INTRODUCTION:

A Workshop on Computer Algebra Systems was organized by IBA Mathematics and Astronomy Club on the 13th & the 14th of January 2018. These two days, IBA was host to some zealous participants from different universities, comprising graduate and undergraduate students. The workshop started off with a noteworthy talk on the topics of 'History of Computing' and 'Early Programming Concepts', and went on to demonstrate how these ideas were to be implemented using MATLAB, R and LATEX, which were the main languages of instruction used by Professors in this workshop. The primary goal of this workshop was to instill ideas into the participants, that would allow them to appreciate the dire importance of computer and software technology in the complex mathematical researches being carried out all over the world today.

1st Day of workshop:

The workshop commenced with a talk on the topic of 'Early programming Concepts', delivered by Dr. Hisham Bin Zubair, an Assistant Professor (PhD in Applied Mathematics) at IBA. The talk gave a brief overview of the basic programming thought, to allow the participants with little or no programming background, to feel more confident about themselves, as they learn to view mathematics from a programming perspective, over the next two days.

Next up was Dr. Abdul Majid, an Assistant Professor (PhD in Mathematics and Statistics) at IBA, who delivered a lecture on MATLAB, accompanied by a tutorial, to allow a hands-on learning of the programming concepts. The participants were taught to translate the algorithms to MATLAB codes, giving them an idea of how computers are used to solve mathematical problems. They were further given home-assignments containing challenging practice-questions and exercises, to help them consolidate what they had learned during the day.

The workshop was resumed by Dr. Sheraz, Assistant Professor (PhD, Financial Mathematics and Statistics) at IBA, by an introduction to another programming language, R. R is a popular language for statistical computing and graphics, widely used among statisticians and data miners for developing statistical software and data analysis. Therefore, a tutorial in R was extremely pertinent to the nature of this workshop, and the field of study the audience belonged to.

Dr. Sheraz's lecture covered R using visuals from his professionally designed presentation, and the R-programming console itself. Starting from the basics, the participants went on to learn how they could utilize R to increase the efficiency of problem solving, and data visualization, in their respective fields. The tutorial that followed allowed the participants to put the concepts learned, into practice.

The first day of the workshop concluded with this talk.

2nd Day of Workshop:

Our participants were keen to start of where they had left on Saturday, and so, the 2nd day of the workshop kicked off with participants having even higher spirits and a better sense of motivation (which could be gauged by the fact that they had sacrificed their Sunday to attend the workshop!). Since Dr. Abdul Majid had concluded the previous day's lecture with a MATLAB homework-assignment, his session recommenced from there. This was followed by Dr Sheraz's talk, who similarly, resumed his previous day's tutorial and practice activities.

After a refreshing break, Dr. Shahid Qureshi started, in the most captivating and interactive ways, his session on the topic of 'History of Computing'.

The workshop concluded with Dr. Raziuddin's comprehensive lecture on the topic of 'Introduction to LaTex'. LaTeX can be used as a standalone document preparation system or as an intermediate format.

Participants were contented and delightful as the workshop had lived up to their expectations. They were handed certificates of participation, and the esteemed speakers of this workshop were given shields as the tokens of gratitude.