RE: [Axiom-developer] Master Thesis Subject

[Bill Page]

On October 2, 2005 3:26 PM Antoine Hersen wrote:
> 
> I am pursuing a master degree in CS at California State 
> University of Sacramento and an Engineering degree in
> France.
> 
> I am looking for a Master Thesis subject in CS and I will be
> very interested to do something related to CAS and Axiom.

Great! I think Axiom provides a lot of opportunities for
mathematically oriented computer science at the masters level
(and Phd level too). Axiom would benefit greatly by the attention
of a new generation of researchers and developers.

> I have fairly decent ability in math as I am planning to
> get a master in math after. And I am good at functional
> language even if I am more familiar with ML and Scheme
> than CL.

Although it is true that Axiom is implemented in Common Lisp,
a knowledge of lisp is not essential for using Axiom or even
programming in Axiom at the level of mathematical algorithms.
The Axiom languages SPAD and Aldor do have some elements of
functional-style programming.

> 
> I will really appreciate any idea with some track to
> begin. And hope to make a positive contribution to Axiom.
> 

There are a lot of ideas for work on Axiom described on the
Axiom website. See for example:

http://wiki.axiom-developer.org/FutureDevelopment

Since Axiom is an open source project primarily supported by
volunteers, most of these projects are likely only to be
undertaken by one of the volunteers if/when they have a direct
need ... or maybe never.

To get an idea of what it is like working with Axiom, you
might want to attempt a simple project from those listed on
the web site. But my best advice to a master's student is to
*first* find a thesis adviser at your institution who has
interests similar to your own, or at least is sympathetic to
what you want to study.

If you post an outline of a proposal here in this mailing
list, I think you will find many people willing to offer
suggestions and support.

Best Wishes,
Bill Page.