LANGUAGE AND LOGIC.

LANGUAGE AND LOGIC.

More often we hear that our engineering graduates are not employable. Most of the IT industry titans repeatedly ask us to improve the employability of the graduates passing out of our collage. This article is an attempt to analyse the reason for this and also to place some suggestions to improve the situation.

Recently there was a news item in TNIE which said that GOOGLE is planning to induct high quality mathematics graduates for designing their search algorithms. It is significant to note that GOOGLE did not say computer graduates but said mathematicians. What does this mean?.

There are numerous computer training institutes both software and hardware. The software institutes teach numerous languages which can be used to write computer programs. Almost all the syllabi of science / commerce streams on undergraduate / graduate / post graduate levels of education, have one computer language as their curriculum. There are numerous high useful and high powered computer languages like C, C++, C#, Java etc. etc. Almost all the software institutes teach how to write program in these languages by teaching the syntax of the language.

Now what is syntax? Syntax is defined as language rules or sentence structure or in simple terms grammar. This is akin to what the mother teaches her children to talk properly. She teaches the language and how to talk. She corrects the language. Similarly the computer colleges or computer institutes teach the students this syntax of the language which can be used to write programs for our applications. They award certificates and grades based on a exam given to test the student’s ability to use the syntax to write the programs. Repeat testing the knowledge of syntax. The whole course takes one or two months during which the institutes and the students claim that they know the language thoroughly and they can write programs using the computer language. We see that most of these certificates reflect very high score or grade proving that the student is very good at using the syntax.

Then why is it that these “High Scoring” students are not employable in the IT industry.

Language is only a medium to express the thoughts. Framing of sentence can be helped by a database of words in the mind. But the thoughts will to originate in the mind and this is independent of the individual. These thoughts cannot be taught in a short period and for this the mind has to be trained to think logically.

Training the mind to think logically has the only and the first choice being Mathematics. Mathematics is a subject of numbers which uses the mind to think logically. Algebra, geometry and calculus trains the mind to visualize the numbers and shapes and to order the problem properly and take correct timely action to solve the problem in correct and orderly steps. The subject of Maths is for the mind to train itself to walk, run, think and convert the thoughts into sentences.

Logic and mathematics starting with arithmetic onwards show you how to follow steps, one at a time and one after another, for arriving at results or conclusions, one at a time and after another. Learning that a error in one step make all the following steps and results or conclusions wrong is a step towards cautious approach for problem solving ability. Mathematics is a rule and pattern based discipline show through experience and trial or error, how to solve problems first by following given methods and later, if needed, by combining and exploring different methods, by trial and error. Algebra at full strength involves the thought-based derivation of formulas and gives explanations why they work. The items and skills in mathematics altogether, cumulatively, have a greater and greater use in obtaining and describing calculations, and in describing the calculations and assumptions that appear in many disciplines. Mathematics courses are designed to problem solving skills, rote or opportunistic, and to provide a growing knowledge of ideas and skills that altogether,

Various branches in Maths like discrete mathematical structures, operations research, Numerical methods and data structures directly connect knowledge of the functional aspect in the problems and the device drivers. The through knowledge in this subject is very necessary to ensure a faster reasoning of the problems and write a code in the language known.

Though the knowledge of a language is important it will definitely not override the necessity and importance of a strong base in Maths and Physics. The knowledge of Maths is the thought process and the language is the talking process. This aspect is being overlooked by almost all the computer institutes though the academic syllabi give equal importance to both. But students, unfortunately, give importance to the subjects teaching language ignoring the subjects teaching the logic. The colleges are helpless when seeing higher score in subjects of language and lower score in subjects of logic (read Maths).

So students have to learn more of Maths alongwith the computer languages to be able to excel in the field of highly competitive filed of computer programming.