Mathematics

专业详情

Mathematics can rightly be thought of as the future’s oldest science. Combined with the power of computers, it blazes new scientific trails and furnishes a fresh perspective on the world. Fields such as data science, cryptography, digital humanities or machine learning all draw on mathematical methods indispensable to the modelling of complex phenomena.

The origins of mathematics go back to the dawn of civilization in the attempts to understand the movement of the stars, to compose calendars, to keep accounts, and to measure arable land. With Ancient Greek civilization, mathematics became systematized in the form of axioms, theorems, and proofs. Science was born. Throughout history, mathematics has played a central role in culture, science, and technology. It has been widened and consolidated with the development of foundations, abstraction, and rigor, with a focus on exploring new fields and resolving new problems.

The traditional branches of mathematics are as vibrant and dynamic today as they were 50, 100, or 200 years ago. Thanks to mathematics, more and more problems can be solved, and more and more phenomena can be effectively described and analyzed.

On the other hand, we are witnessing a real explosion of new disciplines. Recent mathematical developments, coupled with the current potential of computers, have paved the way for new ways of doing science and understanding the world through developing mathematical models for highly complex phenomena, in particular through computer simulations of the behavior and evolution of the phenomena in question.