Discrete Mathematics and its applications

The article gives ideas that lecturers of undergraduate Discrete Mathematics courses can use in order to make the subject more interesting for students and encourage them to undertake further studies in the subject. It is possible to teach Discrete Mathematics with little or no reference to computing. However, students are more likely to be interested in a subject if they are able to appreciate its use. There is, therefore, a strong case for teaching Discrete Mathematics in context. Lecturers are faced with the task of conveying mathematical material, some of which is new to students and some of which they will have met before. Lecturers must attempt to foster mathematical dexterity. All of this takes time. Teaching the subject in context can be achieved using little, or no, additional time. Of the wide range of Computer Science subjects, Artificial Intelligence and Software Agents are particularly rich in problems that are easy to understand and for which mathematics is needed in order to formally describe the problem as well as to solve it.