I saw the man with the telescope, but who had the telescope? Ambiguities like this are ubiquitous in languages. In this two-hour workshop, we’ll first approach the phenomenon from a linguist’s perspective, exploring how sentence structures can be used to explain such ambiguities. In the second part, we’ll see how machines try to resolve them, using real datasets and hands-on coding activities. By the end, you’ll understand why ambiguity challenges both humans and computers, and why studying it reveals so much about the hidden structure of language and the limits of artificial intelligence.

Why does your coffee cool down? Why does the smell of pizza spread through a room? And how can a factory make thousands of candy bars every minute without running out of ingredients? These simple questions hide the same ideas that chemical engineers use when they design real processes: keeping track of what flows in and out, measuring how heat builds up or disappears, and figuring out how quickly heat can move through a system. In this session we’ll start with familiar, everyday examples and build up to the challenge of designing a chemical reactor, where all three ideas meet. By the end, you’ll see how chemical engineering connects the small things you notice at home with the big systems that power modern life.

What is the difference between sound and noise? What about speech? Phonetics, a sub field of linguistics, is the scientific study of sound as applied to human language. Every time you say something, you are coordinating a very complex series of physical movements from your diaphragm all the way to the tip of your tongue and lips. These movements result in audible sounds that we can then interpret with incredible accuracy, all without thinking. By studying these sounds we can learn a lot about how language works, from physiology to perception. This is the work of the phonetician. In this class we will use the tools of phonetic analysis, namely sound waves and special diagrams called spectrograms, to think critically about the following question: By looking into the waves of our own speech, what can we learn about our language(s) and about human language in general?

Ever wondered how many languages there are in the world (and why Google won’t give you a direct answer)? Dive into the fascinating world of linguistics, the scientific study of language, in this fun and interactive course! We'll go beyond "grammar rules" to explore the science behind how we talk and make meaning. Learn to analyze your own speech and languages around the world through puzzles and games based on real-life examples. Uncover what you know when you know a language. By the end of this course, you’ll have a sense of how to crack the code of language using he linguistic tools of morphology (word structure), syntax (sentence structure), and phonology (sound structure). Get ready to be amazed by human language!

Did you know that language, like all natural phenomena, can be observed and investigated in a scientific way? What is unique about language is that everyone has their own personal and infinite data set living inside their brain. Learn to examine that data the way a linguist would, and puzzle over things that you may not realize you know about the language that you use every day. Learn how linguistics, the science of language, relates to your world and what you're interested in.