There are numerous robust, accurate, and efficient Java libraries for mathematics, linear algebra, or optimization that have been widely used for many years:
JBlas/Linpack (https://github.com/mikiobraun/jblas)
Parallel Colt (https://github.com/rwl/ParallelColt)
Apache Commons Math (http://commons.apache.org/proper/commons-math)
There is absolutely no need to rewrite, debug, and test these components in Scala. Developers should consider creating a wrapper or interface to his/her favorite and reliable Java library. The book leverages the Apache Commons Math library for some specific linear algebra algorithms.