Splash Biography

The Raspberry Pi is a computer the size of a credit card that can connect to the Internet, play movies and do other things that a normal computer can do. It was designed by a team of engineers who want to make computers more affordable and accessible around the world. In this class we will look at the Pi, focusing on how each component of a modern computer can be packed in such a small space. For more info, check out http://www.raspberrypi.org/faqs

Identity theft, credit card fraud and money laundering are some of the fastest-growing areas of crime in the world. How do these criminals use illegally-gained information to steal money from people and businesses? How can businesses and governments work together to stop them? More importantly, what can we do to protect our own information?

Websites like Google, Facebook and Twitter know a lot about you. This is because these sites have a record of everything you do on there, from the photos you look at to the things that you search. This information can reveal a lot about you, and when used together, can reveal a lot about society in general. In this class, we will look at how websites can use your information to find out more about you or to solve bigger social problems. Furthermore, we will discuss if websites should be allowed to use your personal information this way.

The Great War, the war to end all wars... many names have been used to describe World War I. It was the first global conflict, and for the first time tanks, airplanes and chemical weapons were used in battle. In this class, we will use interactive simulations and discussions to explore the causes and lasting effects of World War I. We will focus on how the war unfolded in individual regions such as Europe and the Middle East. We will then look at the human sacrifices during the war. By the end of this course, we should have an understanding of how wars can be used as a diplomatic tool in international relations and also the extent of human suffering that results from war.

We discuss some basics of Pokemon battling that should help players of all levels improve their strategies. We will cover how to select movesets for your Pokemon, how speed and damage are calculated during a battle and strategies to optimize the stats of your Pokemon.

The fluctuation of stock prices, the motion of gas particles, the path taken by a foraging animal, what do these things have in common? They're all random processes: processes whose outcome is unpredictable. The examples above involve sequences of random events that evolve over time, which we call Markov chains. Markov chains are a simple and useful class of random processes. In this class, we will define and study examples of Markov chains, and develop tools to explore their many interesting properties. More generally, this class will demonstrate, through the example of Markov chains, how applied mathematics distills the essence of real-life problems into mathematical models, and how mathematical machinery can be used to play around with these models. Prerequisites: none.