Each seasonal workshop series focuses on one applied math topic and runs for five one-hour sessions, one per week. Sessions are held online, and sign-ups are managed through the website.
All workshops are free of charge, require no previous knowledge of the subject, and are open to all middle school girls.
Our 2026–2027 workshop catalogue.
Instructor: Helen Xiong
Instructor: Ashley Zhu
Instructor: Ellie Su
Coming soon.
Instructor: Lucy Zhang
Coming soon.
The Logic of Decisions & Strategies
What is game theory? The prisoner's dilemma & Nash equilibrium
Mixed strategy Nash equilibrium & soccer penalty kicks
Game tree, Zermelo's theorem, Chomp
Nim
What does game theory teach us about our world?
Sep 18 – Oct 16
Fridays 8–9pm EST
5 Sessions
Instructor
Helen Xiong is a sophomore at Phillips Academy Andover. She has participated in math competitions including AIME and MATHCOUNTS States, and she enjoys exploring topics across mathematics and physics. Beyond the classroom, Helen writes for the school newspaper, enjoys digital art, and plays Ultimate Frisbee.
Unlocking the World of Cryptography
Cryptography is the art and science of secret communication — and it has shaped empires, won wars, and now secures everything from your email to your bank account. In this course, we travel from ancient ciphers to modern encryption, learning how to both create and break codes along the way.
You'll master classical techniques like the Caesar cipher and Vigenère cipher, then learn how to crack them using frequency analysis. From there, we step into the world of modern cryptography — public and private keys, one-way functions, and how RSA keeps the internet safe.
Perfect for anyone who loves puzzles, patterns, and the idea that math can keep secrets.
5 sessions · 1 hour each · Online · Free
Registration opens when this course is scheduled.
Data, Trends, and Predictions
How do scientists predict the weather? How does Netflix know what you'll watch next? The answer, almost always, is math. In this course, we explore the tools data scientists use to find patterns in messy, real-world data and turn them into confident predictions.
From reading a scatter plot to building a regression model, you'll develop the statistical intuition to ask better questions of any dataset. We'll also tackle one of the most important skills in the modern world: knowing when a correlation is meaningful and when it's just a coincidence.
Come ready to question what the numbers are really telling you.
5 sessions · 1 hour each · Online · Free
Registration opens when this course is scheduled.
The Statistics and Physics Behind Sports
Coming soon.
Nov 7 – Dec 5
Saturdays 8–9pm EST
5 Sessions
Instructor
Ashley Zhu is a sophomore at Phillips Academy Andover. She has been participating in math competitions since elementary school, including the AIME and placing at MATHCOUNTS states. Ashley also enjoys soccer and tennis, playing piano, solving Flow puzzles, and psychology.
Understanding the Universe through Systems, Orbits, and Spaceships
Every app, feed, and search result you see was shaped by an algorithm. But what exactly is an algorithm, and how does it decide what you see? In this course, we demystify the math powering the digital world, from the simple logic of sorting to the surprisingly complex systems behind AI.
You'll learn how Google ranks pages, how Spotify builds playlists, and how matching algorithms pair students with schools. More importantly, you'll develop the tools to think critically about these systems — understanding not just how they work, but who they help and who they leave out.
Essential for anyone who interacts with technology — which is everyone.
5 sessions · 1 hour each · Online · Free
Registration opens when this course is scheduled.
Voting, Fairness & Representation
Democracy sounds simple: everyone votes, the majority wins. But the math of elections is far stranger and more fascinating than it seems. In this course, we discover that there are many ways to run an election — and they can produce very different winners from the exact same set of votes.
We'll dig into ranked-choice voting, the Borda count, and the Condorcet paradox, exploring why a candidate can win every head-to-head matchup and still lose the election. We'll also look at gerrymandering — how the shape of a district can determine an outcome before anyone casts a ballot.
For anyone who cares about fairness and wants to understand the systems that shape society.
5 sessions · 1 hour each · Online · Free
Registration opens when this course is scheduled.
Coming Soon
Our fourth workshop series is currently in development. We're working on something exciting — check back soon for details on the topic, syllabus, and registration.
If you'd like to be notified when this course is announced, sign up for our newsletter.
Topic, lessons, and materials will be posted here once the course is finalized.
5 sessions · 1 hour each · Online · Free