As the educational landscape changes, it is giving birth to a whole new generation of learning software and learning software companies. In part, this change is being driven by the introduction of “adaptive” technologies, which, writ large, seek to personalize the learning process for each student. By personalizing the education experience, these new platforms hope to improve student outcomes… → Read More
When Desmos launched at TechCrunch Disrupt NYC last year, the startup was on a mission to create platform-agnostic software that would allow users to build and share their own educational content. In essence, they set out to create a browser-based, interactive whiteboard. The early product attracted the attention of Mitch Kapor, Learn Capital, and Kindler Capital, who invested $800K in Desmos… → Read More
Remember Grant? The guy who gave out pumpkins on Black Friday? Well he’s back with a whole new game. He and his senior class made an eight-foot Sierpinski Triangle, a “a fractal and attractive fixed set named after the Polish mathematician Wacław Sierpiński” out of $75 worth of pennies. His goal? Fame, glory, and the undying affection of millions of girls. He also notes that “As far as we know… → Read More
You’ve been adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing all day long. The sweat gathers in the arm pit region of your short-sleeve button-down work shirt. Your pocket protector feels like it weighs a thousand pounds. Only 15 minutes to go and you can hop in your Subaru, drive home, and take a nice, long shower. If only there was a shower curtain to reflect your status as one of the world’s… → Read More
Hypothetically, say you found a safe in your garage. Maybe left there by the previous owner, maybe part of your wife’s family’s old junk — nobody seems to know. You hear an intriguing rattle inside; what could it be? Gold? Silver? An old stick of gum? Only one way to find out: design a robot to attempt every combination possible on the lock and have it run night and day.
Of course, you… → Read More
There hasn’t been too much buzz lately about that Netflix programming contest. You remember the one: Netflix ponied up $10M US dollars to any team that could improve their movie recommendation system by 10%. When I was a Netflix user I was never really dissatisfied by the recommendation system, so it’s hard for me to imagine how they’d gauge that it was 10% better than it was before. Nonetheless… → Read More
ExtremeTech, using an advanced scientific method called “math”, has reduced the price of RAM down to the cost-per-megabyte level, revealing some interesting information. According to their crack squad of investigators, “DDR3-1600 kits triple channel kits offer a lower cost-per-gigabyte than dual-channel kits.” But wait before you rush off to stuff triple channel kits into your Core i7 system, and… → Read More
Are you ready to ruuuuummmmmble? MIT is offering a course in “Street-Fighting Mathematics” and the course materials are all online, ready for you to rock out in some TapouT and throw down some dimensional analysis in this bitch. This course teaches the art of guessing results and solving problems without doing a proof or an exact calculation. Techniques include extreme-cases reasoning… → Read More
If ever anyone tells you that math is all theory and no application, slap them in the face. Then tell them that in just the latest example of applied mathematics having real-world effects, Dell has employed a complex mathematical model to predict shipping rates, inventory problems, and so on, with phenomenal success. Professor of Operations Management Jérémie Gallien says: “Before our… → Read More
http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-6626464599825291409&hl=it Maybe you woke up today and said to yourself, “You know, I’d love to watch an online video and be made to feel like a complete dunce.” If that’s the case, then block out 20 minutes from your schedule and watch this video on how to turn a sphere inside out. I’m glad to have majored in… → Read More
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