Splash 2024
Course Catalog

Wanna learn how to dance??? How bout breakdance?

Having led Sympoh, Princeton's no-cut, truly no experience necessary, breakdance crew, you can be confident in me to expose you to how to dance and get you closer to being able to express yourself through the art form.

All you gotta do is pull up with clothes you can move in and an eagerness to learn!

Paint paper fans with us in classical Chinese style using watercolor! We'll be showing some watercolor techniques as well as talking about painting fans in Chinese culture.

Do you have stories you dream about bringing to life plus a flair for the dramatic? In this interactive seminar, we will explore one of the most timeless forms of storytelling: theater! We’ll touch on everything from how to discover ideas, what stories suit the stage, ways to format a script, and where and how you can get plays produced. And you’ll leave not just with priceless playwriting knowledge but also with a brand new one-page-play written by you!! No experience needed!

The internet has changed the world in an infinite amount of ways–but how has it changed the way we tell stories? Some writers still prefer their pen and paper, they go the old fashioned way until some editor or publisher mandates that they type it up and turn it into a pdf. But other writers are savy, they dive into the internet headfirst, curious about the ways they can use it to tell new kinds of stories. In this class, will look at some examples of fun and engaging stories people have written that wouldn’t be possible with just paper and pen. We’ll also spend some time as a group playing around with some free, user-friendly online software that allows you to write choose-your-own-adventure storylines.


Prerequisites
none

Learn to crochet! All skill levels welcome!

Want to learn how to draw anything? In this "cute-animal" themed workshop, you'll be introduced to a technique that can help you draw to scale and break creative projects into manageable pieces. Each individual will begin to make an animal portrait to take home. This class is truly for any artistic ability, and all are welcome.

Have you ever wanted a chance to engage with improv--the art of making stuff up on the spot? Well this class offers a series of lessons and games that teach the rules of improv and the art of making stuff up. Ironically, we won't be making up rules and advice for improv on the spot, but be assured they are helpful to improve your improv, both in dedicated improv performances and life in general. Also it will hopefully be funny, though no promises.

An introduction to Jazz music theory followed by (very brief) exploration on George Russell's Lydian Chromatic Concept. Class will involve critical discussion of questions surrounding the concepts of music theory and jazz.


Prerequisites
Some prior exposure to Music Theory very helpful (just a little bit).

Ignite your inner dancer at our Salsa & Bachata workshop! No experience needed – just come ready to learn the basics and some fun choreography perfect for your next family fiesta!

Do you love making vision boards on Pinterest? Do you want to be able to visualize your future? Learn about effective goal-setting and come make aesthetic vision boards that will help you imagine your future!

From combustion to airfoils to turbines, fluids play an important role in our everyday lives. In this “class,” we’ll cover the basics of fluid mechanics, learning how to apply familiar ideas from your high school physics course (such as conservation of mass and Newton’s second law) to small packets of fluids without dwelling too much on the math. In doing so, we’ll see how fluids can be treated as continuous without having to explicitly consider forces on and between individual molecules. The focus will be on appreciating the underlying, big-picture ideas which, when understood well, can be comfortably translated into more precise mathematical language later in your studies. Please let me know if you have any questions about the course at ee1637@princeton.edu


Prerequisites
High school-level physics class

What does chemical engineering have to do with coffee? This course provides a basic introduction to chemical engineering principles, including thermodynamics and separation processes, by going through the brewing process of everyone's favorite caffeinated drink!

Ever wonder how SpaceX launches and lands their rockets, or how the International Space Station stays orbiting around the Earth? How about why a rocket is shaped the way it is? Or maybe you ask yourself, "why do we even put things into space in the first place?"

In partnership with Princeton Rocketry, join Spaceport America Cup Project Lead Jake Vazquez '26 for an introduction to rocket science and orbital mechanics. Students will learn the very basics of what makes rockets fly, how we put objects in orbit, and much much more with a variety of different demonstrations in an interactive lecture format.

Students will also get the opportunity to get up close and personal with Princeton Rocketry's largest competition rocket to date, Prometheus, which will be flying to 30,000 feet in New Mexico this upcoming June!

You may have heard that computers are programmed with 0s and 1s. Although classically this is true, recent developments in physics and engineering have given rise to an entirely new type of computer that can be programmed using quantum bits or "qubits". These computers, called quantum computers, exhibit some strange yet powerful phenomena, such as quantum superposition, and thus have recently been getting a lot of attention for their theoretical ability to solve some very difficult computational problems that classical computers would have a very hard time solving.

This all sounds super cool, but there's a big problem: quantum computers, or specifically qubits, are really really hard to make. Still to this day, scientists and engineers cannot seem to agree on what is the best way to build a qubit, with large companies and governments pouring millions of dollars into quantum hardware research every year. In this class, we will go over some of ways people have tried to physically implement qubits, explain how they work, and discuss the various ways we can quantify how "good" a qubit is.


Prerequisites
Some familiarity with basic physics and vectors/matrices is helpful, but I will try to make this class as self-contained as possible.

Join the Princeton University Robotics Club for an exciting workshop on crafting your own laser tripwire using a Raspberry Pi!

Participants will learn the basics of setting up a Raspberry Pi, its interfacing with hardware components, and the science behind the working of electronics like lasers and light-dependent resistors!

All materials will be provided.

Welcome, language-learning trailblazers, to the ultimate linguistic adventure! 🚀 In this course, we're diving headfirst into the exhilarating world of what research says are the ways we actually learn foreign languages! So gear up, strap in, and get ready to unleash your inner language-learning warrior! This course isn't just about acquiring a new skill, it's about embarking on an epic quest to become a linguistic legend! 🌟 No foreign language knowledge neccesary.

Have you ever wondered how armies fought or wars were waged? This course will take you on a journey through history, examining the transformation of battle tactics and warfare. You’ll learn about the chariots that dominated the ancient world’s battlefields, the knights and castles of the Middle Ages, the gunpowder revolution, and the trench warfare of World War I. We’ll examine how each of these technological eras brought about significant changes in the way wars were fought, and major strategies used to conduct them.


Prerequisites
Be curious

Have you ever wondered what it was like to live in Paris at the turn of the 19th century into the 20th century? Travel back in time to Paris during the so-called “Beautiful Era,” or Belle Époque, which is commonly considered an age of progress, art, and technological innovations that occurred from 1871-1914. However, was this “Beautiful Era” really that “beautiful?” This class will explore not only the Eiffel Tower construction, the flourishing of the arts, and Paris’s hosting of world fairs, but also the social and political unrest which accompanied this period.

Do Hugh Grant movies make you swoon? Or are you more of a Sandra Bullock or Meg Ryan fan? Maybe, you think rom coms are overrated "chick flicks." No matter what you think of them, you've probably seen at least one rom com in your life -- it's one of the most popular genres of the past 50 years. In this class, we'll be looking at how the romantic comedy genre has gained traction, lost it, and found it again through case studies of popular movies like When Harry Met Sally, 10 Things I Hate About You, and Crazy Rich Asians. Learn a little more about film culture, meet other rom com fanatics, and have a good time! Snack provided!

Do you love poetry? Do you hate poetry? This course is for you! We'll explore poetry that reshapes the way you think about the genre, focusing on both the inner workings of a poem and the outward effect. You'll come away with a list of poems and poets to love and (hopefully) a newfound appreciation for the genre.

In this class, we'll introduce the idea of what a manifold is entirely from scratch. We'll discuss ideas from set theory and topology in order to properly understand all of the definitions, with plenty of pictures along the way :)

By the end, you'll know what a manifold is, some definitions and theorems about them, and how they're used in a larger geometric context. There's a lot to cover, but it'll be a fun ride!


Prerequisites
Some prior experience with mathematical proofs would be helpful, and maybe some experience with sets and maps betweem them.

In the past year, education has undergone transformative changes with the integration of large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT and Google Bard. This course aims to peel back the layers of these advanced systems, starting from the basic principles of how they learn from vast quantities of language data. We'll dive into the algorithms and data structures that enable LLMs to understand and generate human-like text, providing a concrete understanding of the technology behind the buzz. Alongside this technical exploration, we'll also consider how these innovations could revolutionize learning, teaching, and accessibility in educational settings. Join us to discover how LLMs are not just reshaping our tools, but also the very landscape of education itself.


Prerequisites
Knowledge of computer science and math would be helpful, but not required.

You've probably used ChatGPT by now and know something about the rapid advancement of research into AI. With this acceleration, there are many concerns about safety and whether intelligent systems will do more harm than good. It is becoming increasingly important to be well-versed in these technologies as they have the potential to disrupt many aspects of our lives. In this class, we'll dive into these topics and ask questions like: how fast are AI systems improving? What are the actual capabilities that AI currently has ... is it all hype? Who's behind these developments, and what are their motivations? Is it possible to "align" AI with human interests?

Synchrony is everywhere in the world, from the firing of pacemaker cells in the heart, to humans clapping in concert, to the revolutions of moons about their planets. How can we understand this wonderful phenomenon? Come learn about some amazing examples of sync in the world, as well as an introduction to the beautiful subject of dynamical systems!


Prerequisites
Only an understanding of calculus at the AB or BC level is needed for this talk!

How do machines learn?

In this mini-course, we'll cover the basics of deep learning (gradient descent, activation functions, neural networks) and then write some code to train our own neural network to do image classification. Given an image of an animal, we will train our neural network to output the category of the animal (e.g. if it's a bird, or a dog, or a cat, etc). (You can also use any other dataset you want).

The class is not math-heavy at all. Everything will be explained conceptually and visually, assuming no prior background (though calculus will be a little helpful).
We will be coding with Python and TensorFlow/PyTorch (the 2 most popular Python libraries for deep learning).


Prerequisites
Bring a laptop. Experience with Python

How do social networks like Twitter and Facebook function? Or Google Maps' route navigation?
Underlying all these technologies are graphs, a useful data structure representing objects and the relationships between them.

In this short "course", we'll explore graphs through hands-on coding, covering how to implement them and travel through them. As a fun application of graphs, we'll code our own version of the algorithm used by The Oracle of Bacon to find how 2 people are connected to each other through mutual friends/relationships. (You can play around with the Oracle of Bacon here: https://oracleofbacon.org)
We'll also briefly touch on other problems in graph theory (like shortest path) and algorithms for solving them which build off what you will learn in this "course".

Absolutely no prior knowledge of graphs is assumed. Get ready to learn about something cool and exciting!

In addition, for those interested in competitive programming and/or software engineering careers, sometimes competitions and interviews have graph problems. This "course" would serve as a useful intro to graphs and point out useful algorithms in the field for further exploration.


Prerequisites
Bring a laptop. Experience with Java and/or C++.

I finally answer once and for all why 1+2+3+4+... = -1/12 using Ramanujan summation. I also connect it with the Riemann zeta function and the Riemann Hypothesis.


Prerequisites
Derivatives, integrals, and infinite series. A small amount of Linear Algebra would be nice but not required.

I mean, $$1$$ is definitely a number. So is $$5$$. $$0$$ has been a number for a long time, but was it always? Pythagoreas famously thought that $$\sqrt 2$$ was NOT a number, and many people today think that "imaginary" numbers are "fake" numbers. So what makes a number, really?


Prerequisites
No hard prerequisites: it is probably recommended to know enough math to (at least vaguely) know what imaginary / complex numbers are.

Upgrade your Desmos skills! Pick Desmos challenges of varying difficulty to tackle or create your own projects. A lot of the class will be working on Desmos by yourself or in small groups, but I will be around to help with any questions. You will have a lot of guidance from the challenges though! **Therefore feel free to enter late or leave early**


Prerequisites
Students must bring a laptop. No prior Desmos experience required.

“Aristotle said a bunch of stuff that was wrong. Galileo and Newton fixed things up. Then Einstein broke everything again. Now, we’ve basically got it all worked out, except for small stuff, big stuff, hot stuff, cold stuff, fast stuff, heavy stuff, dark stuff, turbulence, and the concept of time.” - Zach Weinersmith

In this class, we will explore Einstein's theory of special relativity, which helps us understand how fast stuff works. It turns out that when stuff moves really fast, things that defy everything you thought was true about the universe happen. We will also discuss perhaps special relativity's most beautiful application, showing that magnetism is just electricity but really fast (kind of).


Prerequisites
Some high school physics

Particles, waves, cats, and boxes? The beauty of quantum is hard to realize without learning how we came to the conclusions we have and why we think they’re true. This course will cover the basics of quantum mechanics and our current philosophy about particles, delving into a bit of history to do so. While the concepts we are covering will be tough to grasp, there is no math background required (though I’m happy to go more in depth)! If you’re interested in hearing about some of the cool things physics has to offer without having to take advanced math courses, then this course is for you!

Have you ever gotten chills while listening to music? Have you ever wondered why and how music therapy is used as treatment for neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's? In this exploratory beginner-friendly course, we will explore the frontiers of the intersection between music, neuroscience, psychology, and beyond as we delve into music from around the world and learn how the three-pound glob in our heads makes the music we hear into a full-body experience. We will explore topics such as the speech-to-sound illusion, frisson, the brain’s reward circuitry, auditory-motor interactions, and memory formation. In addition to covering the basics of neuroscience and psychology, this course will also be an opportunity to explore Princeton’s current research in Music Cognition while appealing to students from across the arts and natural sciences!


Prerequisites
None :) (a basic knowledge of neuroscience and/or music may be helpful, but not required!)

Do you love seeing cardinals and chickadees at your bird feeder? Do you want to find New Jersey's rarest birds -- and see its great birding spectacles? Are you already a bird enthusiast, or curious if you might want to become one? We'll teach you about all this and more, including how you can protect nature by protecting birds. This program will be run by members of the Princeton Birding Society, and we're also happy to answer any questions about birding and ornithology at Princeton. At the end of the session, we will give you a take-home bird guide, courtesy of the Birding Society.

Why should we explore space? What exists out there in the vast unknown universe? Come along on a journey of the stars and learn about the never-ending quest to explore our beautiful night sky. Be a part of the most extraordinary adventure that humankind has ever embarked on.

We will be covering some introductory statistical mechanics, going beyond the high school thermodynamics covered in chemistry (and some physics) classes. We will be discussing entropy, partition function, maxwell-boltzmann distribution, fermions/bosons, free energy, and if we have time, the quantum partition function. We will use Thermal Physics by Schroeder as a reference.

I am someone who is curious about the ‘big questions’ people are trying to answer in physics. I want to give you a quick tour of the things that make contemporary physics interesting to me, the questions people are asking in the field, and the reasons about why they are asking those questions.

What is a quantum field (and how can we explain it from a simple pendulum)? What does the quantum fields have to do with a magnifying glass, and ice water transition? Why doesn’t gravity fit into the quantum picture? What other big questions are people concerned with? Like what is the infamous Blackhole information paradox (and why it’s a good laboratory for quantum gravity) and how the hell can space and time be ‘emergent’ (if you have heard of AdS/CFT, this is related!)


Prerequisites
Curiosity

are you a geospatial inquisitor? meaning, do you question literally anything on the surface of our earth, from the boundaries of linguistic dialects to the range of the ponderosa pine, from the extent of ancient glaciers and ice sheets to fault lines under princeton university (oh no!)?

or, are you passionate about global environmental issues and interested in learning how you can use digital mapmaking to raise awareness for them? whatever your forte, one thing's for sure: mapmaking is the best medium for storytelling, so hop on aboard and let's map together :)

Eclairs, cream puffs, profiteroles galore!(and gougeres, but we shall not be making those). You will get the chance to be enlightened on some French pastry history. Come learn some culinary science and try your hand at baking some cream puffs/eclairs. Hopefully we will not burn them. Woohoo!


Prerequisites
Please don't have allergies...

Heat always flows from a hotter body to a colder body...or does it? Energy cannot be created or destroyed...or can it? The entropy of a system always increases..or does it?

In this class, we'll journey through the facts and myths of thermodynamics, making sure to illustrate with real-world examples and demonstrations along the way.

Want to know how to make mice glow in the dark? Have you ever heard of bacterial persistence? Come learn about unique biological techniques from graduate students in Molecular Biology! We'll talk about flow cytometry, optogenetics, and other exciting research methods. This event is sponsored by the Princeton Molecular Biology Outreach Program (MBOP).

Have you ever wondered what makes the natural world so diverse, dynamic, and complex? Come hang out with graduate students from Princeton’s Molecular Biology Outreach Program to learn about evolutionary developmental biology, or "evo-devo.” This field of biology studies how organisms evolve in response to their environments and how changes in their genetic programs create varied body plans. In this class, we will use hands-on activities and interactive discussions to learn how evo-devo builds on fundamental concepts in biology to give us new insights into what makes life - in all of its forms - so beautiful.

Unlocking the power of our immune system could hold the key to conquering cancer.

What is immunotherapy? Why is it so powerful? How do we create new therapies?

Learn how you can one day become a part of this pursuit!

No biology experience required!

Maybe you've heard about it online or on the news, but what even is quantum computing? How do we make a computer that's considered "quantum"? And what makes quantum computing different from regular computing? In this class, we'll answer all these questions and more. Note that we'll be presenting a high-level overview of quantum computing concepts and that little-to-no math knowledge is required. Just come with an open mind as we dive into the curious world of quantum!

Join Princeton Women's Wrestling Club to learn some wrestling moves as well as self-defense. Anyone can join! All you need is some workout clothing.


Prerequisites
None! No wrestling or self-defense experience needed!

Have you ever wanted to learn the game of Mahjongg? Look no further! Learn the object of the game, the suits of the tiles, and the strategy involved. Beginners are especially welcome! No experience required or preferred.

Hi! I am a current junior studying Mathematics at Princeton with minors in Computer Science and Chinese. I'm currently an active member of the Princeton Chess Club and am offering a 2-3 hour chess class for a beginners and intermediate players featuring a prototypical d4 opening with the white pieces. An hour will be spent with playing between students and the rest of the time on opening theory and strengthening chess basics!


Prerequisites
Basic knowledge of how chess pieces move (know what Castling and En-Passant are)

Take a tour of the Psychology department at Princeton by Psychology majors! Learn about all-things psychology at Princeton from a day in the life of a Princeton Psychology major, touring lab spaces in the Psychology department, chatting with faculty in the department, touring lecture halls and seminar spaces, and learning about courses in the Psychology department, Be sure to bring questions, curiosity, and yourself!

Are you a fan of fun games? Do you like exploring strange rules and new activities? Do you want to learn some of the lesser-known board and card games out there? Come and join Princeton Tabletop Society and learn how to play a variety of fun games like Coup, Rolling Realms, and Durak!

Spikeball is cool, but you know what is cooler? Replacing the trampoline with a table - here at Princeton, we ran some tests and discovered that apparently it's a lot of fun. This course is an effort to share the joy of this sport, called ta-ball (pronounced TAY-ball), with the world.

Gasping for a drivers license? Loathing NJ transit? This class is for you! Together, we'll get into the urbanism and suburbanism of New Jersey, exploring the evolution of its cities and suburbs and getting to the bottom how they came to be so different.

Looking for a great job that you can start THIS summer? Lifeguarding is a rewarding and impactful summer job that will make you stand out from your peers, and this course will cover what it's all about. Come learn some basic rescue techniques and find out how you can get lifeguard certified before the summer begins. We'll also discuss some great career paths in aquatics and how working in the field can strengthen your college applications.

Have you ever wondered how people learn their first language? Or how we decoded hieroglyphics? How explorers who came to the New World learned to speak Native languages? Linguistics is the scientific study of languages and how they function. In this class we will try our hand at a number of linguistic puzzles that cover a range of topics. With these puzzles you will have to decode languages, translate scripts, and learn new grammar rules.

Running tour of the beautiful Princeton campus!


Prerequisites
Wear active clothing!

Learn the basics of throwing from Princeton's very own Women's div Ultimate team! We'll also play fun games to apply your throwing skills. Cookies, music and good vibes will be provided :)


Prerequisites
None, just wear closed toed shoes and clothing you can run in!

Want to learn about somewhere new? Want to go to Disneyland or see the Golden Gate Bridge? Interested in impressing family and friends with West Coast university information? Whatever the cause, planning trips in California can be incredibly daunting - for example, San Diego is farther from San Francisco than Boston is from Washington DC - and as a life-long Californian, I'm eager to share my advice and information with you!

Learn more about what makes the Golden State such a fascinating place, from its national landmarks to its must-see tourist destinations and underrated locations. I'll share tips, tricks, and trivia to impress locals and have a safe, entertaining, and logistically reasonable time. We'll have time at class's end for an open Q&A and personalized recommendations!

A quick tutorial on Dungeons and Dragons character creation and world-building. With a brief intro to other TTRPG systems.

Ever want to become a Tetris pro or learn how to play the game? Join and learn the basics of Tetris and 1v1 each other in the game. We will be utilizing the Tetr.io website to play.

Hi! I am a current junior studying Mathematics at Princeton with minors in Computer Science and Chinese. I'm currently an active member of the Princeton Chess Club and am offering a 2-3 hour chess class for a beginners and intermediate players featuring a prototypical d4 opening with the white pieces. An hour will be spent with playing between students and the rest of the time on opening theory and strengthening chess basics!


Prerequisites
Basic knowledge of how chess pieces move (know what Castling and En-Passant are)