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.

What happens when you keep counting past infinity, and never stop? You discover the ordinal numbers! We'll introduce this exciting tool and use it to understand some more finite problems.

Come explore space and time, and see how the main ideas of special relativity can be derived from simple principles and some basic algebra! If we have time, we'll also talk about relativity "paradoxes" and how to resolve them.

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.

What is information? How can we measure it? In this class, we'll introduce a way of quantitatively measuring information and use the tools we develop to discuss how redundant the English language is.

Curious what the hype around quantum computing is all about? Want to know what quantum computing actually is? In this class, we'll discuss the key quantum mechanics that quantum computing is based on and how it differs from classical computing. Then, we'll see a few examples of simple quantum algorithms. Note that this isn't a class on how a quantum computer can physically be built. Instead, we'll be discussing the theory of quantum computing.

Come explore space and time, and see how the main ideas of special relativity can be derived from simple principles and some basic algebra! If we have time, we'll also talk about relativity "paradoxes" and how to resolve them.

In this course we'll discuss how to prove you know something without telling anyone the answer and how to split up information so a group can know a secret without any individual knowing any part. These fascinating results called Zero Knowledge Proofs and Secret Sharing use relatively simple math to achieve seemingly impossible results. We'll even cover methods you can implement at home!

Want to learn more about math you've learned in school? Noticed a pattern you're interested in finding more about? One of your Splash teachers mentioned something that sounds cool? Come with your questions, and I'll try to answer them! If nobody has any questions, I'll probably just talk about set theory or something for an hour.

The new Star Wars movies tell the story of classic and new characters years after the original movies. But did you know that books, games, and comics were telling a very different story of the events after Return of the Jedi for over 30 years before the new movies? In this class, we'll talk about how the old Star Wars media, known as the "Expanded Universe (EU)", told the stories of Luke, Leia, and Han after Return of the Jedi. We'll also talk about how the Expanded Universe explored other times in the Star Wars timeline. If you're already an EU fan, come to meet other fans and share your favorite EU moments. If you're new to the EU, come explore this expansive set of Star Wars stories for the first time!

I need to send you some important information! How should I do it if I want to minimize the number of bits I send you? How should I do it if we're communicating over a noisy channel that might mess up my message? We'll talk about what information is mathematically and some clever ways to encode data!

In the programming language Python, simple programs can send virtual turtles whizzing across your screen! We'll briefly cover the basics of programming, plus some turtle-specific commands, and then you'll be free to experiment: create drawings or even simple games! No programming experience needed. Computers will be provided.

You have a list of ten numbers and you want to sort them from smallest to largest. Okay, you're probably just going to eyeball that. Your computer has a list of ten million numbers and you want them sorted from smallest to largest. Aaah - what do you do? Let's experiment with some approaches to this problem and talk about which solutions are better.* This is a central problem in computer science, but you'll get more out of this class if you've never thought about it before. *We'll also discuss some really, really, dumb approaches, for amusement.

Suppose you have N men and N women, and each of them submits preference rankings for the other set of people. It's your job to pair them up to go to a dance, but you need to make sure that nobody wants to cheat: make sure no pair of people likes each other better than their partners. Can you always make it work? What if the women bribe you to care more about their preferences? What if the situation isn't so ridiculously heteronormative? Aah! Matching is hard!

Mint-apple sauce food tongue. Pear spinach sauce food tongue. Pear wonton pasta-peach-sauce food tongue? Pear shrimp kumquat plantain mint-apple clam peach-sauce pear!