For centuries, mathematics has been applied to many different scientific fields, such as physics and astronomy. The field of mathematics has been extended to solve problems in computer science, highway traffic, and economics. Pursuing an education in mathematics can provide one with a wide variety of choices in business careers, while allowing one to help one's country's production industry.

After my graduation, I worked as a research scientist at NASA Ames Research Center, California. At that time my research subject was using computer codes to predict sonic boom of supersonic aircraft.

Sonic boom is a noise created by an aircraft when it flies at supersonic speed in the earth's atmosphere. As you may know, the British and French built a supersonic airplane, the Concorde, which carries 100 passengers and flies as fast as two times the speed of sound. However, this aircraft is not welcomed by airline companies, not only because it is too expensive for short flights but also because the Concorde creates an environmentally disruptive sonic boom.

Traditional methods are not always adequate in supersonic aircraft design. In order to explore viable design methodology and aircraft shapes for supersonic commercial aircraft, we need two important tools: (1) today's supercomputer and (2) mathematical optimization.

Optimization is an important branch of mathematics which is applied to solve many problems in many industries. In high school, you may have learned about the golden section search method, discovered by the ancient Greeks, which finds the minimum length of a non-linear curve.