Throughout history, humans have often had the need to communicate secretly. But how can you make a message clear to its intended recipient and indecipherable to everyone else? This is the purpose of the ancient art of cryptography, which we will be plunging into in this class. We will explore some of the countless mathematical tricks that can be used to keep information secret, from simple letter substitutions to the complex algorithms used to secure your email and social media accounts. Regardless of your background or level of experience, this class will be sure to leave you saying "Epeh az xpdcausitny!"

Do you want to become a wizard of words, a master of the English language? Do you want to craft gemlike prose that reaches into the depths of your reader's consciousness and illuminates their very soul? If so, then you shouldn't take this class, because we (your instructors) don't know how to do those things. But if you want to spend a few hours freewriting, playing silly writing games, and generally having fun with the creative process, then this class is for you.

Mathematicians love games, and they love winning them even more. In fact, over the course of several hundred years, they have created an entire branch of mathematics – game theory – to help them win more often. This class will be an even mix of having fun with mathematical games and exploring deep questions about the nature of strategy, what it means to be rational, and what game theory can tell us about the real world. The games that we'll be discussing have funny names like Hackenbush and Nim, and they work quite differently from the games that you're probably used to, but there's a good chance that you'll come out of this class wanting to play them at home!

Srinivasa Ramanujan is considered by many to be the most brilliant mathematician who ever lived, and certainly one of the most unlikely. Born to a poor family in southern India in 1887, Ramanujan's innate mathematical talent was so great that it allowed him to rise above his harsh surroundings and devote his life to proving some of the deepest and most mysterious theorems in mathematics. By his untimely death at the age of 32, Ramanujan had left a mathematical legacy so rich and complex that modern scholars are still struggling to make sense of some of his work. This class will be a mix of learning about Ramanujan's remarkable story and using some of the mathematical puzzles that most fascinated him as a window into his mind. Expect to come away with a newfound appreciation for one of the most little-known geniuses of history.