massachusetts institute of technology

Mathematics Professor Gilbert Strang is one of MIT’s most revered instructors; his courses, especially the perennially popular linear algebra course 18.06, have received millions of visits on OpenCourseWare, and his lecture videos have won him a devoted following on YouTube as well. (A sample YouTube comment on one of his lectures: “This is not lecture, this is art.”) A few years ago, Professor Strang began teaching a new course (18.065) focusing on the application of mathematical matrices to deep learning and AI. This new course is very unlike a typical undergraduate math course. For one thing, there’s no final exam—in fact, there are no exams at all! Instead, Professor Strang asks each student to spend the semester developing a project that applies the techniques they’re studying to some topic or problem they personally find interesting. In this episode, we hear from Professor Strang about his efforts to humanize math teaching, the value of thinking through problems in real time during lectures—even if it means getting stuck and having to backtrack!—and the importance of staying continually conscious of your students.   

Relevant Resources:

MIT OpenCourseWare

The OCW Educator Portal 

18.065 on OCW

18.06 on OCW

18.06 Scholar on OCW

Professor Strang’s faculty page

Profile of Professor Strang

Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions

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