I wondered why we have studied advanced mathematics for so many years but did not apply it in life. Is mathematics just training our logical thinking? This question confused me for a long time until I accidentally read an article about convolution neural network and its developments on the Internet. To get a better understanding, I used my summer studying deep learning and database related courses on Coursera, which made me believe that applied mathematics is promising in the future. I realized mathematics could become practical in many fields, like physics, economy, etc. Mathematics is the foundation of everything in this digital era. From the weather forecast to the stock market, people need mathematics to process data, analyze the trend, and predict the future.
Mathematics is much more than formulas in textbooks. Numbers from zero to nine contain a mysterious world and embody abstract information. Since then, I have expected I could predict the future based on the past. In retrospect, I found my interest in mathematics, awarded in state math competitions, and became the president of the math club in high school. Those experience gave me a solid mathematical foundation. In UW, CSE 142 was the first programming class in my life.
Although my grade is not that outstanding, I tried my best and created a basic understanding of coding. I believe I can strengthen this shortcoming in the future studying. I took AMATH 301 last quarter and knew the basics of applying mathematical formulas to real-world problems, and I learned that UW just opened a major to my taste called Applied Mathematics. Getting into AMATH major will allow me to dig deeper into the field of my interests. Conjoining mathematics and daily life will eliminate my initial doubt and create more opportunities for my future career since I believe adding computer support to mathematical algorithms is the trend of the future. The future is the epoch of big data, so the applied mathematics has great potential.
