This is a course on problem-solving strategies in mathematics, aimed at bachelors and masters students. While university courses typically focus on the development of “theory”, the accent here will be on creative out-of-the-box applications of classical textbook theorems. We will discuss Putnam-style problems, with the specific goal to help students prepare for the upcoming Bernoulli competition. Experience with high school olympiads will be helpful but is not a prerequisite.
This course does not carry formal credits.
Schedule:
The class will meet from 16:15 to 18:00 on the following Tuesdays:
20.02, 5.03, 19.03, 9.04 ( CE 1 105 ), 16.04 (CH B3 30), 7.05, 21.05 in room GA 321 of the Bernoulli Center for Fundamental Studies at EPFL.
Note: the room may change a few times, so please keep track of announcements.
Lectures are taught by Kaloyan Slavov.
Kaloyan completed his bachelors at Harvard, his masters at Cambridge, and his PhD at MIT. His research in arithmetic algebraic geometry is focused on varieties over finite fields. Since 2015, Dr. Slavov has been the director of the ETH Math Youth Academy – an outreach program of the Department of Mathematics at ETH, aimed at talented high school students.
Colin Sandon will also teach lectures on the Putnam competition problems.
Colin completed his bachelors/master at MIT and his PhD at Princeton. Colin Sandon was a gold IMO and Putnam Fellow. His research is in discrete mathematics, probability, theoretical computer science, theoretical machine learning. Since 2023, he is a scientist in the Mathematics Institute and IC School at EPFL.