much more valuable when he sticks to the things that CS people 
normally do not understand. ;-)

	Thomas