Do you want to convince your coder friends that you're smarter than them? Be a totally ninja programmer? Understand the fundamental ideas that make things like Google Maps work? Know the most efficient way to sort your collection of coffees? Land a job at Google? Just learn some really cool stuff? Then take this class! Algorithms are instructions for doing stuff. Like finding the fastest route to Starbucks or computing a square root. The theory of algorithms is what's used to make the modern world do its thing. Algorithms transcend computers and programming; they also emerge in the behavior of the natural world. In this class, we'll cover several important and fundamental algorithms like sorting (how do I organize my coffees?), searching (how do I find the coffee I want?) , graph traversal (how do I get to the coffee-store?), some numerical approximation techniques (how do I cheat at calculus homework so I can go get coffee?), genetic algorithms (how can I find the optimal coffee recipe?) and simulated annealing (another way to find optimal coffee recipes). We may not have time to get to everything, so which of the more advanced techniques we cover may be determined by class vote. We'll also learn the basics of complexity theory, which tells us how hard certain problems are to solve, and how fast a given algorithm can solve them. Implementations of these algorithms will be discussed hands-on using Python, and we may have a programming competition where you can win PRIZES! Like CHOCOLATE and COFFEE!

Want to learn magic? Sorry, we’re not teaching that this year. However, we can teach you how to drastically improve your Magic: The Gathering deck designs! It’s like the next best thing! Want to learn how to lose your MTG playing friends really fast? Are you sick of people wanting to play Magic: The Gathering with you? And how once they do get you to play, the game always lasts more than five turns? Then take this class! This class will cover advanced deckbuilding techniques for a wide variety of play styles and deck archetypes. (with special focus on the beat-your-enemies-really-fast-in-an-unfair-way archetype) We made decks especially for this class, so there will be a lot of examples. After we cover the methods of advanced deck building, the students (that’s you!), will then use http://www.mtgdeckbuilder.net/ to make Magic decks with the optimization methods we’ve explained (so exciting!). Students are also encouraged to bring their existing decks for improvement. Hopefully, if there’s enough time, students will be able to duel each other and try out their creations in an opportunity to win MTG booster packs (omg no way!). We will be playing under the Legacy ruleset (http://goo.gl/sPn1th), though most of the concepts apply to all formats. If possible, becoming familiar with http://www.mtgdeckbuilder.net/ beforehand will probably help your in-class experience.

We're Holmes, you're Watson, and instead of neglecting you like Holmes normally does, we're gonna teach you about deduction and psychoanalysis. For the purposes of this class, we’re defining ‘psychoanalysis’ as deriving information about a person using psychological principles and observational deduction; Because no one likes Sigmund Freud anyway. In other words, this class is about Holmesian Deduction. Want to learn how to deduce a person’s personality, interests, and background from just a few seconds of interaction with them, like the pros do? We deduced that you do, ‘cause if you weren’t cool enough to be doing so, you wouldn’t be at Splash. Come to this class to learn psychoanalysis and deduction from various angles, including appearance, possessions, and less personal methods, like Facebook profiles. Psychoanalyze your friends, psychoanalyze your family, psychoanalyze your enemies, psychoanalyze random strangers, psychoanalyze other Splashers, and even try to psychoanalyze us! Good chocolate will be provided for students who volunteer to be psychoanalyzed, or volunteer to psychoanalyze.