Ever wonder how games like Connect Four, Checkers and Go have been "solved", in that an optimal strategy has been found for how to play them? In this course, we'll be exploring the roots of the theory of two-player strategy games by playing and analysing several games ourselves. Along the way, we'll learn how to make sure you hold onto the Immunity Idol (and not make yourself look like an idiot) on Survivor, do some cool math, and eat M&Ms. TL;DR: We'll play some games. Then, we'll learn how you can beat your friends at them every time.

DBO ZPV DSBDL UIJT DPEF? From Caesar shifts in Ancient Rome to the Enigma in World War II and RSA in the 21st century, we’ve used codes and ciphers to protect our information. However, you might not know that there's quite a bit of powerful mathematics behind these codes. In this class, we'll talk about the history of cryptography from Greek scytales to quantum cryptography and beyond. Along the way, we'll look at some number theory, the foundation of many codes throughout history, and finish by showing mathematically how RSA - the cryptosystem used to encrypt much of the information sent over the Internet - works.