Splash 2019
Course Catalog
Filter Catalog by Grade:
Visual and Performing Arts
A13214: How to Lion Dance
Difficulty: **
Ever wondered why those large fluffy creatures paraded around during the Lunar New Year? Did you realize those large fluffy creatures usually consisted of two people playing the part of the head and the tail? No? Well stop by this workshop-style class, hosted by MIT Lion Dance Team, to learn a basic history in lion dancing and begin building the skills needed to be a full-fledged lion dance performer! (Class will also include loud instrumentation in the form of drums and cymbals.)
A13337: 2D > 3D > 2D : Intro to Digital Design & Fabrication
Difficulty: **
Curious about contemporary design tools and digital fabrication? Want to learn a few of the basic skills designers use to develop, visualize, and test their ideas?
This course will provide an introduction to the world of digital design, including techniques for 3D modeling, 2D templating, and rapid prototyping. The course should interest students with an interest in architecture, animation, fine art, and digital design.
No experience necessary!
This course will provide an introduction to the world of digital design, including techniques for 3D modeling, 2D templating, and rapid prototyping. The course should interest students with an interest in architecture, animation, fine art, and digital design.
No experience necessary!
A13552: From Noh to TeniMyu: A Crash Course in Japanese Theatre
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Jennifer Yoo
The theatre of Japan is among the most distinct and easily recognizable arts known today. Its influences are so deeply engrained in popular culture that you might not even realize its reach. Join us as we take you on a crash course of all there is to know about the many unique theatre forms found in Japan, from the mysterious Noh masked theatre to the flashy Prince of Tennis Musical and all that is in between. Featuring recordings of performances like the recent NARUTO Kabuki production and a live demonstration of traditional Japanese comedy!
A13594: Hair Dyeing: Theory and Practice
Difficulty: **
Have you every been curious about dyeing hair? In this class, we'll be delving into the chemistry, history, and art behind hair dyeing. We'll also be doing live hands-on demos (!!), and giving you the chance to color your own hair! (parental consent required). Wear clothing you would not mind getting stained.
A13367: Indian Dance
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Pallavi Jain
I am so excited to teach you Indian Dance steps. Whether it is your first time or you know dancing, in both cases you will enjoy and learn. Whether you are from India or from other country, you will enjoy learning. For beginners and experienced dancers and people from all countries.
A13358: TWICE dance!!
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Emily Han,
Viktoriya Tabunshchyk
We will be teaching a surprise twice dance ;)) come if you love kpop, would like to love kpop, want to dance for fun (we are also terrible it's ok), if your friends want to go and you get dragged along, you want bad life advice, want to get a "work out", or want to give your brain a break from learning something hard!!!! come learn what it's like to be a rEaL MiT sTuDenT uwu
Prerequisites
literally none lmao all genders accepted
Prerequisites
literally none lmao all genders accepted
A13478: Paint by Numbers
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Grace Chuan,
Yi Wang
Do you like art? Do you like math? Learn how to recreate famous paintings simply through numbers!
Prerequisites
Passion
Prerequisites
Passion
A13249: Computational Design: Drift Drawing Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Janice Tjan,
Leslie Yan
We will explore contemporary artists who utilize computation in making their art and then make our own drift drawings based on rule-based systems.
Prerequisites
You do NOT need any background in design or artistic ability to join this class!
Prerequisites
You do NOT need any background in design or artistic ability to join this class!
A13238: Improv Workshop Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Theo Black,
CJ Quines
Let's play improv games together! Don't know how to improv at all? Want to learn what yes, and means? Want to have more confidence in speaking in front of crowds, or to your local coffee shop owner, without planning twenty different scenarios in your head beforehand? Then come to class and learn the basics of improv! This will be a high-energy, participatory class focusing on the basics of performance and improvisation, and lots of fun.
A13353: How to not sleep at concerts
Difficulty: *
In less than an hour, we will try to convey to you that classical music is important, you should listen to classical music, and classical music is for you, if you are willing enough to open your heart and embrace it. Come join us to understand what the "universal language" is all about.
Prerequisites
All students are welcome, with a particularly warm welcome to those who have had little to no classical music experience before.
Prerequisites
All students are welcome, with a particularly warm welcome to those who have had little to no classical music experience before.
A13269: Revealing the “How” of Fashion Design, from Fundamentals to Final Collection
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Steven Faerm
Ever wonder how fashion designers create their exciting collections? This 45-minute lecture examines how designers research for inspiration, develop innovative design methods, and create powerful concepts through clothing. Although we’ll look at fashion, this lecture is appropriate for anyone who wants to learn about general art and design principles since its concepts and ideas can be applied to ALL creative fields!
First, we will examine design fundamentals such as color theory, motif, and visual storytelling. We will then look at professional and student work that applies these fundamentals in different ways for a full project. Finally, we will analyze an Alexander McQueen runway show that incorporates all the topics we discussed. You will leave the presentation with a broad understanding of the complex fashion design process and how designers work!
Please note, this is a lecture presentation and not a workshop.
Presented by Steven Faerm, Associate Professor, Parsons School of Design.
Prerequisites
none
First, we will examine design fundamentals such as color theory, motif, and visual storytelling. We will then look at professional and student work that applies these fundamentals in different ways for a full project. Finally, we will analyze an Alexander McQueen runway show that incorporates all the topics we discussed. You will leave the presentation with a broad understanding of the complex fashion design process and how designers work!
Please note, this is a lecture presentation and not a workshop.
Presented by Steven Faerm, Associate Professor, Parsons School of Design.
Prerequisites
none
A13471: How to Paint Nebulae
Difficulty: *
If you, like me, have spent countless hours scrolling though the depths of the internet to find super cool space backgrounds, this class is for you! Or if you, like me, have always wanted to recreate these stunning images, you've come to the right place! We will show you how to paint some of your favorite nebulae or give you the tools to create your own! Whether you're an avid painter or have never held a paintbrush, you'll have a blast and a half in this class and come out with some amazing wall art!
A13268: The Future of Design, Designing, and the Designer: Creating Design Processes that Foster Design Innovation
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Steven Faerm
Have you ever wondered how artists and designers develop their innovative work? Do you want to become a better artist or designer by strengthening your creative approach and development? What is the “design process” and how can it be used successfully to achieve authentic and exciting results?
This 45-minute lecture analyzes college-level design projects that are noteworthy for their inventive and highly innovative design processes — a critical stage that proceeds research exploration and precedes final design outcomes. This “middle-stage” is arguably the MOST important stage. It is when your playful exploration and experimentation will yield optimal creativity. This presentation will show you how to innovate your own creative processes through select examples. These inspiring methods may then be applied to your own art and design projects.
Please note, this is a lecture presentation and not a workshop.
Presented by Steven Faerm, Associate Professor at Parsons School of Design.
Prerequisites
none
This 45-minute lecture analyzes college-level design projects that are noteworthy for their inventive and highly innovative design processes — a critical stage that proceeds research exploration and precedes final design outcomes. This “middle-stage” is arguably the MOST important stage. It is when your playful exploration and experimentation will yield optimal creativity. This presentation will show you how to innovate your own creative processes through select examples. These inspiring methods may then be applied to your own art and design projects.
Please note, this is a lecture presentation and not a workshop.
Presented by Steven Faerm, Associate Professor at Parsons School of Design.
Prerequisites
none
A13405: How to Write Calligraphy: Thanksgiving and Holiday Cards!
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Audrey Gatta
Have you ever seen aesthetically pleasing script calligraphy and wished you could recreate it? Well, here you’ll learn how to! Sign up to learn some tips and tricks for modern calligraphy lettering, and by the end you’ll leave with a Thanksgiving/Holiday card just in time for the Holidays!
A13642: Bracelet-Making!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Doreen Chin,
Leslie Yan
Join us for a fun hands-on bracelet-making workshop! We'll explore different techniques, materials, design, and more.
A13207: Theater: Set Design Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Aquila Simmons
Ever wondered about the worlds that are created on stage? From high school productions of Shakespeare's plays to Broadway's newest musical hits, someone has to be designing the backdrop for all the action. It could be you. Learn about the process of designing a set and pitching it to directors, what drawing and crafting comes before a pitch and what awesome work comes after getting the job. We will cover ground plots, color renderings, and have optional 1/4 inch modeling.
A13470: Intro to Cinematography in Architecture Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Rodrigo Escandon Cesarman,
Yuxuan Lei
A basic introduction to five C's of cinematography (Camera Angles, Continuity, Cutting, Closeups, and Composition) and animation sequence as it relates to the narration of spatial story in architecture.
A13371: Korean Karate
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Rumen Dangovski,
Jenny Gao
Welcome to the MIT Korean Karate Club! In this lesson we will introduce you to the history of Korean Karate and Tae Kwon Do and the philosophy behind our martial art. Then we will proceed with a regular practice during which we will teach you the mechanics behind efficiently defending yourself. Everybody is welcome!
A13296: Wind Instruments in Classical Music through Orchestral Excerpts Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Lauren Li,
Tristan Shin
An introduction to the use of wind instruments in classical music. Study will be done primarily through listening to excerpts from orchestral pieces. We will examine common uses of the instruments, variants of instruments, and orchestration techniques involving wind instruments.
Prerequisites
Ability to read music is recommended, but not required.
Prerequisites
Ability to read music is recommended, but not required.
A13154: Visualizing Music: from Solesmes through Fantasia to Malinowski
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Alex Lew,
Samuel Tenka
Who creates music? The composer? The musician? The audience? The creative burden of bridging between abstract emotion and concrete sensation has oscillated drastically among those roles, from taciturn Bach to picky Chopin, from improvisatory Bill Evans to contrarian John Cage. In such multi-party creation, communication is key, hence the development of elaborate scoring notations and of diverse performance technologies. Now, modern tools invite a new shift toward a fourth creative role: that of a visual animator. An animation is a score for listeners, a new channel through which parties may communicate musical intention. Thus, parts critic, guide, and poet, an animator conducts not the musicians but the audience.
In this class, we will dive into techniques for enhancing and explaining music by means of synchronized video. We will trace a winding history --- through Solesmes Abbey, Fischinger's "Motion Paintings", the Fantasia films, and MilkDrop --- to arrive at and analyze Stephen Malinowski's YouTube work. In a final and especially interactive session, we will create our own animation of music according to our tastes as a classroom.
Prerequisites
This course is for those who want to experience classical music in a potentially new way. Thus, a primary prerequisite is an admiration for the music of at least one of these composers: {Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Brahms, Shostakovitch}. To be explicit: you don't need to read music or know how to program. The course will heavily integrate music and potentially flashing video; please be aware if you have epilepsy or if your senses do not include sight or sound. There will be much to enjoy if you are color-blind and not blind.
In this class, we will dive into techniques for enhancing and explaining music by means of synchronized video. We will trace a winding history --- through Solesmes Abbey, Fischinger's "Motion Paintings", the Fantasia films, and MilkDrop --- to arrive at and analyze Stephen Malinowski's YouTube work. In a final and especially interactive session, we will create our own animation of music according to our tastes as a classroom.
Prerequisites
This course is for those who want to experience classical music in a potentially new way. Thus, a primary prerequisite is an admiration for the music of at least one of these composers: {Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Brahms, Shostakovitch}. To be explicit: you don't need to read music or know how to program. The course will heavily integrate music and potentially flashing video; please be aware if you have epilepsy or if your senses do not include sight or sound. There will be much to enjoy if you are color-blind and not blind.
A13422: Representations of Girlhood in Modern Cinema Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Aysar Abdelgelil,
Bell Pitkin
"If you haven't noticed I am a woman now. I wear a bra!" Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (2008). Teenage girls have it rough! Not only do these young women have to deal with homework, dating, acne and more, they have to grapple with growing up and their context in greater society. In this course we will discuss the role of young women on screen and how their narrative has become a common theme within popular media. Come watch and analyze clips from independent movies like Ladybird, Ghost World, Princess Mononoke, as well as cult classics like Pretty in Pink, Clueless, and Mean Girls.
A13166: Drawing with Functions
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Gloria Lin,
Tianyuan Zheng
What things do you use to draw with? I hear pencils, I hear markers, I hear pens and crayons... and - wait a second - functions? Yep, functions. Just functions? yep, JUST FUNCTIONS. In this class, we will explore the art of drawing, only with a mathy twist via desmos.com; for just one hour, come with imagination, see exciting combinations of math and art, and bring home your inner artist/math nerd/both & your very own FUNction creations!
Prerequisites
All levels of artists welcome. Algebra 2 experience highly recommended but not required.
Prerequisites
All levels of artists welcome. Algebra 2 experience highly recommended but not required.
A13554: Swing Dancing
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Liz Obermaier,
Preston Tower
Learn some basic swing dancing moves and meet new people with this social dance!
We'll be teaching East Coast Swing. No experience needed.
We'll be teaching East Coast Swing. No experience needed.
A13197: Paint Realistically with Gouache
Difficulty: **
Have you always wanted to paint realistically? Or maybe you're curious about gouache (a fast-drying, opaque version of watercolor)? Well, here's your chance! We'll briefly cover composition, color mixing, and some gouache-specific techniques, then give you time to work on a painting you can bring home.
Prerequisites
drawing and/or painting experience. ideally, you should have practice drawing from life and identifying areas of light and shadow.
Prerequisites
drawing and/or painting experience. ideally, you should have practice drawing from life and identifying areas of light and shadow.
A13432: Friendship Bracelet Making
Difficulty: *
Teaching the basics of friendship bracelet making!
A13155: Learn to Knit Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Adira Balzac,
jill Pelavin
Learn to knit! Ever wanted to knit yourself a hat, sweater, scarf, or toy for your cat?
We'll teach you!
We'll provide the yarn and needles, you just bring your hands and some patience.
No experience required, just willingness to play with sticks, yarn, and the realization that it will seem awkward at first (with practice, it becomes smooth and relaxing!)
Prerequisites
two working hands.
We'll teach you!
We'll provide the yarn and needles, you just bring your hands and some patience.
No experience required, just willingness to play with sticks, yarn, and the realization that it will seem awkward at first (with practice, it becomes smooth and relaxing!)
Prerequisites
two working hands.
A13352: Needlepaint Embroidery (or stabbing something 1000 times)
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Grace Tang
Learn how to make an aesthetic bird (or flower or cat or whatever you want) that looks like it took a lot more effort than it actually did :D And no, you (probably) won't stab your fingers--the needles are too blunt for that. Skills NOT needed: prior sewing experience, ability to thread a needle, hand-eye coordination.
Prerequisites
Sketching skills useful but not required
Prerequisites
Sketching skills useful but not required
A13669: Fancy Paper Structures Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Sophie Mori,
Avery Nguyen
Turns out we can fold a flat sheet of paper into a cool, geometric, 3D form. Here is an example: https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/284234863.webp. The idea behind these types of compacting folds has made their way into telescopes, satellites, and architectural forms! I will have various templates available.
Prerequisites
Good motor skills are useful
Prerequisites
Good motor skills are useful
A13280: How to make friendship bracelets like a pro!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Jensen Curtiss,
Nine Morch
Want to learn how to make friendship bracelets to give out or to wear? Swing by to learn the basic knots to make any bracelet and then practice making some!
A13322: Sew a Plushie!
Difficulty: **
Learn to sew an adorable plushie and take home a new best friend! We will provide all of the materials you need to make a stuffed sheep, fish, carrot, heart, pencil... whatever you want! All levels and experience are welcome, so whether you've never threaded a needle or you're a sewing expert, you'll have a great time in this class.
Prerequisites
No experience, just enthusiasm!
Prerequisites
No experience, just enthusiasm!
A13204: Intro to SALSA
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Otilia Don,
Rodrigo Vasquez
Have you always wanted to learn how to dance? Do you want to have some active fun at MIT? You should come learn the basic steps of salsa with us!
Prerequisites
Comfortable shoes that hold on the foot well.
Prerequisites
Comfortable shoes that hold on the foot well.
A13181: Advanced MS Paint Studio Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Patricia Gao,
Sam Nitz
MS Paint is the world's best image-editing software, and we're here to prove it. This class will cover the basic tools you need to make digital art with it.
A13299: Oh Snap! Photography for Dummies Workshop (Part 1)
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Sarah Bi
Ever wanted to learn how to take pictures on one of those big black cameras (DSLR) and not just on your iPhone? For the 1st hour, learn about how to use manual mode on DSLR, composition, lens, and more. Then for the 2nd hour, go on a photography field trip to capture the beautiful campus! To see the editing process and results, sign up for the complementary Part 2 of this course. (Feel free to bring your own camera as well, but definitely not required)
A13536: Music Theory
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Kevin Costello,
Gabriel Terrasa
Ever wondered why certain types of music sound happy and why others sad? What are chords, how do you build one, and why are they so important to the way we hear music? This class will discuss questions like these to cover the basics of musical theory and harmony. We'll be building an intuition for the way music works and why it makes us feel the way it does. Register to learn more!
Prerequisites
Reading some form of music helps, but not required.
Prerequisites
Reading some form of music helps, but not required.
A13670: The Music of Celeste
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Andrew Lin,
Jeffery Yu
Celeste is an indie game that first drew us in with its story and gaming and kept us thrilled with its amazing soundtrack. To us, its musical ideas are basically as innovative as my favorite classical music works, and that's something we'd like to share with you! In this class, we'll talk about why Celeste's music is so effective, as well as how a great soundtrack can make a (seemingly simple) platformer game unforgettable.
Prerequisites
None- just a willingness to see music in a new way!
Prerequisites
None- just a willingness to see music in a new way!
A13486: Dandiya!! (Fun Indian Traditional Dance with Sticks!)
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Meenakshi Singh,
Meghana Vemulapalli
Dandiya, or Raas, is a traditional dance of Gujarat and Rajasthan, India! It involves the coordinated striking of sticks between dancers in lines while fast-paced drum heavy exciting traditional music plays! No experience required, dandiya (sticks) provided! Come ready to try something new and fun!!
A13301: Cut the Crop! Editing for Dummies Workshop (Part 2)
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Sarah Bi
Editing can fix (almost) everything, but let's get a little fancier than VSCO. I will edit, in real time, some RAW photos taken earlier on the photography campus field trip from Part 1 of this complementary course in Adobe Lightroom. For example, how to edit portrait vs landscape vs architecture photographs. Come join me to see the magic happen! (you DO NOT need to have taken Part 1)
Languages and Literatures
B13218: Kokuhaku: How to Confess Your Love in Japanese
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Kylie Hansen
Let's learn how about love in Japanese culture, especially surrounding their infamous "kokuhaku" often seen in anime! By the end of this class you'll be able to confess your love just like a traditional Japanese schoolgirl.
B13139: Japanese for Beginners: Spoken and Written
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Sarah Davis,
Steve Nelson
Steve and Sarah will walk you through reading and writing several key Japanese characters (kanji) as well as a few Japanese conversations and key Japanese conversational words. Youkoso (welcome)!
Prerequisites
N/A
Prerequisites
N/A
B13622: Space Opera: Space Craft, Colonies, and Aliens!
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Sherene Raisbeck,
Josh Shaine
Lots of adventures happen in space, some with battles and some with aliens.
What goes into these settings? How can you build your own? We will cover a bunch of the basics and do some work individually and in groups on designs, as well as looking at some brilliant examples and some... less brilliant ones.
Prerequisites
Must love Space Stories!
What goes into these settings? How can you build your own? We will cover a bunch of the basics and do some work individually and in groups on designs, as well as looking at some brilliant examples and some... less brilliant ones.
Prerequisites
Must love Space Stories!
B13261: Shanghainese
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Songela Chen
Come learn the basics of Shanghainese, a dialect of Chinese. We will discuss differences between dialects, hear native speakers through video clips and in person, and learn basic dialogue.
Prerequisites
Some familiarity with Mandarin and/or Shanghainese is helpful, but not required.
Prerequisites
Some familiarity with Mandarin and/or Shanghainese is helpful, but not required.
B13498: Languages of Middle Earth
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Sean Olszewski,
Ryker Reed
Love Lord of the Rings? Ever wondered where all the names in Middle Earth come from? Come find out more about the complex linguistic systems underlying Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series. For instance, did you know that Tolkien was a linguist and actually invented an entire Elvish language before even writing the Lord of the Rings books? Learn about some of the real world languages that inspired and influenced Tolkien’s invented languages. And find out more about the history of Middle Earth and how its languages came to be what they are now.
Prerequisites
None, if you've taken this class before, it will be the same material.
Prerequisites
None, if you've taken this class before, it will be the same material.
B13183: Mythology and Folklore- and what they can teach us
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Pamela Stark,
Duha Syar
The Greek, Norse and Egyptian mythologies shapes the moral of people in great empires. But not everything is as it seems! Let’s review certain stories including
1. The Kidnapping of Persephone
2. Hercules vs Madea
3. The creation of Mjolnir and Loki
4. The Valkyries and Valhalla
5. Isis and Osiris
We will discuss these myths in relation to the structure of their society. How did they derive power. What were their values? Most importantly- what did they think of their women?
(If you can glance at the stories ahead of time that would be awesome!)
1. The Kidnapping of Persephone
2. Hercules vs Madea
3. The creation of Mjolnir and Loki
4. The Valkyries and Valhalla
5. Isis and Osiris
We will discuss these myths in relation to the structure of their society. How did they derive power. What were their values? Most importantly- what did they think of their women?
(If you can glance at the stories ahead of time that would be awesome!)
B13508: a fifty-minute introduction to historical linguistics!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Sasha Barish
in this class you'll learn a few things about historical linguistics, which is the field that studies how languages change over time. i'll explain the basics of sound change and some grammatical changes, and i'll talk about the ways that people can tell whether different languages are related to each other and what those languages were like thousands of years ago, when they weren't even written down.
I'll be keeping the overlap between this class and my other ling class (Proto-Indo-European) to a minimum. The focus of that class is the Proto-Indo-European language itself, while this class is about the linguistics methods that people use to study language change and hypothesize proto-languages, though a little bit of overlap will be necessary for everything to make sense.
Prerequisites
None.
I'll be keeping the overlap between this class and my other ling class (Proto-Indo-European) to a minimum. The focus of that class is the Proto-Indo-European language itself, while this class is about the linguistics methods that people use to study language change and hypothesize proto-languages, though a little bit of overlap will be necessary for everything to make sense.
Prerequisites
None.
B13424: Reading and Writing in Star Wars
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Claire McLellan-Cassivi,
Isabella Torres
Learn to read and write in Aurebesh, the most common alphabet in the galaxy! Useful for understanding movies and TV shows, as well as writing secret messages.
B13392: Toki Pona: The Language of Good
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Andy Tockman,
Brian Xiao
Come learn toki pona, a constructed language with only 120 words! Complex ideas are expressed by combining basic concepts (for example, "alcohol" is "telo nasa", or "silly water"). Since there's only 120 words to know of, it's possibly the easiest language to learn!
For part of class, I'll go over the word list and the (very minimal) grammar; then, we can either translate things into toki pona together or try to have conversations in it.
(If you're not good at memorization, don't worry! Printed word lists will be provided.)
For part of class, I'll go over the word list and the (very minimal) grammar; then, we can either translate things into toki pona together or try to have conversations in it.
(If you're not good at memorization, don't worry! Printed word lists will be provided.)
B13341: Thinking Like a Linguist
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Jeremy Freudberg,
Peter Klapes
In this interactive course, students will try to make sense of language, by thinking like linguists. Students will receive a gentle introduction to linguistics and its subfields, and then begin to confront and quantify various subtle features of the English language.
B13310: Thai Language, Culture and History
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Victor Luo,
Arun Wongprommoon
This courses dives quite deep into Thai language, culture and history because I'm born and raised Thai and I'm proud of it! Not many people *actually* know about this country and people, outside of the beaches and occasional puns about the names our capital. Come to actually know what our capital means in our language and stay for more Thainess!
B13546: Proto-Indo-European, aka learning about a 6000-year-old language that was never written down
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Sasha Barish
Almost all the modern languages of Europe and Northern India – including English, Spanish, Hindi, Irish, Russian, and Greek – form a language family called Indo-European, and they all evolved from a common ancestor. That common ancestor (Proto-Indo-European) was never written down, but there's a lot that we can figure out about it just by comparing its descendants. In this class you'll learn all about Proto-Indo-European: the grammar, the sounds, the way new words were made, etc. In addition to being interesting on its own, knowing some PIE will also help you understand where some weird features of English come from and how they relate to other languages you might know.
I'll be keeping the overlap between this class and my other ling class (a fifty-minute introduction to historical linguistics) to a minimum. The focus of this class is the PIE language itself, while that class is about the linguistics methods that people use to study language change and hypothesize proto-languages, though a little bit of overlap will be necessary for everything to make sense.
Prerequisites
Knowledge of basic linguistics or knowledge of another Indo-European language in addition to English will make this class easier to follow, but it is not required; you'll be able to learn about PIE anyway!
I'll be keeping the overlap between this class and my other ling class (a fifty-minute introduction to historical linguistics) to a minimum. The focus of this class is the PIE language itself, while that class is about the linguistics methods that people use to study language change and hypothesize proto-languages, though a little bit of overlap will be necessary for everything to make sense.
Prerequisites
Knowledge of basic linguistics or knowledge of another Indo-European language in addition to English will make this class easier to follow, but it is not required; you'll be able to learn about PIE anyway!
B13324: Intro to Elementary Arabic 101
Difficulty: *
Have you ever thought twice about your pronunciation of common foods such as "falafel", "hummus", and even (the all-intimidating) "baba ghanoush"? Here's the class for you! In this class we will review the basic alphabet, words, and cultural greetings used in modern standard Arabic—by the end, you'll even be able to say the names of all your favorite foods as they were meant to be said!
B13653: Linguistics Problem Solving
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Pranav Krishna,
James Lin
An introduction to the linguistics olympiads: what they are, what kind of problems are on it, and so on. Have fun solving linguistics puzzles, and test your logic and problem solving skills!
Prerequisites
None
Prerequisites
None
B13190: Petronius
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
Tobit Glenhaber
In this class, we will read sections of Petronius' Satyricon, a bawdy (and rather hilarious) narrative set in a INCREDIBLY rich guys dinner party. During said dinner, we see over the top dishes (think the most extravagant parody of a roman dinner), bad astrology, circus performances, and so much more!
Prerequisites
You should have at least 2 (if not more) years of Latin; I've found that Petronius is easier than, say Cicero or Ceasar, but nevertheless you do need a solid grasp on grammar. I'll provide vocabulary and some of the more confusing grammar, but you should be able to recognize (and translate) figures such as ablatives absolute, fear clauses, and purpose clauses.
Prerequisites
You should have at least 2 (if not more) years of Latin; I've found that Petronius is easier than, say Cicero or Ceasar, but nevertheless you do need a solid grasp on grammar. I'll provide vocabulary and some of the more confusing grammar, but you should be able to recognize (and translate) figures such as ablatives absolute, fear clauses, and purpose clauses.
B13612: Magic Systems in Fantasy Stories Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Sherene Raisbeck,
Josh Shaine
We'll spend a good chunk of this class exploring how magic is presented in a variety of books and movies, after which we will see about constructung our own, either individually or collectively, as the class prefers.
Prerequisites
Must love fantasy stories!
Prerequisites
Must love fantasy stories!
B13158: Introduction to Esperanto
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
CJ Quines,
Carl Schildkraut
What's Esperanto? It's the most widely spoken invented language, actively spoken by around 200,000 people all over the world.
It's really easy to learn! You'll learn more Esperanto in this hour than you'd learn German in ten hours. By the end of the class you'll be able to form basic sentences in Esperanto.
It's really easy to learn! You'll learn more Esperanto in this hour than you'd learn German in ten hours. By the end of the class you'll be able to form basic sentences in Esperanto.
B13520: Stan Twitter 101 Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Catalina Romero,
Josiah Washington
Don't fall into the crowd of people who laugh at year old memes on Instagram! Join the world of stannery through Twitter!
Prerequisites
Appreciation and/or admiration for one of the main pop girls (Beyoncé, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Katy Perry), Permission to use Twitter
Prerequisites
Appreciation and/or admiration for one of the main pop girls (Beyoncé, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Katy Perry), Permission to use Twitter
B13231: Introduction to Linguistics, featuring Thai and French
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Victor Luo,
Arun Wongprommoon
A brief introduction to the wonderful world of linguistics with a lot of examples from the languages I know: Thai, English and a bit of French. Heavily inspired by MIT's 24.900. Explore semantics, syntax, morphology, phonology and phonetics and whatever topics I can fit within the time! A good starter to learn about the simplicity and complexity of Thai and French (and English!). Please also check out Thai Language, Culture and History if you want more Thainess!
Prerequisites
Love of language
Prerequisites
Love of language
B13643: How to Pronounce My Name
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Annika Magaro,
Nghiem Pham
My name is very strange for english native speakers to pronounce. But, trust me, it's easier than it looks. Come for a quick crash course in Vietnamese trivia, tonal languages, International Phonetic Alphabet, and most importantly, how to pronounce my name.
B13150: Introduction to ASL Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Nancy Hidalgo
Get a streamlined introduction to American Sign Language! Learn how to introduce yourself, important verbs/phrases, and more!
B13610: Non-linear Thinking in a Linear World
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Sherene Raisbeck,
Josh Shaine
Does doing one thing at a time drive you batty? Do people frequently tell you to pay attention or to 'stay on topic?' Do you think in pictures instead of words? Does the whole "You have to do it in the right order" concept bother you? Join us for an exploration of the How's and Why's of non-linear thinking. We'll talk about how to recognize and develop strengths, not just how to 'fit in.'
Prerequisites
Open-mindedness
Prerequisites
Open-mindedness
B13399: Make Your Own Language: Linguistics and Conlanging
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Chris Eschler,
Autumn Geil
Have you ever wanted to design and build a language of your own? This class will cover the basic process of turning your idea for a constructed language (or conlang) into something with a real grammar and vocabulary. We'll also be looking into some of the linguistic concepts underlying languages.
[Deprecated] Computers and Programming
C13650: Autoencoders & GANs, or How to Make Fake Faces
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
Evan Tey
Autoencoders and GANs are a deep learning technique used to understand the underlying patterns in things like images of faces! Using autoencoders we can do things like add glasses to people's faces or age them. We can even generate images of fake people: https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/
In this class, we'll learn about how autoencoders and GANs work and ways you can start to make your own!
Prerequisites
A basic understanding of machine learning is recommended,
In this class, we'll learn about how autoencoders and GANs work and ways you can start to make your own!
Prerequisites
A basic understanding of machine learning is recommended,
C13505: The wonderful world of Operating Systems
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
Godha Bapuji I.
We will look at what operating systems are and understand high level differences between some of the most common ones heard and unheard of in the modern times
UNIX
MacOS
Windows - old to new
Linux
Embedded/Mobile OSes
Prerequisites
Basic Computer Science
UNIX
MacOS
Windows - old to new
Linux
Embedded/Mobile OSes
Prerequisites
Basic Computer Science
C13291: Computer Architecture from the Ground Up
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
Sai Sameer Pusapaty,
Rahul Yesantharao
Learn all about computer architecture, starting from basic logic gates and working our way all the way up to modern design concepts.
Prerequisites
Basic E&M (familiarity with circuits) Basic CS know-how would be useful, but not required.
Prerequisites
Basic E&M (familiarity with circuits) Basic CS know-how would be useful, but not required.
C13274: Promiscuous Mode-Network Protocol Analysis
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Harvey Yee
Do you want to be in Promiscuous (Monitor) mode? You may if you are a network engineer. Join us in learning what is involved in Network Protocol analysis, and along the way learn about network architecture and protocols. Depending on what is available in the classroom, a demonstration of a wired or wireless network session will be provided. A free copy of Linux LiveCD will be provided so that you can continue your learning of network protocol analysis after this class.
C13465: How to Sort Things Fast
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Zoe Anderson,
Ashley Chen
If you had a long list of numbers, and someone said, "ready, go, sort them!" how would do it as fast as possible? We will teach you computer science algorithms for how to do this!
C13490: Putting Big Things in Tiny Boxes: An Introduction to Compression
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
Robert Cunningham,
Eric Zhang
You take a photo on your iPhone X's 12MP camera; that's 12 million pixels! This is roughly 36 MB of data -- but it only takes about 1 MB of space on your computer. How were you able to store the entire image in 1/36 of its actual size?
The magic: compression algorithms!
We will be discussing various techniques for the compression of data, starting from the basics (RLE) and ranging to lossless methods such as entropy encoding, LZW compression, and the Burrows-Wheeler Transform.
The last part of the class will be an exploration of compression methods for images, taking a look at some ad hoc approaches that we might try (8-bit graphics!). We'll then conclude with an in-depth examination of how modern lossy algorithms, like JPEG, are able to achieve ~20x compression ratios with no perceptible change in quality.
Prerequisites
Some familiarity with computer science or mathematics is encouraged, but not required.
The magic: compression algorithms!
We will be discussing various techniques for the compression of data, starting from the basics (RLE) and ranging to lossless methods such as entropy encoding, LZW compression, and the Burrows-Wheeler Transform.
The last part of the class will be an exploration of compression methods for images, taking a look at some ad hoc approaches that we might try (8-bit graphics!). We'll then conclude with an in-depth examination of how modern lossy algorithms, like JPEG, are able to achieve ~20x compression ratios with no perceptible change in quality.
Prerequisites
Some familiarity with computer science or mathematics is encouraged, but not required.
C13491: Lambda Calculus and Puzzles
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Hahn Lheem,
Eric Zhang
Lambda calculus: it's like "calculus" - except with more programming, and no calculus!
You can think of it as a super low-level functional programming language; all data is composed of functions (written with the letter λ), and by combining functions in various clever ways, we can actually perform any computation.
Learn about Alonzo Church's famous invention that rocked the foundations of computer science, and try your hand at solving programming puzzles in the language itself!
You can think of it as a super low-level functional programming language; all data is composed of functions (written with the letter λ), and by combining functions in various clever ways, we can actually perform any computation.
Learn about Alonzo Church's famous invention that rocked the foundations of computer science, and try your hand at solving programming puzzles in the language itself!
C13570: Image Convolution
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
Everardo Gonzalez
Come and learn how convolution makes images look all WeIRd and wACky! We'll touch on what convolution is good for, what it means mathematically, and how to apply it in software.
C13175: Introduction to UX/UI Design & Development
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Henry Keena
Come learn about the ins and outs of User Interface and User Experience design and development. Learn about the basics of human computer interactions, and how graphic design can be translated into code.
Prerequisites
General Computer Knowledge. Some - Minimal Programming Experience.
Prerequisites
General Computer Knowledge. Some - Minimal Programming Experience.
C13346: CS Buzzwords
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Patricia Gao,
Kelsey Merrill
AI! Neural Networks! Big Data! Internet of Things! Machine Learning! Blockchain! Deep Learning! Bitcoin! Lose your friends, but sound cool doing it! Also maybe learn a little bit about what these words mean.
C13441: Intro to Vim: Code as fast as you can think!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Milo Cress,
Robert Cunningham
Learn to use Vim, the lightning-fast text editor used by programmers everywhere. Vim allows you to code as fast as you can think with an extensive set of keybindings that feels like a language. It's unlike any text editor you've ever used--come experience it for yourself!
Prerequisites
Vim will be most useful to you if you need to write or edit code somewhat regularly.
Prerequisites
Vim will be most useful to you if you need to write or edit code somewhat regularly.
C13178: Introduction to Civic Hacking
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Albert Lee
We are currently in the midst of a watershed moment in history for governments across the world. YCombinator, the most prestigious incubator program for startups in the world, recently stated that one of their prime interests is in "Government 2.0" - the birth of companies that support the government with data and modern technology. Simultaneously, governments are at a race to leverage and develop new technologies to help their constituents with limited funds.
Get your foot in the door of this exciting time by taking Introduction to Civic Hacking. Taught by an engineer who has worked for multiple government institutions, you will pick up the basics of civic hacking by learning the fundamentals of RFPs, programming automated pipelines, ETL workflows, and much more. Use this class to jumpstart launching your own Government 2.0 startup or your civic engineering career!
Get your foot in the door of this exciting time by taking Introduction to Civic Hacking. Taught by an engineer who has worked for multiple government institutions, you will pick up the basics of civic hacking by learning the fundamentals of RFPs, programming automated pipelines, ETL workflows, and much more. Use this class to jumpstart launching your own Government 2.0 startup or your civic engineering career!
C13376: Introduction to Blockchains
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
Shashvat Srivastava,
Wayne Zhao
Learn about how blockchains and cryptocurrencies work from an expert. Will start by teaching some basic cryptography, then will move onto detailed explanations on how blockchains and cryptocurrencies work. You will learn a lot more than the generic descriptions you might find in the news!
Prerequisites
Basic math and computer science
Prerequisites
Basic math and computer science
C13398: make a meme-y/spicy/[your favorite adjective] website!!
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Jessica Ding,
Katherine Huang
We'll get you started with the basics of HTML and CSS—the programming languages of the web—and you define the rest. Make a website (a real website, on the Internet, with a URL!!) for yourself, your dog, your mom, your business, your favorite meme, or anything in between!
This will be a hands-on, creative class. What you build is up to you, and we'll have several co-teachers to troubleshoot any errors, help you brainstorm ideas, and turn you into an HTML/CSS master once you start getting the hang of it! :D
This will be a hands-on, creative class. What you build is up to you, and we'll have several co-teachers to troubleshoot any errors, help you brainstorm ideas, and turn you into an HTML/CSS master once you start getting the hang of it! :D
C13487: Artificially Not-Very-Intelligent
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Hannah Gazdus,
Jenna Himawan
Everybody's talking about AI, ML, Deep Learning, etc. these days. However, most AIs aren't really that smart. Let's learn about AI that try to name paint colors, describe pokemon, create D&D spells, imitate Shakespeare, and write code! Let's learn about robots which "commit suicide" by driving into fountains!
C13596: Become a Cyber Prankster
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Noah Raby
In this modern age, cybersecurity is more important than ever. Staying safe from malicious code gets harder and harder with each passing moment. But why worry about that when you can prank your friend by making their Chrome shortcut shutdown their PC after 60 seconds? This class will go through some simple Windows (and maybe some Mac too) pranks that range from basic customization to minor programming.
C13560: How Do Computers Work?
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
Miles Dai
In high school, I was always told that there are ones and zeros inside my computer and that my computer uses something called transistors. And somehow, we can control this using programming languages. But how does this actually make a computer? How did we get from a bunch of electronic components to print("Hello world")? In this class, we will take a look at the field of computer architecture and explore the basic pathway starting from the electrons and ending with a computer processor.
Prerequisites
Used a computer before
Prerequisites
Used a computer before
C13149: Introduction to LaTeX: Impress Your Teachers With Pretty PSets!
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Amelia Cavallaro
Have you ever tried putting math symbols in a word doc? Ever craved that crisp "I'm a real nerd" look in your work? Ever wanted to publish a research paper that'll win you worldwide acclaim? Well, I can't help with any of that, but I can show you how to start with LaTeX, a common typesetting language for getting pretty symbols like $$\pi$$ and $$A \nRightarrow B$$ into your papers.
C13156: Getting the Gist of GIS aka The Magic of Maps
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Valerie Chen,
Natasha Stamler
Big data! Data visualization! Those are some spicy keywords. Come have a non-programmer show you some cool ways to map large quantities of spatial data and solve complex, real-world problems.
There will be minimal to no coding. The goal of this class is to show you how to approach problems across locations and communicate your solution, while providing you with the resources to continue exploring for yourself. Laptop recommended for self-guided exploration at end of class but not necessary for main course material. Slides will be sent out so you can access resources in the future.
Ft. lots of globe stress balls and some rad geographically-inspired t-shirts. Puns are guaranteed, their quality is not.
There will be minimal to no coding. The goal of this class is to show you how to approach problems across locations and communicate your solution, while providing you with the resources to continue exploring for yourself. Laptop recommended for self-guided exploration at end of class but not necessary for main course material. Slides will be sent out so you can access resources in the future.
Ft. lots of globe stress balls and some rad geographically-inspired t-shirts. Puns are guaranteed, their quality is not.
C13420: Good, Bad, and Ugly: The C Programming Language Full!
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
Damian Barabonkov
A very brief run-through of the C programming language, showcasing its good aspects, bad aspects, and ugly aspects.
Prerequisites
Previous programming knowledge, Python for example. Knowledge of for loops, if statements, functions and other general basics.
Prerequisites
Previous programming knowledge, Python for example. Knowledge of for loops, if statements, functions and other general basics.
C13276: Wireshark Workshop
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Harvey Yee
This is a follow-up course to Promiscuous Mode-Network Protocol Analysis, Although it is not required for this course, you should have some basic understanding of network protocols. In this course, we will hone our knowledge and skills in understanding and decoding network traffic.
Come prepared to get a deep dive into network protocol analysis by looking at some interesting wireshark captures and having a discussion of some of the problems that we will uncover and solve.
Prerequisites
Promiscuous Mode-Network Protocol Analysis or equivalent...not absolutely required by it would be helpful...
Come prepared to get a deep dive into network protocol analysis by looking at some interesting wireshark captures and having a discussion of some of the problems that we will uncover and solve.
Prerequisites
Promiscuous Mode-Network Protocol Analysis or equivalent...not absolutely required by it would be helpful...
C13620: Stalinsort and other bad sorting algorithms
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Anders Olsen,
Colin Tang
Stalinsort is a unique sorting algorithm in two ways: 1. It started as a joke. 2. It has a runtime of $$O(n^{3/2}),$$ different from any sorting algorithm listed on Wikipedia. Along with this algorithm as the crux of the class, various good (like the aptly named quicksort) and bad (like the aptly named stoogesort) sorting algorithms will be covered and used by the students to arrange themselves in particular orders.
C13611: Intro to Circuits and Coding with Arduino Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Sarah Flanagan,
Temitope Olabinjo
Learn the basics of building a circuit on a breadboard. Program an LED light to blink in time with music using an Arduino. An Arduino is a small device that allows your code to come alive on your circuit. No prior knowledge of circuits, programming, or Arduino is required for this class.
C13185: Intro to Machine Learning Full!
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
Brian Hoh,
Julia Wang
We will be giving a quick overview of what machine learning is and the applications it's useful for! We'll teach some basic linear algebra and other mathematical concepts that are essential for building machine learning models.
Prerequisites
Some familiarity with linear algebra
Prerequisites
Some familiarity with linear algebra
C13391: Code Golf: How to Write Bad Code Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Andy Tockman,
Brian Xiao
Tired of writing readable, efficient, well-commented code all the time? Try code golf! The goal is to solve a certain task in as few key"strokes" as possible, resulting in creative solutions where code that takes a thousand times as long is perfectly acceptable if it saves even a single character.
We'll mostly be golfing solutions to a few problems in your language of choice, working together to try to get down to the shortest possible solution in each language.
Computers will be provided.
Prerequisites
Familiarity with at least one programming language.
We'll mostly be golfing solutions to a few problems in your language of choice, working together to try to get down to the shortest possible solution in each language.
Computers will be provided.
Prerequisites
Familiarity with at least one programming language.
C13469: Sines, Signals, and Sick Beats
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Brian Mills,
Venkat Sivaraman
Did you know that math and algorithms form a huge part of the music industry? This class will introduce you to the fundamental math concepts behind autotune, Shazam, synthesizers, Spotify, DJ apps, rhythm games, and more. We'll use interactive examples to look at the connection between triangles and sound waves, and build up some essential signal processing tools that every good music producer should know. But this isn't just for aspiring musicians - the concepts you'll learn in this class are applicable all over science and engineering!
Prerequisites
Basic geometry and trigonometry (sin/cos functions)
Prerequisites
Basic geometry and trigonometry (sin/cos functions)
C13545: The Secrets of Turing Full!
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
Max Guo,
Haneul Shin
Alan Turing was a revolutionary thinker in the field of computer science. In this course, we explore the various ideas and projects that Turing was involved in throughout his life, including Turing Machines, the Enigma, and the Turing Test. Students will have the chance to design their own basic Turing Machines.
Prerequisites
There are no formal prerequisites, but mathematical maturity is recommended.
Prerequisites
There are no formal prerequisites, but mathematical maturity is recommended.
C13457: Quantum Computing for Dummies Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Brian Mills,
Venkat Sivaraman
Short intro to Quantum Computing and why everyone is so crazy about it. Goes over concepts behind superposition and entanglement.
Prerequisites
None!
Prerequisites
None!
C13278: How to Not Get Pwned
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Brian Chen,
Ashley Kim
The internet is a wonderful place, but also a place full of dangers. Learn how to use a computer and browse the internet without getting hax0red (or at least, make it much less likely). We'll talk about basic internet security, phishing, social engineering, password security, and anything else we have time for.
Warning: may induce paranoia around computers.
Warning: may induce paranoia around computers.
C13396: Making Software Hard(ly Work) Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Tareq El Dandachi,
Hannah Savoldy
You can find classes about how to make code more efficient everywhere, but not how to make it worse! This course will be a thorough introduction to the art of making everybody who reads your code burst into tears (perhaps from laughter) and hate your guts. Topics include:
• Identifying "Good Code" from what is so called "Bad Code"
• How to make your code readable (or not)
• De-optimising your code
• Living with errors as opposed to handling them
• Awesome Naming Nomenclature (including emojis for those Zoomers)
• Make your file size smaller
• Looking like a h4ck3r
• No OOPs only loops
• Esoteric Programming Languages (including LOLCODE, Chef, and TrumpScript)
• and actually applicable knowledge sprinkled throughout
Prerequisites
Prior coding experience is recommended, but not required.
• Identifying "Good Code" from what is so called "Bad Code"
• How to make your code readable (or not)
• De-optimising your code
• Living with errors as opposed to handling them
• Awesome Naming Nomenclature (including emojis for those Zoomers)
• Make your file size smaller
• Looking like a h4ck3r
• No OOPs only loops
• Esoteric Programming Languages (including LOLCODE, Chef, and TrumpScript)
• and actually applicable knowledge sprinkled throughout
Prerequisites
Prior coding experience is recommended, but not required.
C13377: Learn to Make Maps! Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Adriana Jacobsen
Come learn how to use QGIS software to make interesting, colorful, and informative maps! We will learn how to download and display data, how to create your own data layers to make your maps unique and personalized, and what components are needed for a clear, readable map. No previous experience with QGIS necessary--just an interest in maps or data visualization!
C13381: ‘Let’s Chance’ - Learn and Play with Probabilistic Coding in Scratch
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Manuj Dhariwal,
Shruti Dhariwal
Come and explore the new ‘Let’s Chance’ extension in Scratch (scratch.mit.edu), and tinker with ideas of probability and randomness by creating projects with an element of unpredictability! Using the extension’s new blocks, you can now create a virtual dice in Scratch with any number of sides—each side can be a sound, costume, text, number, or even some real world data. You can dynamically change the chance and likelihood of different outcomes, and make your projects react differently each time you roll one or more dice. Hook the extension with other Scratch extensions such as, Video Sensing, Music, or Text-to-Speech for lots of playful possibilities. Create projects like—chance-based games/stories/animations; generative art/text/music; interactive visualizations; data-based simulations; teaching a computer how to draw, and many others!
Prerequisites
Preferred some experience with Scratch (scratch.mit.edu), although not necessary
Prerequisites
Preferred some experience with Scratch (scratch.mit.edu), although not necessary
C13182: Introduction to Computer Science
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Lester Kim
This course will introduce different topics in computer science. We define what a computer is and describe its architecture. Then, we will explore how computers represent data. Eventually, we will discuss algorithms and conclude with a topic of the students' choice (e.g. artificial intelligence, quantum computing, cryptography, the Internet, the future of computing, virtual reality).
Prerequisites
High school algebra
Prerequisites
High school algebra
C13389: "Weird" Programming Languages, and Weird Programming Languages
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Andy Tockman,
Jennifer Xiong
If you've learned programming in the past year or so, chances are you know languages like Python, Java, or C. Even though they might look different, they all have essentially the same core philosophy. There's a lot more variety in programming languages than you might think!
For part of class, we'll cover languages with various different paradigms than the ones you might be familiar with, such as functional languages, Lisps, APLs, and assembly languages.
Then, we'll take a look at some truly "weird" languages, also known as esoteric programming languages, or esolangs. These are as varied as languages that only use 8 characters, two-dimensional languages, languages designed specifically to write code as short as possible, and much more.
Prerequisites
Familiarity with at least one programming language would be useful, though this is not a hard requirement.
For part of class, we'll cover languages with various different paradigms than the ones you might be familiar with, such as functional languages, Lisps, APLs, and assembly languages.
Then, we'll take a look at some truly "weird" languages, also known as esoteric programming languages, or esolangs. These are as varied as languages that only use 8 characters, two-dimensional languages, languages designed specifically to write code as short as possible, and much more.
Prerequisites
Familiarity with at least one programming language would be useful, though this is not a hard requirement.
C13651: iHack: pwning stuff for fun and profit Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Keanu Clark,
Jay Lang
Ever jailbroken your phone and been curious about the magic behind the scenes? Ever watched somebody 'hack into the mainframe' in the movies and dreamed of disabling enemy systems? Ever gotten an email from one particularly well-endowed Nigerian prince?
Alternatively, ever wanted to be a l33t h8x0r? Because you can do it too.
Join us for an hour of rapid fire hacking. We'll talk about how the computery stuff you use on the daily breaks, and instead of fixing it we'll use that borked behavior to cause *even more chaos*. We'll see how forgetting a line of code (looking at you, autocorrect) can open up a hole for us to hack into, talk about 'hollywood' vulnerabilities that we can remotely typety-type into, and yeet ourselves into iOS by screwing with some binary code.
We'll also be sharing lots of stupid memes, might accidentally blow up some virtual machines (that's why they're virtual, splash doesn't tolerate actual explosions i think), and might make a snack run if we're hungry. Come break things!!
Prerequisites
No programming experience necessary. Some might be nice to kinda appreciate the depth of the exploits we're screwing with, but primarily we expect an appreciation of dank memes ;)
Alternatively, ever wanted to be a l33t h8x0r? Because you can do it too.
Join us for an hour of rapid fire hacking. We'll talk about how the computery stuff you use on the daily breaks, and instead of fixing it we'll use that borked behavior to cause *even more chaos*. We'll see how forgetting a line of code (looking at you, autocorrect) can open up a hole for us to hack into, talk about 'hollywood' vulnerabilities that we can remotely typety-type into, and yeet ourselves into iOS by screwing with some binary code.
We'll also be sharing lots of stupid memes, might accidentally blow up some virtual machines (that's why they're virtual, splash doesn't tolerate actual explosions i think), and might make a snack run if we're hungry. Come break things!!
Prerequisites
No programming experience necessary. Some might be nice to kinda appreciate the depth of the exploits we're screwing with, but primarily we expect an appreciation of dank memes ;)
[Deprecated] Engineering
E13379: The Science of Living in Space
Difficulty: **
Have you ever wanted to explore what it would be like to actually live in space? What is it like living in "zero" gravity? What would weightlessness do to your body? How would you feel locked up in a small space for months at a time? How does a Zero G ("Vomet Comet") flight work? Come learn about these challenges and more and get an insider's view of what being an astronaut is like.
E13439: Manufacturing Mania
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Amber Bick,
Jordan Wilke
I'm essentially boiling down 15 hours of lecture on fascinating manufacturing processes into ~one fun time~. In order to do this, I omit technical calculations and focus on concepts and qualities. If you enjoy the TV show "How It's Made," this is a great class for you. If you haven't seen this show, no worries, I'll get you hooked!
E13598: Spaghetti Marshmallow Design Challenge
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Raymond Bahng,
Brandon Pho
Build the highest tower possible with spaghetti noddles and marshmallows!
E13148: how 2 rocket
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Maddie Garcia,
Ethan Sit
how 2 become e l o n in under 1 hour
Prerequisites
algebra
Prerequisites
algebra
E13289: The Science of Phineas and Ferb
Difficulty: *
Mom, Phineas and Ferb have a class where students learn how to build like them! Well Ferb, I know what we're gonna do today; in this class, we'll watch an episode of Phineas and Ferb together and then build the invention in the episode! We'll discuss the science behind Phineas and Ferb's invention and different design considerations to make the best project ever!
One of our teachers is named Jeremy so you know we're legit. Wait, where's Perry?
Prerequisites
Must have watched at least 50 episodes of Phineas and Ferb (Just kidding, anyone is welcome! No knowledge of Phineas and Ferb is needed)
One of our teachers is named Jeremy so you know we're legit. Wait, where's Perry?
Prerequisites
Must have watched at least 50 episodes of Phineas and Ferb (Just kidding, anyone is welcome! No knowledge of Phineas and Ferb is needed)
E13442: How to Spot Planes!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Jay Hilton
Ever wondered what that plane is? Or how to spot a 737 from an A320, or vice versa? Stop by and take a look!
E13325: The Chemistry of Recycling Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Haley Beech,
David Lundberg
Learn about the life cycle of common polymer materials, novel recyclable materials, and the chemistry underlying these processes.
Prerequisites
Intro chemistry knowledge
Prerequisites
Intro chemistry knowledge
E13378: Why Humans Can't Live in Space (Yet)
Difficulty: **
Come learn about the effects of zero gravity on the human body! As we plan to travel to Mars and beyond, scientists are trying to figure out whether humans are capable of long-term flight and/or living on a different planet. We'll give you a crash course into how space affects human physiology, as well as countermeasures--like an exoskeleton!
Prerequisites
High School Biology
Prerequisites
High School Biology
E13194: Build An Animal
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
David Mazumder,
Thomas Xu
What are all those organs for, anyway? How do cells come together to form tissues with complex functions? Why do we need all this stuff? We'll answer these questions together from a functional, engineering perspective by designing an animal together. We'll start with a quick refresher of cell biology, identify some essential functions of an animal, and build up our animal's capabilities from cells -> tissues -> organs, covering topics from warmbloodedness to physiology and disease!
Prerequisites
Basic principles of cell biology, like DNA -> RNA -> protein, lipid membranes (though we'll conduct a lightning review of these topics together as well)
Prerequisites
Basic principles of cell biology, like DNA -> RNA -> protein, lipid membranes (though we'll conduct a lightning review of these topics together as well)
E13348: Learn Surface-Mount Soldering
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
Grace Cai,
Matthew Cox
Learn how to hand solder surface-mount components!
Practice soldering components ranging from about the size of a grain of rice to much smaller than a grain of rice. (Component sizes will be 1206 to 0402 for those who know what this means; if not, come and learn about surface-mount component packages!) At the end, you'll have a working circuit that lights up some lights!
Prerequisites
Should have experience with through-hole soldering
Practice soldering components ranging from about the size of a grain of rice to much smaller than a grain of rice. (Component sizes will be 1206 to 0402 for those who know what this means; if not, come and learn about surface-mount component packages!) At the end, you'll have a working circuit that lights up some lights!
Prerequisites
Should have experience with through-hole soldering
E13605: Intro to Chemical Engineering Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Alexander Liu,
Lily Zhang
It's easy to think of engineering as a super hands-on activity--mechanics working bandsaws, a string of connected breadboards, you name it. But there are plenty of engineering disciplines which require a more analytical approach. Chemical engineering is a premiere example - keeping a chemical plant running takes a huge amount of number crunching and modeling. Come learn about the basics of chemical engineering, some cool applications and research happening in the ChemE department at MIT, and see a real-world engineering problem worked through and analyzed.
Prerequisites
Calculus, knowledge of differential equations helpful but not required
Prerequisites
Calculus, knowledge of differential equations helpful but not required
E13666: Airport Operations Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Sophie Mori
Airports are complex places. Planes taking off and landing all the time, people moving from curb to luggage dropoff to security to gate to waiting area to plane. The busiest airports keep getting busier, and congestion and expansion become concerns. Come learn about airside and landside operations and what thoughts go into designing new airports!
This is similar to last year's class, but there will also be new material and topics.
Prerequisites
A curiosity for how airports work!
This is similar to last year's class, but there will also be new material and topics.
Prerequisites
A curiosity for how airports work!
E13347: Electric Propulsion for Modern Spacecraft
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
Naylah Canty
An overview of electric propulsion systems suited for deep space missions such as the Hall Thruster, Ion Spray Thruster, Solar Sail, and Magneto Plasma Dynamic (MPD) Thruster. This class will give you a basic understanding on how electromagnetic principles let new age propulsion systems generate thrust in the vacuum of space. You will also get to create a mini Solar Sail of your own!
E13683: FUNdamentals of Cave Rescue Full!
Difficulty: ****
Teachers:
Riley Drake,
Sterling Harper
When a group of people get stuck in a cave, how do you get them out? We'll discuss basic principles of cave safety, cave rescue, learn some useful knots and hauling systems and try them out in various scenarios. This course won't make you qualified to rescue someone in a cave.
E13603: Probabilistic Inference and Bayesian Filters
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
Ashay Athalye,
Isabelle Liu
Sensors are noisy. The world is full of data and events that we want to measure and track, but we cannot rely on sensors to give us perfect information. My kitchen scale gives me different readings if I weigh the same object twice.
In simple cases the solution is obvious. If my scale gives slightly different readings I can just take a few readings and average them. Or I can get a more accurate scale. But what happens if the sensor is very noisy, or if data collection is difficult? We may be trying to track the movement of an aircraft or may want to create an autopilot for a self-driving car, both of which require using a lot of information from sensors.
This class will be an introduction to how to solve these sorts of filtering problems - where we make sense of the noisy data in a smart way. We'll start with an introduction to probability and then derive the intuition behind how inference works. We'll then derive the basics behind Kalman and Bayesian filters to understand how they blend our noisy and limited knowledge of how a system behaves with the noisy and limited sensor readings to produce the best possible estimate of the state of a system. You'll learn the basics of how planes, self-driving cars, drones, and other systems localize themselves!
Prerequisites
Comfortable with Algebra; Have been introduced to a little bit of probability before
In simple cases the solution is obvious. If my scale gives slightly different readings I can just take a few readings and average them. Or I can get a more accurate scale. But what happens if the sensor is very noisy, or if data collection is difficult? We may be trying to track the movement of an aircraft or may want to create an autopilot for a self-driving car, both of which require using a lot of information from sensors.
This class will be an introduction to how to solve these sorts of filtering problems - where we make sense of the noisy data in a smart way. We'll start with an introduction to probability and then derive the intuition behind how inference works. We'll then derive the basics behind Kalman and Bayesian filters to understand how they blend our noisy and limited knowledge of how a system behaves with the noisy and limited sensor readings to produce the best possible estimate of the state of a system. You'll learn the basics of how planes, self-driving cars, drones, and other systems localize themselves!
Prerequisites
Comfortable with Algebra; Have been introduced to a little bit of probability before
E13223: Computer-Aided Design: Make Cool Stuff! Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Nine Morch,
Christian de Weck
In this class students will be given a crash course in how to use CAD to sketch a shape in 2D and then from that point create a 3D model of an Object. There will initially be a demo tutorial and then students will be free to attempt their own 3D object. No previous experienced encouraged!
Prerequisites
None
Prerequisites
None
E13667: The Airline Industry
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Sophie Mori
Everyone has their ideas on when to buy the cheapest tickets. But how does ticket pricing actually work? Come learn about airline markets, how airlines make money, the theory behind ticket pricing, and more!
Prerequisites
We will be talking about some basic economic concepts in this class. It would be useful to understanding microeconomic supply and demand concepts, but it is not entirely necessary.
Prerequisites
We will be talking about some basic economic concepts in this class. It would be useful to understanding microeconomic supply and demand concepts, but it is not entirely necessary.
E13295: Robot Fight Club Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Joules Ferguson,
Lacthu Vu
In which we prepare for the arrival of our robot overlords in the robocalypse. Learn how to design and build a beetle-weight battlebot, and fight against other robots!
E13359: Where am I? An introduction to localization techniques used for autonomous robotic navigation
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
Marco Nocito
Ever wonder how a robot senses and navigates its surroundings? You've come to the right place! This course provides a look at a few of the ways robotic systems collect and process data to move around unknown spaces. Topics covered include computer vision, odometry, commonly used sensors (LIDAR/IR, IMU, motor encoders, etc), Kalman filters, and more. Don't know what any of that is? Perfect! I'll teach you.
The course will also cover some robotics control theory, namely PID loops and pathfinding/motion profiling using splines.
Lastly, for fun, I'll talk a little bit about six-axis robotic articulators, their uses, how they're modeled in industry, and the math/computer science behind how they work.
Prerequisites
A basic understanding of trigonometry, derivatives, integrals, and probability is preferred.
The course will also cover some robotics control theory, namely PID loops and pathfinding/motion profiling using splines.
Lastly, for fun, I'll talk a little bit about six-axis robotic articulators, their uses, how they're modeled in industry, and the math/computer science behind how they work.
Prerequisites
A basic understanding of trigonometry, derivatives, integrals, and probability is preferred.
E13153: Fuel Cells and the Hydrogen Economy
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Andrew Lopreiato
Are you interested in renewable energy? Saving the world? Cool technology? The ~future~? Are you curious about where you can get a hydrogen-powered car (yes, they do make those) and whether you should? Come learn about fuel cells and why some people think they might solve all of our problems. We’ll cover the basics of how they work and what their different applications are. We’ll do this in context of the difficult logistics of creating an entirely new energy infrastructure that won’t destroy the planet but also won’t crash and burn and fail. We’ll look at where we are today with fuel cells, what they could do in the future, and their advantages and disadvantages in different scenarios.
Prerequisites
Basic chemistry
Prerequisites
Basic chemistry
E13515: How Modern Batteries Work Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Isaac Metcalf,
Keith Phuthi
A survey of how batteries work with a particular focus on how the modern batteries in your phones, laptops and electric vehicles work.
Prerequisites
Basic chemistry
Prerequisites
Basic chemistry
E13226: Crazy about Lasers
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Katia Shtyrkova
Intro into the physics and design of lasers and laser systems; overview of various types of lasers; common and novel laser applications, every-day lasers and one-of-a-kind laser systems.
The first half of the class will be spent on basic laser physics and understanding of what makes lasers different from LEDs and other light sources. The second half of the class will be spent on learning about traditional and novel laser applications. We will finish with a demo of a small lasercom system.
The first half of the class will be spent on basic laser physics and understanding of what makes lasers different from LEDs and other light sources. The second half of the class will be spent on learning about traditional and novel laser applications. We will finish with a demo of a small lasercom system.
E13496: Introduction to Redstone Engineering Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Alyssa Spencer,
Janice Tjan
Redstone. It seems to be everywhere in mines, but the stacks of red dust just sit in a chest somewhere, forgotten about. Maybe you thought about building something with it, but anything more than a door with a button seemed like a daunting task. This class is to provide an introduction into redstone to the absolute beginner, and hopefully make building machines less intimidating.
Prerequisites
Knowledge of Minecraft
Prerequisites
Knowledge of Minecraft
E13561: The Future of Meat? 🐮 🍖 🥩
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Ronit Langer,
Adil Yusuf
Have you heard of Impossible Burger or Beyond Meat? These are some recently developed plant-based meats that are becoming really popular because they look and taste just like traditional meat. This is exciting because the current agriculture system has a number of problems: ~15% of global emissions, uses a substantial amount of antibiotics, and is very inefficient. Plant-based meats and cultured meats (i.e. meat cells grown in tanks) present a promising solution to feeding the nearly ~10 billion people living on Earth in 2050. This course will explore the science, policy, and culture of these new technologies.
Prerequisites
🧬 Intro Biology (advised)
Prerequisites
🧬 Intro Biology (advised)
E13401: Everything you want to know about nuclear weapons
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Isaac Meyer,
Patrick White
Do you want to know how nuclear bombs work? Are you curious why centrifuges are so important in international diplomacy? Did you know that a single nuclear weapon can explode with the same energy as all explosives used in World War 2 combined? Why should we care about countries getting nuclear weapons, anyways?
In this course, we'll review the history of nuclear weapons, talk about the art and science of designing them, and see what the effects these weapons have had on the world. We'll also cover the current state of nuclear weapons and what you should know about modern scientific and political discussions about them. By the end of this class you'll know how to design a nuclear weapon but also understand the human risks and costs.
Prerequisites
Basic conceptual understanding of chemistry and physics.
In this course, we'll review the history of nuclear weapons, talk about the art and science of designing them, and see what the effects these weapons have had on the world. We'll also cover the current state of nuclear weapons and what you should know about modern scientific and political discussions about them. By the end of this class you'll know how to design a nuclear weapon but also understand the human risks and costs.
Prerequisites
Basic conceptual understanding of chemistry and physics.
E13272: Space Exploration Full!
Difficulty: *
Have you ever looked into the night sky and wondered what was out there? Come learn how to explore the cosmos! Hear from a group of aerospace engineers at MIT working on various topics in space exploration including satellite engineering, space telescopes, and the effects of the space environment on the human body.
E13400: Chernobyl: Fact and Fiction
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Sterling Harper,
Patrick White
The 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident was one of the largest and most expensive disasters in human history. The accident was a combination of human, political, and technical failures - resulting in the permanent evacuation of over 1000 square miles of land around the reactors and radioactive contamination of thousands of people. The HBO mini series Chernobyl recently portrayed the story of the disaster but did you ever wonder how accurate the TV series is? We'll talk about the real science and engineering behind the Chernobyl nuclear accident, how the accident happened at Chernobyl, and talk about what the HBO mini series may have gotten right or wrong! We'll also discuss why an accident like Chernobyl couldn't happen in the United States and the Chernobyl site is like today - over 30 years after the accident.
Prerequisites
Basic understanding of chemistry and physics
Prerequisites
Basic understanding of chemistry and physics
Humanities
H13146: Irish Presence in America
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
H. Alexander Chen
The Irish Americans: This lecture will address the influence of the Irish diaspora in America. The lecture begins with the mass immigration caused by the Great Famine in Ireland and examines the impacts and contributions of those Irish immigrants in America. It will assess how Irish Americans build their Irish identity in America following the mass migration and the ways which identity structures are affected by migration and exile. Briefly, the lecture will discuss Irish Americans' political influence, towards the U.S. and Ireland.
Prerequisites
None. However, students who have taken "Irish Presence in America" through HSSP should not register this course.
Prerequisites
None. However, students who have taken "Irish Presence in America" through HSSP should not register this course.
H13427: Words. Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Luisa Apolaya Torres,
Ari Xie
Have you ever thought--Oh! I cannot write poetry? Poetry is hard? Poetry is something that doesn't really have a formula hence...
Then this is the class for you. I hope to teach everyone a bit of why poetry is so beautiful, so flexible, and a great medium to express one's identity in such a unique way. Bring your big brains and hearts!
Prerequisites
An open mind to a little bit of vulnerability.
Then this is the class for you. I hope to teach everyone a bit of why poetry is so beautiful, so flexible, and a great medium to express one's identity in such a unique way. Bring your big brains and hearts!
Prerequisites
An open mind to a little bit of vulnerability.
H13443: An 'Abrahamic' Empire: The Philosophical and Theological Foundations of the pre-Modern Ottoman State
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Benjamin Church,
Matt Yarnall
I have a chapter of my senior thesis due Monday I am grinding on, so I will submit the course abstract columbus day weekend.
Prerequisites
None
Prerequisites
None
H13531: What is Truth?
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Hizami Anuar,
Amena Khatun
Why is philosophy important? Can we truly know anything in philosophy? What is truth?
Is philosophy just asking questions that are impossible to answer?
In this course, we’ll take a look at why fields such as science and mathematics seem to be able to progress more easily than the field of philosophy, and what steps we can take to turn the seemingly subjective nature of philosophy into something more concrete and objective.
Is philosophy just asking questions that are impossible to answer?
In this course, we’ll take a look at why fields such as science and mathematics seem to be able to progress more easily than the field of philosophy, and what steps we can take to turn the seemingly subjective nature of philosophy into something more concrete and objective.
H13161: METROPOLIS (1927)
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Tobit Glenhaber
In this class, we will watch the science fiction masterpiece, Metropolis. Created in 1927, this movie created many aspects which are still in science fiction today, like mad scientists and unsubtle parallels to modern times. The practical effects still hold up, and the over the top acting is fun to watch too! Come if you have any interest in science fiction, film history, or just want to have a good time!
Note: Metropolis (1927) is not rated, and has some mature content
Note: Metropolis (1927) is not rated, and has some mature content
H13356: What is the imagination? (Or, the Philosophy of Imagination)
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Jeremy Freudberg,
Peter Klapes
In this course, we'll talk about the philosophy of imagination as it relates to thinking and seeing and understanding and, generally, interpreting the world, our lives, our relations with others, among other things.
H13147: Ireland Uncovered
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
H. Alexander Chen
"History is a nightmare, from which I am trying to awake", words of James Joyce. One rebellion after another, Irish people had struggled over centuries seeking independence from a history of colonization and conquest. This lecture uncovers this dark side of Irish history and examines the revolutions and rebellions that led to the independent Republic of Ireland, today. The lecture begins with introducing Irish nationalist movements from the Era of Vikings to 1800s, assessing the historical and cultural background that contributed to Irish rebellions. The lecture emphasizes the Easter Rising of 1916 and the national movements followed. The lecture ends with a brief overview of the causes, plots, and future of The Troubles (nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland).
Prerequisites
None. However, students who have taken similar courses in HSSP should not enroll in this course.
Prerequisites
None. However, students who have taken similar courses in HSSP should not enroll in this course.
H13473: Philosophy and Its Role in the Sciences
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Emily Flahive
In a previous class, a scientist asked a great question: "Why study philosophy for its own sake, when we have so many other methods of finding answers?"
This class aims to introduce you to (or re-acquaint you with) philosophy through that question, and a few others:
- What is the usefulness of philosophy?
- Are philosophers just unrealistic, impractical dreamers who have nothing to do all day but brood and think and write and make fun of each other?
- Will philosophy just make me (more) depressed?
- Why does philosophy kind of remind me of programming in some odd way??
- Why is Rousseau low-key beautiful and sassy and amazing????
(Bonus points if you spot what's "wrong"/odd about the title of the course.)
This class aims to introduce you to (or re-acquaint you with) philosophy through that question, and a few others:
- What is the usefulness of philosophy?
- Are philosophers just unrealistic, impractical dreamers who have nothing to do all day but brood and think and write and make fun of each other?
- Will philosophy just make me (more) depressed?
- Why does philosophy kind of remind me of programming in some odd way??
- Why is Rousseau low-key beautiful and sassy and amazing????
(Bonus points if you spot what's "wrong"/odd about the title of the course.)
H13532: Morality and the Trolley Problem
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Hizami Anuar,
Amena Khatun
Imagine there’s a runaway trolley, with malfunctioning brakes, about to crash into five people. The only way to save those five people is to pull a lever that will divert the trolley onto another set of tracks, where it will crash into one person instead. Should you pull the lever to save more people?
Now imagine you’re a skilled surgeon in a hospital, and you have five patients who suffer from different malfunctioning organs. The hospital is out of organs, and the only way to save them is to forcibly transplant all five organs from one of your other, perfectly healthy patients, killing him. Should you perform the transplant to save more people?
In this course, we’ll examine the Trolley Problem and several similar thought experiments to get a greater understanding on the question of morality.
Now imagine you’re a skilled surgeon in a hospital, and you have five patients who suffer from different malfunctioning organs. The hospital is out of organs, and the only way to save them is to forcibly transplant all five organs from one of your other, perfectly healthy patients, killing him. Should you perform the transplant to save more people?
In this course, we’ll examine the Trolley Problem and several similar thought experiments to get a greater understanding on the question of morality.
H13331: Do the Write Thing!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Raquel G,
Nory Klop-Packel
The Write Thing is where you will learn to design delightful dialogue, write wacky worldbuilding, create cool characters, and astound your readers with awesome opening scenes. We will discuss a variety of strategies to enhance your writing, and everyone will have a chance to share a newly-crafted short story with their peers at the end. Bring a laptop if you prefer — we’ll provide the paper, pencils, and snacks!
H13634: Topics in Philosophy
Difficulty: ****
Teachers:
Keanu Clark,
Ethan Nevidomsky
An introduction to philosophy from Plato to Hegel
H13507: Were all the Ancient Greeks and Romans really gay?
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Sasha Barish
Is it true that being bisexual was the norm in Ancient Greece? Can we and should we label historical figures as gay, bi, trans, etc. if they lived in an era that didn't have those concepts? What kind of documents from the ancient Mediterranean world do we have about LGBT+ people?
In this class we'll read some Greek and Roman primary sources together, ranging from accounts of gender dysphoria to lesbian love poems to the stigma of being a bottom. We'll discuss what these texts can tell us about how the writers and the cultures they lived in thought about same-gender attraction and gender nonconformity. In the process we'll have opportunities to think about identity, the purpose of connecting the ancient to the modern, the relationship between texts and the societies they come from, and the interpretive biases of scholars.
Prerequisites
No preparation necessary: just come in ready to read and talk! All texts will be read in English translation. Please note that this class will include academic and mature discussion of sexually explicit material.
In this class we'll read some Greek and Roman primary sources together, ranging from accounts of gender dysphoria to lesbian love poems to the stigma of being a bottom. We'll discuss what these texts can tell us about how the writers and the cultures they lived in thought about same-gender attraction and gender nonconformity. In the process we'll have opportunities to think about identity, the purpose of connecting the ancient to the modern, the relationship between texts and the societies they come from, and the interpretive biases of scholars.
Prerequisites
No preparation necessary: just come in ready to read and talk! All texts will be read in English translation. Please note that this class will include academic and mature discussion of sexually explicit material.
H13193: How to Survive a Public Faming
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
Lilly Chin,
Tara Liu
"In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes" -- Andy Warhol, 1968
50 years later, we definitely see that Warhol was right with the heavy proliferation of short-lived Vine, TikTok and Instagram stars. But what is the actual lived experience of going viral? How does it compare with our understanding of traditional celebrity culture?
In this class, we're going to be discussing "fame ephemera" -- people who gain explosive meme appeal and are then quickly forgotten. We'll go over current debates in celebrity studies, use a case study from Jeopardy to analyze how fame works, and close with a discussion on celebrity culture in our own lives.
Prerequisites
Content warning: we will be discussing Internet bullying and harassment, which will include strong graphic language. This course will be more difficult than you might expect for a class about memes. I will be asking you to think deeply about Internet pop culture in ways that you might have only thought applied to books, poems, and other literature.
50 years later, we definitely see that Warhol was right with the heavy proliferation of short-lived Vine, TikTok and Instagram stars. But what is the actual lived experience of going viral? How does it compare with our understanding of traditional celebrity culture?
In this class, we're going to be discussing "fame ephemera" -- people who gain explosive meme appeal and are then quickly forgotten. We'll go over current debates in celebrity studies, use a case study from Jeopardy to analyze how fame works, and close with a discussion on celebrity culture in our own lives.
Prerequisites
Content warning: we will be discussing Internet bullying and harassment, which will include strong graphic language. This course will be more difficult than you might expect for a class about memes. I will be asking you to think deeply about Internet pop culture in ways that you might have only thought applied to books, poems, and other literature.
H13553: J-Horror: Dead Wet Girls & Monstrous Mothers
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Jennifer Yoo
No Japanese horror or ghost film is complete without its haunting woman specter, dating back from as early as the time of Akira Kurosawa to as recent as this year's latest Sadako film. Join us and find out why the monstrous feminine has dominated J-Horror cinema, and why some of the most iconic women figures of the genre are the way they are.
H13189: Crash Course on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Hope Dargan
Why does the Israeli-Palestinian conflict come up in the news so often? What's going on in the Gaza strip and the West Bank? How did the conflict start? Will it end? Come learn and discuss these and other important questions!
Prerequisites
Commitment to respectful participation and discussion. Smiles welcome.
Prerequisites
Commitment to respectful participation and discussion. Smiles welcome.
H13684: The Art of Riddling
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Shardul Chiplunkar,
Rujul Gandhi
You're in the palace of an Ancient and Powerful King, and the Master of Knowledge has just asked you an artful riddle to test your worth. You're smart: you deliver an impeccable answer in seconds. Of course, it is but courteous to return the exchange by posing a riddle of your own... oh. You don't know any. Now what?
It has to be challenging, but solvable. It has to be majestically poetic, but not cringy. Its lines should resound in the halls and minds of the palace and thrust an irresistibly fascinating mystery upon them.
Come learn the Art of Riddling.
It has to be challenging, but solvable. It has to be majestically poetic, but not cringy. Its lines should resound in the halls and minds of the palace and thrust an irresistibly fascinating mystery upon them.
Come learn the Art of Riddling.
H13355: Does God exist?
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Jeremy Freudberg,
Peter Klapes
In this discussion-based course, we will explore the different arguments regarding the existence of God.
H13655: Introduction in ci (詞), poetry in Song dynasty
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
Ting-Chun Lin
**Able to read and speak Chinese.**
Want to learn about the poetry in Song dynasty? We will be reading different poetries in Song, learn about its format, and talk about the stories of those poets.
Prerequisites
Able to read and speak Chinese. (We will provide pinyin.) (I'm sorry but this is the requirement)
Want to learn about the poetry in Song dynasty? We will be reading different poetries in Song, learn about its format, and talk about the stories of those poets.
Prerequisites
Able to read and speak Chinese. (We will provide pinyin.) (I'm sorry but this is the requirement)
H13543: We Are What We Speak: How We Make Language and Language Makes Us Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Paolo Adajar,
Kate Yuan
Interested at all about words, language, and how we communicate? In this class, we'll talk about ideas like the size of vocabularies, the history of words and languages themselves, and the interactions between language and culture. We'll have some interactive games and activities to learn more about how we understand and use language.
H13533: Omniscience and Free Will Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Hizami Anuar,
Amena Khatun
Think you know everything? Then you might be omniscient (or maybe a little overconfident).
What is omniscience? What is free will? Can omniscience and free will coexist?
In this course, we’ll be discussing various definitions of omniscience and free will to find definitions that are compatible.
We’ll also discuss philosophical paradoxes and puzzles such as Newcomb’s Paradox and Kavka’s Toxin Puzzle in order to help shape our understanding of omniscience and free will.
What is omniscience? What is free will? Can omniscience and free will coexist?
In this course, we’ll be discussing various definitions of omniscience and free will to find definitions that are compatible.
We’ll also discuss philosophical paradoxes and puzzles such as Newcomb’s Paradox and Kavka’s Toxin Puzzle in order to help shape our understanding of omniscience and free will.
H13631: How to Sound Like an Expert
Difficulty: *
Sounding like an expert is a highly important part of all parts of life. In this course, you too can sound like an expert in all things, whether or not you actually are. Seriousness not included.
Prerequisites
Sense of humor Proficiency in everything
Prerequisites
Sense of humor Proficiency in everything
H13534: The Greater Good Game
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Hizami Anuar,
Amena Khatun
Long ago, Blaise Pascal posited a wager that supposedly proved that, whether or not God exists, it is infinitely advantageous to believe that God does exist. Yet, a similar wager supposedly proves that it is infinitely advantageous to believe that God does not exist. So which wager is correct?
In this philosophy-based course, we’ll examine these wagers, and then explore the greater good and how it relates to the existence of God, heaven, and hell.
In this philosophy-based course, we’ll examine these wagers, and then explore the greater good and how it relates to the existence of God, heaven, and hell.
H13537: Sorites Paradox, and Related Thought Experiments Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Hizami Anuar,
Amena Khatun
Suppose I have a heap of sand. If I take away a grain of sand, it’s still a heap. If I take away another grain of sand, it’s still a heap. So if I continue taking away grains of sand until there’s no more, do I still have a heap of sand?
The Sorites Paradox, also known as the heap problem, continues to puzzle scientists and philosophers alike. 100 degrees is hot. 99 degrees is hot. 98 degrees is hot. At what temperature does it stop being hot, and why?
Several thought experiments related to the heap problem will be discussed regarding topics such as shipbuilding, cyborgs, and unexpected executions.
The Sorites Paradox, also known as the heap problem, continues to puzzle scientists and philosophers alike. 100 degrees is hot. 99 degrees is hot. 98 degrees is hot. At what temperature does it stop being hot, and why?
Several thought experiments related to the heap problem will be discussed regarding topics such as shipbuilding, cyborgs, and unexpected executions.
H13645: How to Study Abroad without Dying
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Kelsey Becker
Ever wonder what it's like to live abroad? Learn the do's and don'ts of studying abroad including what to pack, what to expect, and how not to die.
H13266: Random Facts about Communist Countries
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Saranesh Prembabu
Did you know that Fidel Castro's favourite cow holds the world record in milk yield on a single day? That Burkina Faso vaccinated 2.5 million children in one week under Marxist rule? That an interview broadcast on Soviet TV revealed, with evidence, that Lenin was actually a mushroom?
Come learn about intriguing things that happened in the communist world that you'd never find in a history book!
This class does not endorse any political ideology, and won't be a comprehensive history lesson but just a bunch of miscellaneous facts. Since we're at MIT, we'll be particularly interested scientific/technical topics among others.
Prerequisites
None, but a standard knowledge of 20th century history/geography may make it more entertaining
Come learn about intriguing things that happened in the communist world that you'd never find in a history book!
This class does not endorse any political ideology, and won't be a comprehensive history lesson but just a bunch of miscellaneous facts. Since we're at MIT, we'll be particularly interested scientific/technical topics among others.
Prerequisites
None, but a standard knowledge of 20th century history/geography may make it more entertaining
H13436: The Apotheosis of Captain Cook Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Benjamin Church,
Matt Yarnall
On the 17 of January, 1779, the sails of The Resolution peaked above the eastern horizon of Kealakekua bay, Hawaii. At her helm was James Cook, an industrious British explorer searching for the western route to Asia. At the time of Cook’s arrival, the Polynesian natives of Kealakekua were joyously assembled on the beach–in the midst of celebrating their annual Makahiki festival honoring the sea god Lono. When Cook landed, he was celebrated by the natives as the god Lono: he was draped in fine red fabrics (the color of Polynesian divinity); prostrated to and given sacrifices of fruit and roast pigs; and paraded around the island while the Hawaiians chanted “Lono, Lono, Lono!”
…Or at least, that’s how the story goes. In his book, The Apotheosis of Captain Cook, Gananath Obeyesekere rejected the position held by “every biographer and historian of Cook” that the Englishman was interpreted as a Polynesian God. Obeyesekere argued that the sources supporting the apotheosis are weak at best, and are entangled with gossip and myth. Obeyesekere’s skepticism of apotheosis sources is not unfounded; in a 1982 lecture at Princeton University, Polynesian Historian Marshall Salhins declared that the Hawaiian king was so distraught at the departure of Cook that: “By all accounts, British as well as Hawaiian, they told him such sad stories as the death of kings as to force him to sit upon the ground” (so that Cook could leave). Obeyesekere notes that these “accounts” are a blatant plagiarism of Shakespeare’s Richard II, and therefore cannot be legitimate: “For god’s sake, let us sit upon the ground/ And tell sad stories of the death of kings (Richard II, act III scene II).”
This course will examine the historiographic debate surrounding the Apotheosis of Captain cook. The main historiographic raised by the ‘Apotheosis question’ is how to elucidate the beliefs of native peoples in the absence of a substantial source archive. The Polynesians left no written records from 1779; discerning whether they actually understood Captain Cook as Lono presents a serious problem for Polynesian historians. By analyzing the discourse surrounding the ‘Apotheosis question,’ we can make larger statements about historical methodology, epistemological frameworks, and interpretation of an incomplete source record.
Prerequisites
No prior knowledge of Polynesian history or historiographic theory required. Dank memes are also welcome and always encouraged.
…Or at least, that’s how the story goes. In his book, The Apotheosis of Captain Cook, Gananath Obeyesekere rejected the position held by “every biographer and historian of Cook” that the Englishman was interpreted as a Polynesian God. Obeyesekere argued that the sources supporting the apotheosis are weak at best, and are entangled with gossip and myth. Obeyesekere’s skepticism of apotheosis sources is not unfounded; in a 1982 lecture at Princeton University, Polynesian Historian Marshall Salhins declared that the Hawaiian king was so distraught at the departure of Cook that: “By all accounts, British as well as Hawaiian, they told him such sad stories as the death of kings as to force him to sit upon the ground” (so that Cook could leave). Obeyesekere notes that these “accounts” are a blatant plagiarism of Shakespeare’s Richard II, and therefore cannot be legitimate: “For god’s sake, let us sit upon the ground/ And tell sad stories of the death of kings (Richard II, act III scene II).”
This course will examine the historiographic debate surrounding the Apotheosis of Captain cook. The main historiographic raised by the ‘Apotheosis question’ is how to elucidate the beliefs of native peoples in the absence of a substantial source archive. The Polynesians left no written records from 1779; discerning whether they actually understood Captain Cook as Lono presents a serious problem for Polynesian historians. By analyzing the discourse surrounding the ‘Apotheosis question,’ we can make larger statements about historical methodology, epistemological frameworks, and interpretation of an incomplete source record.
Prerequisites
No prior knowledge of Polynesian history or historiographic theory required. Dank memes are also welcome and always encouraged.
H13426: All Roads Lead to Rome
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Jack Eastman,
Eric Wooten
The late Roman Republic was a hot mess of characters and outrageous stunts. Come see who was around then and why the Republic became the Empire. Can we get from Marius to Augustus in an hour? Who knows, but we'll try!
H13429: Intro to Marxism Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Julian Hernandez
In 1867, socialist revolutionary Karl Marx published the first volume of what would become Das Kapital; a foundational text in politics, economics, and philosophy that would have a drastic effect on history in the next century and become the most cited book in the social sciences published before 1950.
But what were Marx's real problems with capitalism? Do his warnings still hold water, or have they lost their relevance in the post-Cold War era? And what the heck is "historical materialism" anyways?
Join us as we analyze the main principles of Marxism in our classless Splash class!
But what were Marx's real problems with capitalism? Do his warnings still hold water, or have they lost their relevance in the post-Cold War era? And what the heck is "historical materialism" anyways?
Join us as we analyze the main principles of Marxism in our classless Splash class!
H13547: Neurodivergence
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Saranesh Prembabu
Neurological spectrum conditions, such as autism, Aspergers, etc. are growing more prevalent and well-represented in our society today. Come learn what these conditions are and what it is like to live with them, strengths and challenges facing the community, and how people on and off the spectrum can contribute to a neurodiverse world.
Prerequisites
None
Prerequisites
None
Lunch
L13679: Lunch Period
Difficulty: None
Teachers:
Enjoy a break for lunch with your friends! Please register for at least one lunch period on each day of the program.
L13678: Lunch Period
Difficulty: None
Teachers:
Enjoy a break for lunch with your friends! Please register for at least one lunch period on each day of the program.
Mathematics
M13206: Invent Your Own Math Models (For Beginners)
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Everardo Gonzalez,
Diego Monroy
Never been much of a math person? Want to know more than the talking heads on tv? Mathematics is bs, and this course will explain exactly why. This is a step-by-step introduction which should hopefully give you the skills to prove people wrong in arguments without just shouting them down.
M13382: Mathematical Modeling (In Brief)
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Kenneth Cox,
John Shackleton
How can we use math to make sense out of the world? In this class, we'll explore different techniques that data scientists use to model real-world scenarios, and we'll provide examples of these techniques in action. Specifically, we'll look at how we can use math to describe physical systems and disease transmission.
Prerequisites
You should be comfortable with using numbers, and have familiarity with some basic statistical concepts such as mean and range.
Prerequisites
You should be comfortable with using numbers, and have familiarity with some basic statistical concepts such as mean and range.
M13138: The Physics of Martial Arts
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Christopher Panebianco
This course aims to understand the principles of martial arts through the lens of physics and mathematics. The first half of the course will review basic concepts of physics and translate them into principles of martial arts. The second portion will be a hands-on martial arts class, where student can apply the principles they've learned in real self-defense techniques!
M13460: Bridges, Maps, and Networks: An Introduction to Graph Theory
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Jessica Oehrlein
Graph theory is a relatively young area of mathematics, focused on studying structures that show the relationships among people, places, or objects. We'll talk about two of the first key questions in graph theory, the Königsberg bridge problem and the Four Color Theorem. We'll also explore some applications of graph theory, such as modeling social networks or the spread of information or disease.
Prerequisites
Comfort with using variables, reading algebraic expressions, and probability. It's helpful but not necessary to have seen proofs by induction and/or contradiction.
Prerequisites
Comfort with using variables, reading algebraic expressions, and probability. It's helpful but not necessary to have seen proofs by induction and/or contradiction.
M13584: Bayes Theorem and How It Changed Statistics
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
Yoshihiro Saito,
Evan Tey
Thomas Bayes, a British minister and statistician, presented a theorem in the 18th century that came to be named after him. This theorem paved the way for a completely new understanding of statistics. Now, "Bayesian thought" appears nearly everywhere from social science, to physics, to machine learning!
Prerequisites
Some exposure to probability would be nice.
Prerequisites
Some exposure to probability would be nice.
M13219: A Grand Tour of Rotations, Quaternions, The Hopf Fibration and Spin with a side dish of Lie Groups
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
Benjamin Church,
Matt Yarnall
We will begin a fantastical journey into some of the most beautiful and useful geometric objects in modern mathematics, Lie groups, by asking the simple question: how do we represent rotations in 3D space. This question will lead us to define a strange algebraic object, the quaternions, investigate the mysterious topology of spheres living in four (and more) dimensions, marvel at a beautiful images of a sphere in dimension four decomposed into tori by the Hopf fibration, and finally discuss how these higher-dimensional geometric objects are, in fact, physically realized by spin in the strange world of quantum mechanics.
Prerequisites
Familiarity with complex numbers and matrices is a must. Knowing what a derivative is would also be helpful but is not required.
Prerequisites
Familiarity with complex numbers and matrices is a must. Knowing what a derivative is would also be helpful but is not required.
M13306: Introduction to diffusion and random walk: thanksgiving special
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Joey Gu,
Pedro de Souza
You cooked the perfect turkey last Thanksgiving. This year, you want it to be just as good, but the turkey you got is twice as heavy! How much longer should you cook it for, given the time it took to cook the smaller turkey last year? Protip: take this class to find out!
Diffusion is an intuitive phenomenon: in the absence of additional forces, stuff tends to move from where there is an abundance of it, to where there is a scarcity of it. Whether it concerns chemical species, thermal energy, or stock prices, diffusion underlies the understanding of innumerable science and engineering systems.
It is a particularly deep insight that diffusion arises purely from the stochastic motions of microscopic particles, which we can model mathematically using the random walk. We will use Microsoft Excel to investigate how a random walk can result in macroscopic diffusive spreading.
Scientists and engineers describe diffusion with Partial Differential Equations (PDEs), but we can already understand its important characteristics just using elementary algebra. In particular, we will discuss the “scaling” of diffusion processes: how does the time for diffusion depend on the dimensions of the physical domain of interest (e.g., this year’s turkey)?
Prerequisites
Algebra, e.g., plotting quadratic functions ($$f(x)=\frac{1}{2}x^2$$), using fractional powers $$8^{2/3}=?$$; some knowledge of working with formulae in Excel recommended
Diffusion is an intuitive phenomenon: in the absence of additional forces, stuff tends to move from where there is an abundance of it, to where there is a scarcity of it. Whether it concerns chemical species, thermal energy, or stock prices, diffusion underlies the understanding of innumerable science and engineering systems.
It is a particularly deep insight that diffusion arises purely from the stochastic motions of microscopic particles, which we can model mathematically using the random walk. We will use Microsoft Excel to investigate how a random walk can result in macroscopic diffusive spreading.
Scientists and engineers describe diffusion with Partial Differential Equations (PDEs), but we can already understand its important characteristics just using elementary algebra. In particular, we will discuss the “scaling” of diffusion processes: how does the time for diffusion depend on the dimensions of the physical domain of interest (e.g., this year’s turkey)?
Prerequisites
Algebra, e.g., plotting quadratic functions ($$f(x)=\frac{1}{2}x^2$$), using fractional powers $$8^{2/3}=?$$; some knowledge of working with formulae in Excel recommended
M13501: What is Topology?
Difficulty: ***
You've probably heard that topology is the branch of math where "you can't tell a coffee cup and donut apart". We'll start with a short discussion of different infinities, define homeomorphism (a tool for "telling things apart") and define homotopy equivalence (a more complicated tool for "telling things apart"). We'll be using quite a few symbols, but I'll define them as we go and you won't need to understand them to understand the geometric idea.
Prerequisites
Technically, none. But being comfortable with math is probably helpful.
Prerequisites
Technically, none. But being comfortable with math is probably helpful.
M13472: Network Models: Edgy Math
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Joseph Noszek
With the Internet, transportation, power grids, and more, the world is full of networks. They can get crazy, but there's a math for that and it's quite fun (at least in my opinion). Come jump into the world of networks.
M13162: Advanced Integration Techniques Part 1
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
Ahaan Rungta,
Jeffery Yu
Do you know how to do the following integrals?
$$\int_0^\infty x^{2019}e^{-2020x} dx$$
$$\int_{-\infty}^\infty x^2 e^{-x^2} dx$$
$$\int_0^1 x^{2019} (1-x)^{2020} dx$$
By the end of this class you'll know how to do these integrals and much more very quickly! We'll discuss gamma and beta functions and their applications to statistics and physics.
Note that parts 1 and 2 of Advanced Integration Techniques cover different material and are independent of each other. You can take one without the other, or take both together.
Prerequisites
You should be comfortable with taking derivatives and basic integrals involving exponential functions such as $$\int_0^\infty e^{-x} dx$$
$$\int_0^\infty x^{2019}e^{-2020x} dx$$
$$\int_{-\infty}^\infty x^2 e^{-x^2} dx$$
$$\int_0^1 x^{2019} (1-x)^{2020} dx$$
By the end of this class you'll know how to do these integrals and much more very quickly! We'll discuss gamma and beta functions and their applications to statistics and physics.
Note that parts 1 and 2 of Advanced Integration Techniques cover different material and are independent of each other. You can take one without the other, or take both together.
Prerequisites
You should be comfortable with taking derivatives and basic integrals involving exponential functions such as $$\int_0^\infty e^{-x} dx$$
M13263: Nonstandard analysis and the hyperreal numbers
Difficulty: **
Do priggish mathematicians shame you for writing down "handwavy" expressions like $$dy=f'(x)\, dx$$ ? Say no more. With the hyperreal numbers, you can use infinitesimals to do your calculus just like Newton and Leibniz in the days of yore.
Warning: there will be numbers $$\circledcirc>0$$ smaller than any positive real and $$\omega$$ bigger than any positive integer.
Prerequisites
You'll appreciate this course more if you already know what limits and derivatives are.
Warning: there will be numbers $$\circledcirc>0$$ smaller than any positive real and $$\omega$$ bigger than any positive integer.
Prerequisites
You'll appreciate this course more if you already know what limits and derivatives are.
M13393: What's a field? Basic Algebraic Structures
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Alex Dehnert,
Helen Read
What's a field and why are they so nice? We'll discuss that properties that define a field, and go over some examples and nonexamples.
(Fields are important in the field of algebra and are sets where addition/subtraction/mult/division work as you expect)
Prerequisites
Basic high school algebra, knowledge of complex numbers is helpful but not necessary
(Fields are important in the field of algebra and are sets where addition/subtraction/mult/division work as you expect)
Prerequisites
Basic high school algebra, knowledge of complex numbers is helpful but not necessary
M13164: Advanced Integration Techniques Part 2
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
Ahaan Rungta,
Jeffery Yu
Do you know how to do the following integrals:
$$\int_0^1 \frac{x^{2019}-1}{\log x} dx$$,
$$\int_{-\infty}^\infty \frac{\sin x}{x} dx$$,
$$\int_0^{\pi/2} \frac{1}{1+\sin x} dx$$?
By the end of this class you'll know how to do these integrals and much more! We'll discuss cool tricks like the Feynman technique and Weierstrass substitution.
Note that parts 1 and 2 of Advanced Integration Techniques cover different material and are independent of each other. In particular, Part 1 is not required for Part 2. You can take one without the other, or take both together.
Prerequisites
You should be comfortable taking derivatives and basic integrals, including logarithms and trig functions.
$$\int_0^1 \frac{x^{2019}-1}{\log x} dx$$,
$$\int_{-\infty}^\infty \frac{\sin x}{x} dx$$,
$$\int_0^{\pi/2} \frac{1}{1+\sin x} dx$$?
By the end of this class you'll know how to do these integrals and much more! We'll discuss cool tricks like the Feynman technique and Weierstrass substitution.
Note that parts 1 and 2 of Advanced Integration Techniques cover different material and are independent of each other. In particular, Part 1 is not required for Part 2. You can take one without the other, or take both together.
Prerequisites
You should be comfortable taking derivatives and basic integrals, including logarithms and trig functions.
M13637: Games of Math
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Josh Alman,
Dylan McKay
You might think that you don't need to know any math in order to beat your friends at games. But, you're wrong! Come learn everything you need to know to win at every game.
M13665: Introduction to Cryptology
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
Matthew Benet,
Alison Pascale
This course is designed to give a brief introduction to the the study of codes, and the art of writing and solving them. This class will move chronologically through the history of cryptology: we will start around 500 BCE with the simple Atbash cipher and other monolphabetic substitutions, touch upon the beginnings of steganography, and work our way through the Renaissance and the "Indecipherable Cipher".
The focus will be on learning the functionality of each cipher, as well as their strengths and weaknesses.
There will be code-breaking in this class.
Prerequisites
Algebra I (a basic understanding of multiplication and exponents is needed)
The focus will be on learning the functionality of each cipher, as well as their strengths and weaknesses.
There will be code-breaking in this class.
Prerequisites
Algebra I (a basic understanding of multiplication and exponents is needed)
M13639: Mathematics of Doodling
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
Sualeh Asif,
Dylan Pentland
Draw a shape on your piece of paper, and then draw a curve tightly around it, as close as you can. After you’ve completed the loop, do it again. And again. And again. Does the shape get more circular, and how? We'll answer this and then extend to more topics in geometry, topology, and much, much more!
(This is a class based off a paper of the same name.)
Prerequisites
Willing to learn and have fun
(This is a class based off a paper of the same name.)
Prerequisites
Willing to learn and have fun
M13305: Large Numbers
Difficulty: **
What's the difference between a millionaire and a billionaire? Which is bigger, $$1.1^{1.1^{100}}$$ or $$100^{100}$$? Can we name a number that's so big that we can't understand it? In this class, we'll head down the rabbit hole of describing larger and larger numbers.
Prerequisites
Basic properties of exponents and logarithms.
Prerequisites
Basic properties of exponents and logarithms.
M13180: Elliptic Curves, Complex Tori, and maybe a few l-adic Galois Representations
Difficulty: ****
Teachers:
Benjamin Church,
Matt Yarnall
Elliptic curves are a class of cubic curves (defined by a cubic polynomial in two variables) with deeply surprising and beautiful properties. The most surprising fact about elliptic curves is that their points naturally form a group structure under some geometric operation. Elliptic curves show up everywhere in mathematics from tori defined over the complex numbers to generating abelian extensions of number fields. Elliptic curves also feature prominently in the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture, one of the millenium prize problems, and Andrew Wiles' proof of Fermat's last theorem. In this class we will develop the fundamental results about elliptic curves such as the Mordell-Weil theorem and Weierstrass function theory before diving head-first into some more advanced territory mentioned above. This class will be a meandering relentless rollercoaster through some of the most beautiful connections in modern mathematics rather than a reasonably-paced, well-structured, and rigorous development of a topic. Expect proofs to be "sketched", definitions to be hand waved, and lots of inane terminology to be used. That said, expect to come away with an broader awareness of open problems in mathematics, a much richer appreciation of the interplay between geometry and algebra, and a healthy respect for cubic polynomials in two variables.
Prerequisites
Familiarity with the basic examples of groups and fields is a must (nothing fancy is needed but you should be able to give a few examples of groups and fields which appear "in the wild." If you're not sure, take a look at the "basic concepts" and "examples and applications" tabs on the wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_(mathematics) I will review any the of complex analysis we need but you should know what it means for a function to have a complex derivative. Basically know what it means if I say a function is "holomorphic" or "meromorphic" Also take 30 minutes to ponder Liouville's theorem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liouville%27s_theorem_(complex_analysis) before class. This is not strictly necessary since I will review / prove it but the result is sufficiently powerful and counter-intuitive that it's best to let it sink in a bit before we start sledgehammering every problem in sight with it! Mostly, be prepared to be drenched with crazy amounts of math.
Prerequisites
Familiarity with the basic examples of groups and fields is a must (nothing fancy is needed but you should be able to give a few examples of groups and fields which appear "in the wild." If you're not sure, take a look at the "basic concepts" and "examples and applications" tabs on the wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_(mathematics) I will review any the of complex analysis we need but you should know what it means for a function to have a complex derivative. Basically know what it means if I say a function is "holomorphic" or "meromorphic" Also take 30 minutes to ponder Liouville's theorem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liouville%27s_theorem_(complex_analysis) before class. This is not strictly necessary since I will review / prove it but the result is sufficiently powerful and counter-intuitive that it's best to let it sink in a bit before we start sledgehammering every problem in sight with it! Mostly, be prepared to be drenched with crazy amounts of math.
M13656: Solving Equations with Pictures!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Edward Jin,
Pranav Krishna
Some equations/systems of equations, especially in competition math, are more effectively solved with drawing pictures - which may be graphs, or geometrical representations. We will go over a few problems from past math competitions and solve them with pictures!
Prerequisites
Decent-ish background in high school math.
Prerequisites
Decent-ish background in high school math.
M13459: How to (Mathematically) Guard an Art Gallery
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Jessica Oehrlein
Suppose you have a polygonal art gallery with $$n$$ sides that you want to guard with 360-degree cameras at some of the polygon's vertices. What is the least number of cameras you could use? This is the classic art gallery problem, and it uses a lot of ideas from the mathematical field of graph theory. We'll cover some basic graph theory concepts and then tackle the art gallery problem!
Prerequisites
Comfort with use of variables.
Prerequisites
Comfort with use of variables.
M13293: Intro to Trading
Difficulty: **
What is a market? If you're interested in math, probability, or finance, come for a crash course in how markets work, and then test this knowledge by playing a fun estimation game!
M13593: Simple Models of Computation
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
Anthony Grebe,
Adam Hesterberg
Almost all programming languages are equally powerful—anything one of them can do, they all can. We’ll talk about two less powerful models of computation—ones that can’t even, say, tell whether two numbers are equal. They’ll nevertheless save the day if you have to search through 200MB of emails looking for something formatted like an address.
This is a math class, not a programming one—we’ll talk about clever proofs for what those models of computation can and can’t do.
This is a math class, not a programming one—we’ll talk about clever proofs for what those models of computation can and can’t do.
M13654: Fermat's Last Theorem
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
James Lin,
Carl Schildkraut
This course introduces the infamous Fermat's Last Theorem (FLT), which remained unsolved for over 350 years despite its popularity among mathematicians. FLT claims that there are no nontrivial solutions to the equation $$x^n+y^n=z^n$$ for $$n\ge 3$$. We begin by covering the historical progress on special cases of $$n$$. We finish by introducing the concept of elliptic curves, and briefly covering the machinery that led to Andrew Wiles' proof of FLT in 1994.
Prerequisites
Knowledge of proofs and abstract algebra is helpful, but anyone with a strong math background should be able to follow.
Prerequisites
Knowledge of proofs and abstract algebra is helpful, but anyone with a strong math background should be able to follow.
M13567: Which Numbers Have Short Descriptions?
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
Josh Alman,
Dylan McKay
We will be exploring the question "which numbers have short descriptions?"
To look at this question, we will first talk about what this means. For example, 123 has a short description because it has few digits. But, 10^100 has a short description even though it has many digits!
One way we like to try to give really short descriptions of numbers is by writing computer programs which write these numbers for us! After talking about this, we will discuss some of the cool things we can say about numbers and computer programs that write them.
Prerequisites
Students should be enthusiastic about Math or Computer Science, but no experience with programming or upper level Math is required.
To look at this question, we will first talk about what this means. For example, 123 has a short description because it has few digits. But, 10^100 has a short description even though it has many digits!
One way we like to try to give really short descriptions of numbers is by writing computer programs which write these numbers for us! After talking about this, we will discuss some of the cool things we can say about numbers and computer programs that write them.
Prerequisites
Students should be enthusiastic about Math or Computer Science, but no experience with programming or upper level Math is required.
M13673: Brain teasers, problem solving and logic puzzles!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
John Flynn,
Alex Weiler
Want to improve your problem-solving abilities with fun, dynamic problems? We will be working on classics like prisoner’s dilemma and the hat problems as well as logic puzzles and game theory. Spend a few hours learning to love and discover the joy of problem solving and improving your lateral thinking.
Warning: Once you enter the class, anything is fair game. Just like real-world problems, you don’t know exactly what you’ll need to do beforehand -- the most important thing you take with you is how you approach things. Come ready to be engaged and stretch your brain.
Prerequisites
Calculus preferred but not required
Warning: Once you enter the class, anything is fair game. Just like real-world problems, you don’t know exactly what you’ll need to do beforehand -- the most important thing you take with you is how you approach things. Come ready to be engaged and stretch your brain.
Prerequisites
Calculus preferred but not required
M13336: Gadgets: Why Games are Hard
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Joshua Ani,
Alex Dehnert
Want to know why puzzles and videogames have no easy way to solve them? We'll look at their basic components (gadgets) and make a maze of tunnels to show how hard they can get. There will be physical models of those gadgets. We'll start by introducing some canonical hard problems, then we'll show that mazes made of certain gadgets are hard to solve, and finally, we'll prove some games hard.
M13232: Quirky Quarternions: An intro to non-commutative algebra
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
Marta Manzin,
Lizhou Sha
$$ab = ba$$: You may have learned about this seemingly universal truth in grade school. However, in this class, we'll throw the commutative law of multiplication out of the window, and go back to the drawing boards to define an algebra of numbers with three imaginary units.
We will begin the class with a short introduction of complex numbers, their geometric representation as points on the complex plane, and the geometric meaning of their multiplication. We will then introduce the fundamental multiplication law for quaternions, $$i^2 = j^2 = k^2 = ijk = -1$$, and show how everything about quaternions falls into place following this formula. You will also learn a few party-twister tricks that work thanks to quaternion algebra.
Prerequisites
Geometry, Algebra 2 and trigonometry. Preliminary knowledge of complex numbers and vector dot and cross products is a plus, but not needed.
We will begin the class with a short introduction of complex numbers, their geometric representation as points on the complex plane, and the geometric meaning of their multiplication. We will then introduce the fundamental multiplication law for quaternions, $$i^2 = j^2 = k^2 = ijk = -1$$, and show how everything about quaternions falls into place following this formula. You will also learn a few party-twister tricks that work thanks to quaternion algebra.
Prerequisites
Geometry, Algebra 2 and trigonometry. Preliminary knowledge of complex numbers and vector dot and cross products is a plus, but not needed.
M13492: Estimation Markets
Difficulty: *
Learn about financial markets while practicing your Fermi estimation skills in this classic game! Open to anyone with interest in math, science, or finance. Quick thinking and awareness of other players are of utmost importance.
M13225: Lanchester War Model
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Shengtong Zhang
Military fans often argue about the commanding skills of various armies and generals. Did the Soviets win through tactics, or through shear manpower? How did Rommel compare to Eisenhower in terms of military strategy? We will attempt to answer these problems from a mathematical point of view.
Prerequisites
Basic Calculus will be helpful, but not required.
Prerequisites
Basic Calculus will be helpful, but not required.
M13286: The Art of Integration
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Edward Jin,
Sanjay Raman
While integration may seem like a rote task, there is actually a lot of beauty and structure we can exploit to evaluate seemingly impossible integrals.
This course will discuss these methods of (definite) integration, and apply them to some tough but elaborate integrals compiled from math competitions and integration bees. Here is a brief sampling of the integrals we will learn how to solve in this course:
$$\int_0^{\pi/2} \ln \tan x\,dx$$
$$\int_0^\infty \frac{1}{1+x^2}\cdot \frac{1}{1+x^e}\,dx$$
Prerequisites
AP Calculus or sufficient experience with integration. Experience with series expansions is helpful but not required.
This course will discuss these methods of (definite) integration, and apply them to some tough but elaborate integrals compiled from math competitions and integration bees. Here is a brief sampling of the integrals we will learn how to solve in this course:
$$\int_0^{\pi/2} \ln \tan x\,dx$$
$$\int_0^\infty \frac{1}{1+x^2}\cdot \frac{1}{1+x^e}\,dx$$
Prerequisites
AP Calculus or sufficient experience with integration. Experience with series expansions is helpful but not required.
M13362: Proof Marathon
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Hahn Lheem,
Dylan Liu
There are infinitely many primes of the form $$4k+3$$. There exists irrational numbers $$x$$ and $$y$$ such that $$x^y$$ is rational. What do these statements have in common? Nothing much, besides they're 1) both related to math, and 2) they're both true. We'll be proving statements like these, and much more, in one cute, chaotic hour!
Prerequisites
A very basic understanding of how math proofs work.
Prerequisites
A very basic understanding of how math proofs work.
M13244: What are the odds...? Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Hahn Lheem,
Amber Li
There is a Polish village that hasn't had a male baby in nearly 10 years. Okay sure, they've only had 12 babies total in the past decade ... but still, doesn't something seem off? Is this some biological anomaly? Does Poland just have weird environmental factors?
Using probability, we'll explain why this Polish village, as well as other weird phenomena, is not so abnormal after all. Come for a good time!
Using probability, we'll explain why this Polish village, as well as other weird phenomena, is not so abnormal after all. Come for a good time!
M13633: The Mathematics of Teaching Computers to Play Video Games
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
John Raisbeck
This class is about a type of Machine Learning called Reinforcement Learning, which is the part of computer science which studies methods for teaching computers to play video games, drive cars, and which is considered by many interested in artificial intelligence to be the future of the field.
We will begin by discussing the core concepts of machine learning itself, objective functions, gradients, and function approximators, before moving on to more specialized topics including neural networks (bots), MDPs (games), and reward functions (score) and key concepts in modern approaches to the problems of Reinforcement Learning. If there is extra time at the end, I may talk about whether or not I think AI is possible, and the current state of the technology.
**Please note that this class will not contain any programming. It is about the theory and the methods, but not the practice, of Reinforcement Learning!
I am a recent graduate in mathematics doing research in the field, so expect a mathematical perspective on things. I won't be talking a lot about languages or packages (my team uses python and pyTorch). Instead, the class will be about the concepts that underpin the optimization algorithms that researchers use to teach computers complicated tasks.
Prerequisites
Understanding what a derivative is, what a video game is, and having heard of MNIST will all help, but none of these are necessary.
We will begin by discussing the core concepts of machine learning itself, objective functions, gradients, and function approximators, before moving on to more specialized topics including neural networks (bots), MDPs (games), and reward functions (score) and key concepts in modern approaches to the problems of Reinforcement Learning. If there is extra time at the end, I may talk about whether or not I think AI is possible, and the current state of the technology.
**Please note that this class will not contain any programming. It is about the theory and the methods, but not the practice, of Reinforcement Learning!
I am a recent graduate in mathematics doing research in the field, so expect a mathematical perspective on things. I won't be talking a lot about languages or packages (my team uses python and pyTorch). Instead, the class will be about the concepts that underpin the optimization algorithms that researchers use to teach computers complicated tasks.
Prerequisites
Understanding what a derivative is, what a video game is, and having heard of MNIST will all help, but none of these are necessary.
M13220: A Headfirst Dive Into "Mathematical Logic"
Difficulty: ****
Teachers:
Benjamin Church,
Matt Yarnall
The meaning of term "Mathematical Logic" is fairly non-trivial. Mathematical logic is, on the one hand, the study of the logic of mathematics rigorizing the notions of "proof" and "example" in the framework of formal logic. But Mathematical logic is also the application of mathematical methods to logic using tools such as induction and set theory to proof meta-theorems about logic. It is even the application of logic to solving (somewhat) concrete math problems. In this course we will discuss all these flavors of mathematical logic as we introduce the basic concepts of completeness, consistency, satisfiability, and categoricity, discuss foundational results linking model theory (the study of examples) to proof theory (the study of formal proofs), then investigate the limitations of first-order logic, and finally prove Godel's momentous incompleteness theorem of first-order arithmetic. On the way, we will naturally develop foundational ideas about the theory of computation and how decidability and incompleteness are intricately linked. Time permitting, we will discuss applications of mathematical logic to problems in algebraic geometry such as the Ax-Grothendieck theorem and Lefschetz principle.
Prerequisites
There are no formal prerequisites. However, this course will move very quickly and present a lot of highly abstract ideas so be prepared.
Prerequisites
There are no formal prerequisites. However, this course will move very quickly and present a lot of highly abstract ideas so be prepared.
M13601: 4 points, 2 distances
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
Zawad Chowdhury
How many ways can you put four points on the plane so that they only have 2 distinct distances between them? Let's find out!
Prerequisites
You should be comfortable with shapes and points (but no geometry required beyond knowing what a quadrilateral is).
Prerequisites
You should be comfortable with shapes and points (but no geometry required beyond knowing what a quadrilateral is).
M13674: Brain teasers, problem solving and logic puzzles! Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
John Flynn,
Alex Weiler
Want to improve your problem-solving abilities with fun, dynamic problems? We will be working on classics like prisoner’s dilemma and the hat problems as well as logic puzzles and
game theory. Too often math and logic in high school suffers from rote memorization and the simple application of equations. Spend a few hours learning to love and discover the joy of problem solving and improving your lateral thinking.
Warning: Once you enter the class, anything is fair game. Just like real-world problems, you don’t know exactly what you’ll need to do beforehand -- the most important thing you take with you is how you approach things. Come ready to be engaged and stretch your brain.
Don’t worry if you don’t have lots of experience with logic puzzles / problem solving, this is not designed to be a gathering of experts. If this class sounds interesting at all, you will enjoy it, it’s not a trap…
Prerequisites
Pre-calc
game theory. Too often math and logic in high school suffers from rote memorization and the simple application of equations. Spend a few hours learning to love and discover the joy of problem solving and improving your lateral thinking.
Warning: Once you enter the class, anything is fair game. Just like real-world problems, you don’t know exactly what you’ll need to do beforehand -- the most important thing you take with you is how you approach things. Come ready to be engaged and stretch your brain.
Don’t worry if you don’t have lots of experience with logic puzzles / problem solving, this is not designed to be a gathering of experts. If this class sounds interesting at all, you will enjoy it, it’s not a trap…
Prerequisites
Pre-calc
M13236: (Incorrect) Proofs
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Ivy Mao,
Hanna Yang
Let's prove that all obtuse angles are right, that all people are the same height, all natural numbers can be described in 14 words or less ... and more!
(ps... we will then learn why all obtuse angles are not right, that all people are not the same height, and that not all numbers can be described in 14 words...)
Prerequisites
some knowledge of induction + some mathematical principles would be helpful -- that being said, if you know why the proofs I listed above are incorrect, you probably won't get too much out of this class.
(ps... we will then learn why all obtuse angles are not right, that all people are not the same height, and that not all numbers can be described in 14 words...)
Prerequisites
some knowledge of induction + some mathematical principles would be helpful -- that being said, if you know why the proofs I listed above are incorrect, you probably won't get too much out of this class.
M13135: The Mathematics of Music Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Shardul Chiplunkar,
Andrew Lin
Music theory, in our eyes, is a way to understand the structure of music in a totally new way. Come to this class to learn why (secretly) all pianos are out of tune, why musicians care so much about "fifths" and "fourths" and "octaves," why a violin and a flute playing the same note sound different, and some other cool tricks musicians play behind-the-scenes!
Prerequisites
Nothing formal, but the class will be more fun if you (for example) know what an octave and a perfect fifth are.
Prerequisites
Nothing formal, but the class will be more fun if you (for example) know what an octave and a perfect fifth are.
M13251: Computability Theory
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
Jackie Bredenberg,
Dylan Hendrickson
Computers can do a lot of things. If you've ever programmed, you might think you can theoretically write a program that does anything. But it turns out there are things you can't program, no matter how clever you are! In this class, we'll see examples of such things and proofs of why they can't be computed.
M13476: Mathematicians Are Really Bad at Naming Things
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Zachary Steinberg
Mathematicians have a PR problem: they study a lot of different awesome things, but so many of those things have absolutely horrible names. Sometimes they’re metaphors that break down when translated. Sometimes they just don’t make any sense. And sometimes, they’re even the same name as something that does make sense. Come learn about some interesting areas of math you might not have heard of!
Prerequisites
None! Don't tell anyone, but this is actually a sneaky introduction to some cool areas of math that they usually don't tell you about in high school!
Prerequisites
None! Don't tell anyone, but this is actually a sneaky introduction to some cool areas of math that they usually don't tell you about in high school!
M13160: Calculating Pi With Things
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Haneul Shin,
Wayne Zhao
How do you calculate pi? The boring way is to measure around a circle and divide by its diameter. But pi is everywhere, from river lengths to the ESP logo to random integers. We'll calculate pi in lots of different ways for class.
Prerequisites
General math knowledge will be helpful, but not strictly necessary.
Prerequisites
General math knowledge will be helpful, but not strictly necessary.
M13573: The Mathematics of Origami
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Naveen Venkat
Learn about the hidden mathematics of the art of paper-folding, and walk out with a cool origami model that you made yourself!
M13264: kick people's a$$es at pool Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Christopher Hillenbrand,
Rona Wang
after this class, you'll beat all your friends at pool (as long as you bring your protractor)
Prerequisites
a good (or at least okay) attitude
Prerequisites
a good (or at least okay) attitude
M13641: Infinity Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Josh Alman,
Dylan McKay
Is infinity a number? Can I take infinitely many steps toward my destination and never get there? Are some infinities bigger than others? Come learn about the powerful and confusing nature of infinity!
M13300: A Proof of the Hook Length Formula
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
Jeffery Li,
Tristan Shin
We will introduce the idea of a partition and corresponding Young tableaux. We will then prove a celebrated theorem about counting standard Young tableaux. If time permits, we will discuss more about partitions.
Prerequisites
Knowledge of probability is required.
Prerequisites
Knowledge of probability is required.
M13484: How To Think About Four Dimensions, and Beyond Full!
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Zachary Steinberg
Thinking about four dimensions may sound scary, but it’s actually surprisingly simple. You’re probably used to graphing points using two coordinates, but what happens when those coordinates are circles instead of numbers? That simple question leads to a surprisingly flexible way to think about spaces our three-dimensional brains can’t imagine.
Along the way, we’ll answer some questions. How do mathematicians think about four dimensions? Isn’t the fourth dimension time? If so, how do we distinguish between possible universes? What’s a “manifold” and why do mathematicians love them so much? Why is tying knots impossible in four dimensions? Why can’t you glue a piece of paper into an origami Klein bottle? Come find out!
By the power of 𝟛 𝔻 𝕘 𝕣 𝕒 𝕡 𝕙 𝕚 𝕔 𝕤, come learn how to think about dimensions beyond our imagination – visually!
Prerequisites
If you know what points, planes, and spheres are, you're good. Bring with you a love of cool visuals. Calculus might let you get more out of the class, but you don't need it!
Along the way, we’ll answer some questions. How do mathematicians think about four dimensions? Isn’t the fourth dimension time? If so, how do we distinguish between possible universes? What’s a “manifold” and why do mathematicians love them so much? Why is tying knots impossible in four dimensions? Why can’t you glue a piece of paper into an origami Klein bottle? Come find out!
By the power of 𝟛 𝔻 𝕘 𝕣 𝕒 𝕡 𝕙 𝕚 𝕔 𝕤, come learn how to think about dimensions beyond our imagination – visually!
Prerequisites
If you know what points, planes, and spheres are, you're good. Bring with you a love of cool visuals. Calculus might let you get more out of the class, but you don't need it!
M13587: Demystifying Cryptography Full!
Difficulty: **
"Oh, crypto? I know a lot about bitcoin!"
You've heard about crypto everywhere in the news, but behind all the bait, there's actually some very beautiful, clever mathematics that goes into engineering the systems that keep our world running securely.
We'll start with a brief discussion of classical cryptography (2000 BC-1950 AD), where we talk about various ciphers and puzzle about how to crack them. In the second half, we'll talk about the modern model of cryptographic systems in the computer era, including secure hash functions and pseudorandom number generators, and we'll culminate in a discussion of the RSA cryptosystem.
Prerequisites
Fundamental background of number theory (e.g. modular arithmetic) may be useful but by no means required.
You've heard about crypto everywhere in the news, but behind all the bait, there's actually some very beautiful, clever mathematics that goes into engineering the systems that keep our world running securely.
We'll start with a brief discussion of classical cryptography (2000 BC-1950 AD), where we talk about various ciphers and puzzle about how to crack them. In the second half, we'll talk about the modern model of cryptographic systems in the computer era, including secure hash functions and pseudorandom number generators, and we'll culminate in a discussion of the RSA cryptosystem.
Prerequisites
Fundamental background of number theory (e.g. modular arithmetic) may be useful but by no means required.
M13413: Splitting Cake with Sperner's Lemma
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Eryn Gillam,
Nelson Niu
You and your friends have attained a large, multi-flavored cake. You would all like to eat some of that cake, but you each have slightly different preferences about what part of the cake you want. Some of you love the coconut shavings; some will avoid the chocolate icing at all costs. The large scoop of ice cream in the corner is particularly popular. Is there a way to split up the cake fairly amongst yourselves—without losing any friends in the process?
It turns out there is, and we can prove it! All it takes is a cute little theorem about coloring points in triangles called Sperner's Lemma. In fact, not only does our theorem tells us that a fair division exists, it can even tell us exactly how—plus or minus a sprinkle. Come see how it all works here!
Prerequisites
Some experience with proofs is recommended; you should, at the very least, know how to prove a statement by induction. It would also help to know what the graph of $$ x + y + z = 1 $$ looks like.
It turns out there is, and we can prove it! All it takes is a cute little theorem about coloring points in triangles called Sperner's Lemma. In fact, not only does our theorem tells us that a fair division exists, it can even tell us exactly how—plus or minus a sprinkle. Come see how it all works here!
Prerequisites
Some experience with proofs is recommended; you should, at the very least, know how to prove a statement by induction. It would also help to know what the graph of $$ x + y + z = 1 $$ looks like.
M13644: Mathematical Art Full!
Difficulty: *
Teachers:
Jane Sieving
Do you like pretty graphs and fractals and want to know why they do neat things?
Do you love math and/or art and want to generate a bunch of math-y art to put on your wall?
Do you want to like math, but feel like it's usually too stressful, fast-paced, or intimidating?
Am I going to use the words "math" and "art" a painful number of times?
Come make art with math, while using the art to figure out how the math works!
This class will consist of playing with visualization/graphing software to make pretty images with math, learning how equations give rise to interesting patterns, and using this knowledge to make even cooler things. We'll talk about things like matrices, parametric curves, and recursion, but whether or not you've learned about those before, I bet you never took time in math class to make art with them.
(If nothing else, I promise you'll leave with a cool phone wallpaper.)
Do you love math and/or art and want to generate a bunch of math-y art to put on your wall?
Do you want to like math, but feel like it's usually too stressful, fast-paced, or intimidating?
Am I going to use the words "math" and "art" a painful number of times?
Come make art with math, while using the art to figure out how the math works!
This class will consist of playing with visualization/graphing software to make pretty images with math, learning how equations give rise to interesting patterns, and using this knowledge to make even cooler things. We'll talk about things like matrices, parametric curves, and recursion, but whether or not you've learned about those before, I bet you never took time in math class to make art with them.
(If nothing else, I promise you'll leave with a cool phone wallpaper.)
M13448: Catalan Numbers
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Milan Haiman,
Carl Schildkraut
How many ways can we write a valid sequence of $$2n$$ parenthesis? How many rooted binary trees are there on $$n$$ vertices? How many up-right paths from $$(0,0)$$ to $$(n,n)$$ stay below the line $$y=x$$?
In this class, we will explain what these questions mean and why they are all answered by a sequence called the Catalan Numbers.
In this class, we will explain what these questions mean and why they are all answered by a sequence called the Catalan Numbers.
M13390: Complex Analysis (and a theorem that seems too good to be true)
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
Andy Tockman,
Brian Xiao
You may have heard of complex numbers before, but first we'll go over some history and how complex derivatives, integrals, and series work so that you can get a better understanding of them.
Then, we'll talk about a theorem that makes complex integration seem ridiculously easy and makes you wonder if it can even be that simple. (We'll also see how you can apply it to evaluate real integrals that you probably wouldn't be able to compute otherwise.)
We may take a brief excursion into the Mandelbrot set if there's time.
Prerequisites
Prerequisites: Single variable calculus. No prior exposure to complex numbers required!
Then, we'll talk about a theorem that makes complex integration seem ridiculously easy and makes you wonder if it can even be that simple. (We'll also see how you can apply it to evaluate real integrals that you probably wouldn't be able to compute otherwise.)
We may take a brief excursion into the Mandelbrot set if there's time.
Prerequisites
Prerequisites: Single variable calculus. No prior exposure to complex numbers required!
M13380: Counting Symmetries with Group Actions
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
Chase Vogeli,
anlong chua
How many ways can you arrange colored beads on a necklace? We'll attack this problem and similar problems using group theory, which is the mathematical language that describes the concept of symmetry. Specifically, we introduce Burnside's Lemma, a tool that lets us count configurations of geometric figures that are preserved under symmetry.
Prerequisites
Basic knowledge of geometry (polygons, angles, etc.)
Prerequisites
Basic knowledge of geometry (polygons, angles, etc.)
M13235: Covering Spaces
Difficulty: ****
Teachers:
Sualeh Asif,
Dylan Pentland
This class is about topology. We will be focusing on one particularly nice aspect called covering spaces. We will mostly talk about how to classify covering spaces of a given space $$X$$ by defining and understanding how the fundamental group $$\pi_1(X)$$ works.
Prerequisites
Experience with proofs is required. It is very helpful to know what a group and what a topology is, but not required.
Prerequisites
Experience with proofs is required. It is very helpful to know what a group and what a topology is, but not required.
M13406: LIMBer Linkages
Difficulty: **
Teachers:
Jinger Chong,
Anqi Li
Have you ever watched videos on the Strandbeest – Dutch for “beach beasts” (what a tongue-twister!) – and wondered how they worked? Or have you ever sat in a car on a rainy day and pondered the very deep question of how windshield wipers operate? If your answer to any of the previous questions is yes, then this class is for you!
In this class, we would be exploring what are known as linkages – a collection of bars and joints that can convert one type of motion to another. As mentioned, linkages and their applications are ubiquitous: from our limbs to bicycles to pliers, just to give some examples. What is unintuitive and interesting about linkages is that while most motors produce rotational motion, we can somehow cleverly use linkages to convert these rotations to up-and-down or side-to-side motion.
We will be analyzing planar linkages such as the scissor lift linkage, Hoeken linkage, Chebyshev linkage, and Peaucellier–Lipkin linkage using vectors and projective geometry. Afterwards, we will look into Theo Jansen’s Strandbeests and the main mechanism behind each leg. We will end off with a hands-on activity: building our very own model of the Strandbeests' leg!
Prerequisites
Experiences with vectors and some projective geometry will be helpful, but not required.
In this class, we would be exploring what are known as linkages – a collection of bars and joints that can convert one type of motion to another. As mentioned, linkages and their applications are ubiquitous: from our limbs to bicycles to pliers, just to give some examples. What is unintuitive and interesting about linkages is that while most motors produce rotational motion, we can somehow cleverly use linkages to convert these rotations to up-and-down or side-to-side motion.
We will be analyzing planar linkages such as the scissor lift linkage, Hoeken linkage, Chebyshev linkage, and Peaucellier–Lipkin linkage using vectors and projective geometry. Afterwards, we will look into Theo Jansen’s Strandbeests and the main mechanism behind each leg. We will end off with a hands-on activity: building our very own model of the Strandbeests' leg!
Prerequisites
Experiences with vectors and some projective geometry will be helpful, but not required.
M13159: 694201 is a prime
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
CJ Quines,
Wayne Zhao
If we gave you a four-function calculator, how long would it take you to check that 694201 is a prime? In fact, we can do it in five minutes, and we'll show you how.
We’ll use this to talk about how computers figure out whether numbers are prime in general, and what makes one method faster than another.
Prerequisites
Some number theory. In particular, you should know what modulo is and be comfortable with it.
We’ll use this to talk about how computers figure out whether numbers are prime in general, and what makes one method faster than another.
Prerequisites
Some number theory. In particular, you should know what modulo is and be comfortable with it.
M13360: Term Rewriting and Gröbner Bases
Difficulty: ****
Teachers:
Josh Alman,
James Koppel
Solving systems of linear equations is easy. How about systems of polynomial equations?
We're not really going to teach you that. Instead, we're going to teach you about Gröbner bases, a crazy way of representing spaces of polynomials, which also gives the ability to solve polynomial equations.
Actually, we're not going to really teach you that either. Instead, we're going to go into a separate branch of mathematics called Term Rewriting and teach you about Knuth-Bendix Completion, a "meta-algorithm" which can take definitions of equality and give you an algorithm for telling whether two things are equal. We'll present Gröbner Bases as a special case of Knuth-Bendix Completion. We might even have time to solve a polynomial equation or two!
Prerequisites
Polynomial division and solving systems of linear equations should be no problem for you. The more of these you understand, the easier time you'll have: algebraic rings, polynomial rings, ideals, ring quotients
We're not really going to teach you that. Instead, we're going to teach you about Gröbner bases, a crazy way of representing spaces of polynomials, which also gives the ability to solve polynomial equations.
Actually, we're not going to really teach you that either. Instead, we're going to go into a separate branch of mathematics called Term Rewriting and teach you about Knuth-Bendix Completion, a "meta-algorithm" which can take definitions of equality and give you an algorithm for telling whether two things are equal. We'll present Gröbner Bases as a special case of Knuth-Bendix Completion. We might even have time to solve a polynomial equation or two!
Prerequisites
Polynomial division and solving systems of linear equations should be no problem for you. The more of these you understand, the easier time you'll have: algebraic rings, polynomial rings, ideals, ring quotients
M13686: How to Add Infinitely Many Numbers Together
Difficulty: ***
Teachers:
Daniel Zaharopol
Maybe you've seen before that if you add $$\frac{1}{2} + \frac{1}{4} + \frac{1}{8} + \cdots,$$ you get 1. But why? What does it even mean to add infinitely many numbers together --- and how can that be consistent with the usual ways that math works?
In this class, we're going to figure that out. We'll learn how to add up infinitely many numbers (when it's possible) and we'll learn the formal mathematical definition of convergence.
Unlike most of your Splash classes, you're really going to do the math yourself, working through a bunch of problems designed to get you to that special "ah ha!" Each person can work at their own pace. As a result, you're going to come out of this class having worked with the math and you'll probably learn it more deeply than from a lecture, although we won't technically cover as much. If this sounds appealing, this will likely be an amazing class for you.
Prerequisites
A strong understanding of high school algebra, and excitement about doing interesting math problems.
In this class, we're going to figure that out. We'll learn how to add up infinitely many numbers (when it's possible) and we'll learn the formal mathematical definition of convergence.
Unlike most of your Splash classes, you're really going to do the math yourself, working through a bunch of problems designed to get you to that special "ah ha!" Each person can work at their own pace. As a result, you're going to come out of this class having worked with the math and you'll probably learn it more deeply than from a lecture, although we won't technically cover as much. If this sounds appealing, this will likely be an amazing class for you.
Prerequisites
A strong understanding of high school algebra, and excitement about doing interesting math problems.