ESP Biography



VLAD FIROIU, MIT grad student in CS




Major: EECS

College/Employer: MIT

Year of Graduation: G

Picture of Vlad Firoiu

Brief Biographical Sketch:

Not Available.



Past Classes

  (Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

M5262: Extreme Math in Splash! 2011 (Nov. 19 - 20, 2011)
This class is mostly an excuse for us (the teachers) to watch you (the students) flail while you try to solve tricky math problems on the spot. This is how it will work. We will give you a math problem, and you'll have to immediately present a solution on the black-board. You'll have up to eight minutes to present your proof, but you need to continuously be presenting. Then our panel of judges will award you a score based on how correct, confusing, and amusing your solution was. There may or may not be teams, depending on how many students we get.


M4059: Intermediate Olympiad Geometry in Splash! 2010 (Nov. 20 - 21, 2010)
We will explore a variety of topics often seen in geometry problems on national and international mathematics Olympiads. Important techniques, such as cyclic quadrilaterals, spiral similarity, homothety, and inversion will be covered.


X4064: Introduction to the Pokemon Metagame in Splash! 2010 (Nov. 20 - 21, 2010)
Did you know that your entire team of legendaries has the potential to be swept by a single Magikarp? Have you always wanted to use really cute Pokemon like Jumpluff or Politoed against your friends in battle, but never did because you are afraid that they are too weak or too useless? In this class, you will learn the fundamentals of battle mechanics in the 4th Generation Pokemon games. Topics covered will include EV/IV selection, moveset/item selection, basic team building techniques, common battle tactics (setups, switch-ins), predictions and the metagame. At the end of the class, we will give you a list of resources that you may use to further advance your Pokemon mastery.