Some games transcend amusement. Some games surpass idle enjoyment to become showcases of human intellect and strategic achievement. Join us for a whirlwind introduction to bridge, referred to by many as the chess of card games. In one hour, you’ll learn the basic rules of bridge, as well as the strategies and bidding conventions that make it the high-class game of MIT-worthy intellects everywhere.

Sometimes in Math (or Science) there are these hammers which you can use to trivialize problems. Often, using a hammer takes some of the fun and excitement out of solving a problem, but usually that doesn’t keep you from learning how to use the hammer. Generating functions are the hammer with which we demolish combinatorics problems. In this class, we will show how encoding combinatorial problems algebraically gives us a whole new level of insight into the subject, and conclude with a method that will allow you to compute almost any combinatorial sum you might encounter.

Are you a math/physics person easily irked by the way biologists tend to make everything qualitative? Turns out there’s a lot of people in biology like you: they’re called systems biologists! It turns out that the behavior of a cell (or any biological system) doesn’t depend very much on this gene or that gene as much as it depends on how much of one transcription factor or another are present, and how strongly these factors affect different reactions. When you get to the bottom of this stuff, you find that statistical mechanics and stochastic physical processes are the driving force for all of the interesting things in biology. Join this class if you think it would be cool to do biology with physics and math, and actually pull cool results out.

Like games? You should take this class. Like money? We don't know how to make any! Game Theory is the study of how you play to win against the smartest possible opponents, opponents who never make irrational choices. Whether it's some board game or the stock market, game theory lets you win, and better yet lets you know why you won. Interested? Then join us for a quick hour-long introduction to the field!

Some games transcend amusement. Some games surpass idle enjoyment to become showcases of human intellect and strategic achievement. Join us for a whirlwind introduction to bridge, referred to by many as the chess of card games. In one hour, you’ll learn the basic rules of bridge, as well as the strategies and bidding conventions that make it the high-class game of MIT-worthy intellects everywhere.

Are you a math/physics person easily irked by the way biologists tend to make everything qualitative? Turns out there’s a lot of people in biology like you: they’re called systems biologists! It turns out that the behavior of a cell (or any biological system) doesn’t depend very much on this gene or that gene as much as it depends on how much of one transcription factor or another are present, and how strongly these factors affect different reactions. When you get to the bottom of this stuff, you find that statistical mechanics and stochastic physical processes are the driving force for all of the interesting things in biology. Join this class if you think it would be cool to do biology with physics and math, and actually pull cool results out.

Sometimes in Math (or Science) there are these hammers which you can use to trivialize problems. Often, using a hammer takes some of the fun and excitement out of solving a problem, but usually that doesn’t keep you from learning how to use the hammer. Generating function is the hammer with which we demolish combinatorics problems. In this class, we will show how encoding combinatorial problems algebraically gives us a whole new level of insight into the subject, and conclude with a method that will allow you to compute almost any combinatorial sum you might encounter.

Some subjects transcend amusement. Some subjects surpass idle intellectualism to become showcases of human perseverance and strategic achievement. Join us for a whirlwind introduction to the brain, referred to by many as the chess of human organs. In all seriousness, though, we'll take you through the basic structure of neurons, how they interact, and how these seemingly simple interactions can be used to perform amazing computations.

Some games transcend amusement. Some games surpass idle enjoyment to become showcases of human intellect and strategic achievement. Join us for a whirlwind introduction to bridge, referred to by many as the chess of card games. In one hour, you’ll learn the basic rules of bridge, as well as the strategies and bidding conventions that make it the high-class game of MIT-worthy intellects everywhere.

Sometimes in Math (or Science) there are these hammers which you can use to trivialize problems. Often, using a hammer takes some of the fun and excitement out of solving a problem, but usually that doesn't keep you from learning how to use the hammer. Generating function is the hammer with which we demolish combinatorics problems. In this class, we will show how encoding combinatorial problems algebraically gives us a whole new level of insight into the subject, and conclude with a method that will allow you to compute almost any combinatorial sum you might encounter.

Are you a math/physics person easily irked by the way biologists tend to make everything qualitative? Turns out there's a lot of people in biology like you: they're called systems biologists! It turns out that the behavior of a cell (or any biological system) doesn't depend very much on this gene or that gene as much as it depends on how much of one transcription factor or another are present, and how strongly these factors affect different reactions. When you get to the bottom of this stuff, you find that statistical mechanics and stochastic physical processes are the driving force for all of the interesting things in biology. Join this class if you think it would be cool to do biology with physics and math, and actually pull cool results out.

Why can't time go backwards? No, it's a serious question: take any kind of system in motion, then go through and reverse all the velocities at a given instant and time and let the system run. If you think about it, you'll realize that this effectively causes any series of events to run exactly in reverse, i.e. it makes time run backwards. If this can happen, how come it never does? How come a broken cup never reassembles spontaneously (after all, the reverse process happens more often that we would like)? In this class, we'll answer this question, give you an idea of what the direction of time even means, and tell you how to think about complex physical systems where you cant possibly hope to understand everything exactly. With Statistical Mechanics, you'll be ready to look at most processes in the world (not just textbook friendly ones) and get a handle on them.

Some games transcend amusement. Some games surpass idle enjoyment to become showcases of human intellect and strategic achievement. Join us for a whirlwind introduction to bridge, referred to by many as the chess of card games. In one hour, you’ll learn the basic rules of bridge, as well as the strategies and bidding conventions that make it the high-class game of MIT-worthy intellects everywhere.

Have you ever wondered why F=ma is true? It sounds like a definition at first, but it's really not: F is defined in terms of the potential energy field U, while m and a are attributes of the particle under consideration itself. Turns out there's a deeper reason for why F=ma, and more generally, equations describing motion, are true. In this class, we'll consider the relatively simple of case of why light moves the way it does. We'll explore the foundations of physics as scientists currently understand them. If you're the kind of person who looks for deeper and deeper levels of simplicity and beauty in physics, this class is for you.

We will begin with a review of combinatorics. Then, with problems in recursion as motivation, we will begin to explore the topic of generating functions. These functions (which are described briefly enough on wikipedia) are the single most powerful tool with which to attack combinatorics problem, and once you get to use them, you will come to love the powerful feeling you get wielding them. We will be covering material mostly from Herbert Wilf's book, Generatingfunctionology.

Some games transcend amusement. Some games surpass idle enjoyment to become showcases of human intellect and strategic achievement. Join us for a whirlwind introduction to bridge, referred to by many as the chess of card games. In one hour, you'll learn the basic rules of bridge, as well as the strategies and bidding conventions that make it the high-class game of MIT-worthy intellects everywhere.