Natural Mathematics: Intuition and Insight

Contemporary Science Issues and Innovations
August 19, 2014 Belmont Media Center, Belmont MA

Sanjoy Mahajan, PhD, Associate Professor of Applied Science and Engineering, Olin College of Engineering; and Visiting Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Sanjoy Mahajan's CalTech TEDx Talk Rote Learning Fragments the World
Dr. Mahajan on NPR's Here and Now (6/14/14 -scroll down to item) A Lesson In Educated Guessing

Dr. Mahajan brings an enlightened approach to teaching mathematics by encouraging intuition and guessing. And he shows that this approach is not only more natural, it's also necessary in a great many of the real problems scientists and engineers try to solve. This is a way of thinking that is also applicable to problem-solving in general, not just in mathematics. Here's an opportunity to celebrate our natural way of thinking. Professor Mahajan explains how to develop this as a genuine skill.

Sanjoy Mahajan's books (below) are available through CreativeCommons license

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Street-Fighting Mathematics: The Art of Educated Guessing and Opportunistic Problem Solving (MIT Press, 2010)

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The Art of Insight in Science and Engineering (MIT Press, Sept 2014)