ESP Biography

Fourier analysis is an extremely important and powerful tool used everywhere in engineering and the sciences and basically involves determining the different frequency components of a signal. Without getting into the rigorous mathematics of Fourier analysis, we will start with the basics (eg. "what is frequency") then build up a solid intuitive understanding. Various applications will be presented, such as protein structure determination by diffraction, signal processing, image processing, and signal pathways inside the cell. This class will involve extensive discussions, examples, and questions in addition to lecture.

This interactive workshop is for students who like math but find the problems given in school too straight-forward. We will work through some problems given in "The Art of Problem Solving" by Lehoczky and Rusczyk (similar to problems encountered in math competitions) in teams. Often times, there are clever tricks involved, and this class will teach students to start thinking about problems in more efficient ways!