Upper School Intersession 2025

I will give advice on improvement in chess: how to practice and how to choose out of the sea of content and players online to learn from. After this discussion we will apply the ideas with games and review in class.

Prerequisite: Familiarity with all rules of chess including checkmate, castling, and en passant. Familiarity with chess notation is helpful.

If you enjoyed learning about fractals in 4th grade CTU or Steven's popular Fun With Fractals summer camp, or you just find fractals & chaos fascinating, this might be the session for you. In this two-and-a-half hour session, we'll explore the fascinating logistic function, a simple iterative function that is used to model population dynamics and contains cycles of every length along with true chaos (which we'll define). We'll also learn the simple but incredibly powerful L-systems (Lindenmayer systems) grammar for creating fractals of startling complexity and variety. Time permitting, we also also take a deep dive into the mathematics of the Mandelbrot set or other still-to-be-decided-but-guaranteed-to-be-cool topics.

What do self-driving cars, Alexa, iPhone's face recognition technology, and ChatGPT have in common? They are driven by modern advances in artificial intelligence. Whether you’re interested in law, healthcare, art, or economics, AI is poised to transform every discipline and industry in the future. AI is already all around us today, and by the end of the program, students will understand the underlying concepts and motivations behind technology such as computer vision, natural language processing, and neural networks.
 
In this course, we will explore the foundations of machine learning and explore different applications of machine learning models. In the first half of the course, students learn AI’s core technologies including applications, foundational concepts, and programming tools through live lectures and coding labs. Students will not only learn about different types of machine learning models but also apply those models to real data sets. In the second half of the course, students will complete an instructor-led group project applying AI to the discipline of their choice (e.g., music, healthcare, astrophysics, finance, etc.), utilizing the programming skills they developed in the first half.

Please read more here!

Course Structure

Machine Learning Talks
Learn about machine learning algorithms and techniques in a uniquely interactive, engaging format, before you apply that knowledge in live coding labs.

Hands-On Python Coding
Develop valuable skills in Python, machine learning, and artificial intelligence in our hands-on coding labs, using cutting-edge research to solve real-world problems like breast cancer diagnosis, building self-driving cars, and more.

Project-Based Learning
In our AI for Social Good project, students will be able to apply their newly acquired talents in a collaborative, challenging environment, applying AI to a domain they’re passionate about (e.g., music, healthcare, astrophysics, finance, etc.). Students can use these projects in their résumés and college applications.

We will cover the history of AI in chess from the first simple algorithms to the best modern engines, covering both their progress in chess and the meaning for AI as a whole.

Students will have the chance to develop their own simple chess AI, and will be given guides on how to develop more elaborate ones.

If you enjoyed learning about fractals in 4th grade CTU or Steven's popular Fun With Fractals summer camp, or you just find fractals & chaos fascinating, this might be the session for you. In this two-and-a-half hour session, we'll explore the fascinating logistic function, a simple iterative function that is used to model population dynamics and contains cycles of every length along with true chaos (which we'll define). We'll also learn the simple but incredibly powerful L-systems (Lindenmayer systems) grammar for creating fractals of startling complexity and variety. Time permitting, we also also take a deep dive into the mathematics of the Mandelbrot set or other still-to-be-decided-but-guaranteed-to-be-cool topics.

Suppose you need to match one million students to one thousand colleges. Students have preferences over colleges, and colleges have preferences over their applicants. Is there a "good" way to reconcile all these preferences on both sides -- and what does "good" even mean in this context? We are going to discuss the basics of matching theory, a research area at the intersection of Economics and Computer Science that develops tools for answering such questions. We will also discuss applications of this theory: matching young doctors to hospitals, students to schools, and cadets to army branches.

Matching theory is one of the key parts of the broader discipline of the design of economic mechanisms, and if time permits, we will briefly touch on some other topics in this discipline.

This class will cover each piece individually: cases where it is strong, cases where it is weak, and how to make your own pieces powerful and your opponent's pieces weak.

Prerequisite: Familiarity with all rules of chess including checkmate, castling, and en passant. Familiarity with chess notation is helpful.

You probably know how to play poker, but what about classic strategy card games like Hearts, Spades, Euchre and Oh Hell!? If you’ve never played or just want to refresh yourself on the gameplay and get some practice, come join us…

Most of these games date back hundreds of years and have survived the test of time because they’re so well designed and so fun. We’ll talk about the rules and mechanics of each game, how to bid and score, and some basic strategy considerations. We’ll play a few hands of each and you can decide for yourself which is/are your favorite(s).

This will be a really relaxing way to learn some new games that you can play with family and friends. No prior experience playing cards is needed but we’ll send around a few videos in advance for folks to have some context coming in. And if you have the competitive spirit, we’ll be hosting a second session later this day that offers the chance to play full rounds in a friendly tournament.

Feel free to email Dan Bomze (dbomze@gmail.com) if you have any questions in advance of signing up

During this session, we will learn how a mathematical problem from game theory, whose solution was found by ancient Israelites over 2000 years ago but never recorded, was found anew by modern day mathematicians. Brace yourself for a wild ride.

P.S. I'll share the solution, promise!

If you know how to play any (or all) of the classic card games Hearts, Spades, Euchre and/or Oh Hell!, come join us to test your skills against other Nuevans. We’ll be hosting a friendly tournament that promises to be a fun time and there will be prizes! 

We’ll take a poll of everyone who joins the session and can mix and match different games to create one or more tournaments that appeal to everyone.

Everyone is welcome, from beginner to advanced. And encourage your favorite faculty and staff members to join the action. If you have never played or are a bit rusty, please join the earlier session in the day where we’re teaching folks to play all these games. And we’ll also have some video refreshers available (and live “coaching”) if you have questions as you go.

Feel free to email Dan Bomze (dbomze@gmail.com) if you have any questions in advance of signing up

In this session you'll learn how to design in-person storytelling games (including tabletop roleplaying games and larp). We'll play a few short games together and talk about processes and principles for game design. Then you'll design your own games and playtest them.

No prior play or design experience required.

During this session, we will learn how a mathematical problem from game theory, whose solution was found by ancient Israelites over 2000 years ago but never recorded, was found anew by modern day mathematicians. Brace yourself for a wild ride.

P.S. I'll share the solution, promise!

Thanks to significant advances in machine learning and data science, decision makers are embracing and employing advanced algorithms and statistical models to help with or fully automate difficult tasks across our society. With examples ranging from advertising and finance to healthcare and criminal justice, machine learning tools have become ubiquitous. While often providing significant improvements in speed and performance, these tools come with increased complexity that can make the decision making process opaque and difficult to evaluate. How did your model make that prediction? Why? Are the decisions that it makes fair? How can we quantify fairness? In this activity, we will discuss real-world examples of automated algorithmic decision making along with the practical and ethical problems they can face. We will explore the ideas of bias, fairness, safety, and interpretability.

How many ways can you make $0.97 from quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies?
How can you derive a closed-form formula for the sum of the first n squares or cubes? Or for the n-th Fibonacci number?

These all sound like inherently discrete counting problems--yet there are ideas from the realm of continuous functions, which have an essentially non-discrete, infinite character, that can be used to solve them. We'll explore generating functions, which encode solutions in polynomials, and touch on finite calculus, which extends ideas of calculus to the discrete realm.

Prerequisites: most of the class will just use ideas through precalculus, but familiarity with basic derivatives and integrals will be helpful for the last part of the class.

This class will cover the basic fundamentals of the game of Go and hopefully start you on a path towards learning a strategy game that's captivated millions of minds around the world for thousands of years. Students who already know how to play are welcome to join and will be paired up with other experienced players.

Go (also known as Weiqi, Baduk and Igo) is an ancient Chinese strategy board game that has been around for at least 2000 years. It's often considered the oldest strategy game on the planet that's still being played in its original form (although Chess has also existed for thousands of years, the rules have changed over time).

Once upon a time, it was considered one of the four essential arts of a Chinese scholar and although it's not very well known in the Western world, it is still widely played in China, Japan and Korea today, with major tournaments often being broadcast on the news and online.

Go players often joke that you can learn the game in a few minutes but it may take you the rest of your life to master. Come to this class if you like deep strategy games and puzzles! I'd love to help you start on your Go journey!

Students who attend this session are invited to the open Go play sessions.

Now that you know some of the basics of Go playing, this is your chance to practice and play with an instructor available to advise you.

This session is open to students who attend the introduction "Learn to Play" class or anyone who knows the basics of how to play.

Do you like card games, puzzles, or problem-solving? Are you interested in the logical thinking and people-reading skills used in games like chess or poker? Do you want to try something different and fun? Bridge is a game you can play all your life. No experience necessary. Learn what you need to know to get started for a lifetime of fun at the bridge table.

Students who attend this session are invited to the open Bridge play session in the afternoon.

Now that you know some of the basics of bridge playing, have some fun at the bridge tables. Here's your chance to practice the basics of bidding and play while you have an instructor available to help you.

This session is open to students who attended the introduction "Learn to Play" class or anyone who knows the basics of how to play.