ESP Biography

What does it mean to be "random"? Is the world inherently deterministic or random? Many fields of study including statistics, physics, computer science, and philosophy have tried to answer these questions in many different ways. While randomness is frequently viewed as a source of uncertainty, are there ways we can leverage randomness to our advantage? In this course, we will survey various attempts to answer these questions and more, discussing definitions of randomness, algorithmic and cryptographic applications of randomness, and the existence of randomness in the real world.

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.

What does it mean to be "random"? Is the world inherently deterministic or random? Many fields of study including statistics, physics, computer science, and philosophy have tried to answer these questions in many different ways. While randomness is frequently viewed as a source of uncertainty, are there ways we can leverage randomness to our advantage? In this course, we will survey various attempts to answer these questions and more, discussing definitions of randomness, algorithmic and cryptographic applications of randomness, and the existence of randomness in the real world.

Crypto isn't just for computers! In this class, we'll try to tell each other secrets while our classmate (and nemesis) Eve listens in.

You might have thought peeling is just for oranges. But you're wrong! Come learn the true way to prepare and eat apples.

This class is mostly an excuse for us (the teachers) to watch you (the students) flail while you try to solve tricky math problems on the spot. This is how it will work. We will give you a math problem, and you’ll have to immediately present a solution on the black-board. You’ll have up to eight minutes to present your proof, but you need to continuously be presenting. Then our panel of judges will award you a score based on how correct, confusing, and amusing your solution was. There may or may not be teams, depending on how many students we get.

The probabilistic method is one of the most powerful and popular techniques in combinatorics. This is in part because of the big role that randomness is playing in statistical physics and theoretical computer science. But, the probabilistic method has also been successful at proving results that mathematicians have had a lot of trouble proving by other means. Come learn about a clever and powerful mathematical idea!

This class is mostly an excuse for us (the teachers) to watch you (the students) flail while you try to solve tricky math problems on the spot. This is how it will work. We will give you a math problem, and you’ll have to immediately present a solution on the black-board. You’ll have up to eight minutes to present your proof, but you need to continuously be presenting. Then our panel of judges will award you a score based on how correct, confusing, and amusing your solution was. There may or may not be teams, depending on how many students we get.

Crypto isn't just for computers! In this class, we'll try to tell each other secrets while our classmate (and nemesis) Eve listens in.

When you peel an orange, does the skin come apart in many different pieces? Does juice fly everywhere? Well no more. Learn how to peel an orange with your hands in one piece, mess free. This, and other fun facts like why you can peel an orange with your hands (but not an apple).