Brief Biographical Sketch:
Dan is a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, studying mathematics. He graduated from MIT in June 2004 in mathematics. He has been teaching for ESP since Splash 2000, has directed Splash twice, and was Chair of ESP for one and a half years. He has been teaching advanced mathematics to high school students for years at Canada/USA Mathcamp, and taught for a semester at the Boston Math Circle. He also taught the introductory computer science course at MIT for two semesters.
In addition to his mathematical experience, Dan has done a fair bit of theater. He has taken classes in acting and playwrighting and has had three student groups productions of his plays, one of which he directed. He is an avid reader and watcher of plays, and enjoys going up to Chicago frequently to see the latest in innovative theater.
Past Classes
(Look at the class archive for more.)
Algorithms: Just how fast do computers really work? in SPLASHONWHEELS (2008)
Let's say that you're working on a computer and you need to do a lot of addition problems. That's great ...
How You're Being Lied to With Statistics, and How To Tell in SPLASHONWHEELS (2008)
On June 13, 2007, the New York Times reported that New York City students had made huge gains in math: ...
The Reeb Foliation of the 3-Sphere in SPLASHONWHEELS (2008)
Start with a circle, which lives in the 2-dimensional plane. Go up a dimension, and you get the sphere, which ...
Algorithms in SPARK (2008)
Programming languages are the boring part of writing a computer program. Yes, you heard me right, the _boring_ part. The ...
Playwriting in SPARK (2008)
We'll explore the elements of drama that make for a good play. In this discussion-focused class, we will read from ...
The Nature of Infinity in SPARK (2008)
In 1874, the mathematician Georg Cantor first came up with the profound ideas that led to "transfinite numbers." His insights ...
Actors' Workshop in SPLASH (2007)
Do you love acting, or want to get into it? Want to learn the basics and explore a few interesting ...
How You're Being Lied to With Statistics, and How to Tell in SPLASH (2007)
On June 13, 2007, the New York Times reported that New York City students had made huge gains in math: ...
Playwriting in SPLASH (2007)
Drama has great power. It's one thing to read a book, where you're separated from the characters by words, or ...
Playwriting II in SPLASH (2007)
How do characters listen to each other? What drives a scene to be successful? We're going to study characters and ...
The Amazing Things That Happen in 2 Dimensions in SPLASH (2007)
Imagine you were a two-dimensional creature, and you lived on the surface of the sphere. Look out from the north ...
The Reeb Foliation of the 3-Sphere in SPLASH (2007)
Welcome to the fourth dimension. What lives here? A circle and a sphere (the outside shell of a ball) seem ...
Visualizing Our World: Ray Tracing and Computer Graphics in SPLASH (2007)
The best computer images---those used in movies and high-quality renderings---come from a process known as "ray tracing," literally the notion ...
Complexity Theory in SPLASHONWHEELS (2006)
What problems can computers solve? The "halting problem" is simple: can I write a computer program that checks if the ...
Infinity in SPLASHONWHEELS (2006)
In this class we'll start to analyze and understand what it means for there to be "infinitely many" of something. ...
The Reeb Foliation of the 3-Sphere in SPLASHONWHEELS (2006)
First, you get a circle. Go up a dimension and you get a "normal" sphere. Go up another dimension and ...
Acting Workshop in SPLASH (2006)
We'll talk about acting, the process that goes into it and how to improve. Together, we'll work on some scenes; ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics in SPLASH (2006)
From those pinpricks that you're told are "stars," astronomers can analyze amazing details. Using wavelengths of light, changing position in ...
Playwriting in SPLASH (2006)
Drama has great power. It's one thing to read a book, where you're separated from the characters by words, or ...
Rational, Irrational, Algebraic, Transcendental, and Complex: About Numbers in SPLASH (2006)
One way to define a "real number" is as any infinite decimal. So you get stuff like pi = 3.14159265..., ...
The Nature of Infinity in SPLASH (2006)
You already know about a lot of infinite sets. There are the integers, for example. Or the rational numbers (all ...
The Reeb Foliation of the 3-Sphere in SPLASH (2006)
Welcome to the fourth dimension. What lives here? Here's an interesting specimen. Start with a circle. Go up a dimension ...
The Splash Math Program in SPLASH (2006)
Join us for the Splash Math Program, a unique new opportunity to get a focused and in-depth mathematical experience at ...
Infinity in SPLASH (2005)
Infinity is not some wishy-washy thing that isn't well-defined. There is a real, rigorous way to talk about infinity mathematically, ...
Infinity in SPLASH (2005)
Infinity is not some wishy-washy thing that isn't well-defined. There is a real, rigorous way to talk about infinity mathematically, ...
Playwrighting in SPLASH (2005)
Crafting a good play is hard, but incredibly rewarding. My hope is to impart to you some of the basics ...
Something Unexpected in SPLASH (2005)
I don't know what I'm going to teach here. No one, including me, will know until after class begins. We'll ...
The Reeb Foliation of the 3-Sphere in SPLASH (2005)
If two-dimensional space can fit a circle, and three-dimensional space can fit a sphere, surely four-dimensional space can fit something ...
The Splash Theatre Program in SPLASH (2005)
Join us in one of the wildest Splash experiments ever. We're going to start from scratch and write, act in, ...
Basic Applications of Quantum Mechanics in SPLASH (2004)
Continues the sequence begun in History and Experimental Basis of Quantum Mechanics. Begins with a brief outline of single-variable calculus. ...
History and Experimental Basis of Quantum Mechanics in SPLASH (2004)
A historical overview of experimental results leading to the formulation of quantum mechanics. Covers wave/particle duality of light and electrons, ...
Playwright's Workshop in SPLASH (2004)
One of the most effective ways to tell stories is through the theater. Actors on stage can connect emotionally with ...
Something Unexpected in SPLASH (2004)
This class was a big hit in 2002, so I'm bringing it back. Here's the deal: I like teaching hard ...
What is Distance? in SPLASH (2004)
The notion of a metric space is one of the most beautiful generalizations in mathematics. It lets you consider spaces ...
Abstractions of Mathematics in SPLASH (2003)
Prerequisites: This class willbe extremely fast; you should be comfortable with very general ideas and be willing to be thinking ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics in SPLASH (2003)
Prerequisites: Some high school physics and geometry. How do we figure out what's happening in the cosmos? It turns out ...
Basic Applications of Quantum Mechanics in SPLASH (2003)
Prerequisites: History and Experimental Basis of Quantum Mechanics and its prerequisites Continues the sequence begun in History and Experimental Basis ...
History and Experimental Basis of Quantum Mechanics in SPLASH (2003)
Prerequisites: Firm grasp of precalculus is essential. Knowledge of calculus and/or high school physics is helpful but not required A ...
Projective Geometry in SPLASH (2003)
Prerequisites: Confidence with high school geometry, and a willingness to drop all preconceptions. The world of geometry is a lot ...
Theory of Computation in SPLASH (2003)
Prerequisites: No programming background is necessary, but having a logical mind will help! At some fundamental level, much of computer ...
Generating Functions and Ladder Graphs in SPLASH (2002)
Math is meant to be playful. Take some recurrence (a sequence where terms depend on previous terms), do something silly ...
Quantum Mechanics in SPLASH (2002)
The early 20th century, saw the birth of two major revolutions in physics. The first, relativity, describes the very big: ...
Something Unexpected in SPLASH (2002)
I have this failing. I always like to teach one really hard math course at Splash. I can't teach nearly ...
Algorithms in Computer Programming in HSSP (2001)
The difficult part in computer programming isn't in learning a programming language, but in learning to use it effectively. How ...
What's Cool About Math in HSSP (2001)
Ever wonder if there's something more to math? This course is going to touch on some of the really cool ...
Visualizing Our World: Ray Tracing & Computer Graphics in SPLASH (2000)
The best computer images - those used in movies and high-quality renderings - come from a process known as "ray ...
What's Cool about Math in SPLASH (2000)
High school classes almost never teach the true "cool stuff" in math where you can see brilliant proofs of neat ...
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