Date: Mon, 11 Aug 1997 11:37:41 -0400
From: "Robert H. Lewis" <lewis@bway.net>

   I am on this panel because I have created a small, effective, and
efficient computer algebra system, named Fermat.  It is free to all.  I
am not, therefore, interested in selling systems and, unlike others, do
not care how many people invest in computer algebra firms.  I am a
developer who was first a mathematician and is an end user of the system
as well its designer.  
   Everyone on this panel wants to see computer algebra become more
influential.  Computer algebra will become important when it solves
important problems, whether the problems arise in pure mathematics,
applied mathematics, science, or engineering.  Unlike textbook examples,
such problems inevitably require enormous space and time resources, and
this will always be the case.  Since most of the people who would like
to work on these problems are in universities and do not have access to
super computers, it is crucially important that the computer algebra
systems be as efficient as possible.  This implies that they be focused
to specific areas of mathematics, rather than attempting to do "all of
mathematics".