Conclusions

• Special functions have lots of applications:
  • electrical engineering
  • mechanical engineering
  • physics
  • statistics
  • ...
• Inclusion in curriculum:
  • not as "Special Functions" in standard math lectures
    • time too short
    • area to diverse
  • introduction in applications, where it is needed
  • sometimes good as examples or exercises in math courses
• Interesting topic for mathematicians:
  • lots of important examples
  • systematic extensions of analysis topics
  • starting point for complete new areas
• Topic out of fashion:
  • in applications often replaced by numerical methods
  • even worse: algorithms are replaced by clever guessing ("A.I.")
  • numbers are useful - insight is better
  • special functions deserve a renaissance