No, we will not be learning zoology or watching Flying Circus. Python is a very expressive computer language that can be used to make your computer do just about anything. This class will first introduce you to basic syntax. Then we will explore all of the packages available to you, and we will hopefully look at creating a simple game using pygame.

Python is a very extensive language that has support for many idioms. Even though you may think you know Python, there are many features of the language that are subtle and not used often enough. Given the breadth of knowledge, this will be more of a survey of the advanced topics. A brief list of things we will try to learn: - Variadic functions - Partial, decorators, higher order procedures, closures, reduce - Generators and the iteration protocol - Threading (and implications of GIL) - Metaclasses - Coroutines - Tail call optimization

你好！ Have you ever wondered how to order General Gau's chicken in a (Mandarin) Chinese restaurant? Does Chinese sound like gibberish to you? In this class, we will learn the very basics of Chinese. We will learn the elements of the system of writing, pronunciation systems, and basic vocabulary. If nothing else, this class should get you on your way to parsing the different sounds into a language.

Optimization is all about solving complex problems. For example, how many flavors of ice cream should your ice cream parlor carry in order to maximize profit? How would you cut a piece of yarn into four pieces to maximize the area of the quadrilateral formed? Where should you locate an emergency facility in order to minimize transportation costs? How should you drive in order to minimize gas usage? We will show you how to model real-life problems and find optimal solutions of your own!

Optimization is all about solving complex problems. For example, how many flavors of ice cream should your ice cream parlor carry in order to maximize profit? How would you cut a piece of yarn into four pieces to maximize the area of the quadrilateral formed? Where should you locate an emergency facility in order to minimize transportation costs? How should you drive in order to minimize gas usage? We will show you how to model real-life problems and find optimal solutions of your own! Familiarity with algebra is required. If you are planning on taking Theory of Optimization II, sign up for this class as well.

This course is a follow-up to The Theory of Optimization I. In this class, we will explore the mathematical basis for optimization. We will discover the rich math of Hilbert spaces, dual spaces, and Fourier analysis. We will be able to use these concepts to solve a broader class of optimization problems, such as finding the path of least time (useful in relativistic mechanics), finding the optimal strategy to play Age of Empires, and deriving the equation entropy in statistical mechanics. Some knowledge in Calculus is recommended.

You've been Googling for information since you could spell, but how does Google get the information for you? In this class we'll explore the concepts behind retrieving relevant information given keywords, web pages, nodes, or any other subspaces. We'll be able to use the results to answer questions like: Which person on Facebook is most like me? Given an unsorted pile of my classwork, how can I categorize them into my class subjects? And of course we'll explain the theory behind Google's PageRank algorithm and some of the interesting modifications they've had to make in due to the ever-changing web. Some of the concepts that are explored in this class include projection, Markov chains, cosine similarity, tf-idf, and some probability.

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