picrin/project_grasp

Project GRASP is an initiative directed at talented high school students aged 13–18, i.e. years S3–S6, although younger students are welcome on a self-selecting basis. Older students are welcome in the role of tutors. The initiative is carried out in form of weekly classes, hosted by Computing Science department at University of Glasgow. The classes focus on Computer Science and mathematics.

Project Outline

Project GRASP is an initiative directed at talented high school students aged 13–18, i.e. years S3–S6, although younger students are welcome on a self-selecting basis. Older students are welcome in the role of tutors. The initiative is carried out in form of weekly classes, hosted by Computing Science department at University of Glasgow.

2017/2018 classes

In academic year 2017/2018 classes are happening every Tuesday at 16:30, starting on 21st of September. The address is:

18 Lilybank Gardens

Sir Alwyn Williams Building

University of Glasgow

G12 8RZ

The duration of each class is 2 hours

How do the classes look like?

Each class consists of:

1. Presentation of a concept or a technique, most likely unfamiliar to students, and possibly not covered by high school curriculum. The concept presented will be computational or mathematical in nature, although concepts in other areas of science may be included.
2. Presentation of an application of the concept or the technique to a particular computational or mathematical problem.
3. Guided solving of hard and very hard problems, where the presented concept or technique applies.
4. Independent problem solving involving problems of variable difficulty (including very hard and open-ended problems), to be done at home.

The goals of project GRASP are as follows:

1. Create challenging and stimulating environment for highly talented students, who might require more intellectual stimulus than can be provided at school.
2. Create a strong team, capable of competing at the highest level in competitions such as British Mathematical Olympiad (BMO), British Informatics Olympiad (BIO) and other national and international competitions.
3. Entertain students, who find solving hard problems enjoyable.

The following are short summaries of example classes

Example Class - Dynamic Programming

1. Explain dynamic programming, and how it allows to speed up recursive programs with exponential running time into programs with polynomial running time.
2. Explain how the technique is applied in Smith-Waterman algorithm.
3. Help students apply dynamic programming to other computational problems, similar to Smith-Waterman.
4. Set out a task of solving, independently, the stemming word problem, which was used as an interview problem at google.

Example Class - The Difference of Perfect Squares

Another example class would proceed as follows:

1. Explain how the difference of perfect squares (numbers of the form 0, 1, 4, 9, 16, etc.) can only take values with certain special properties.
2. Explain how these properties can be applied to solve problem 3 from BMO 2017 stage 1.
3. Help students solve problem 4 from BMO 2017 stage 2.
4. Set out a task of solving, independently, problem 8 from Polish Mathematical Olympiad 2017 stage 1.

Other topics:

Other potential topics could include:

1. Chinese Remainder theorem
2. Sorting algorithms
3. Cryptography
4. Graph Coloring
5. Mathematics of the Rubik's cube
6. Polya's enumeration theorem
7. Recursive Descent Parsing

Topics from other areas of mathematics, computing science and science may be covered, provided that:

1. The organisers of project GRASP will find willing subject specialists to teach the class on a give topic.
2. The topic admits an exposition accessible to high school students.

Additional, more focused classes may be offered to individuals who qualify for 2nd or 3rd stage of national and international competitions (BMO, BIO, International Mathematical Olympiad, European's Girl Mathematical Olympiad, etc.).

How can I join?

Please get in touch at project-grasp@googlegroups.com