PROFESSOR: For me, growing up, one of my frustrations
was that I felt like I was really interested
in this stuff, and I sort of had the sense that nobody else was.
And, you know, I felt often very isolated growing up,
and one of the things that I think
is great about the program that MIT has here is
that it gives a chance for kids from lots of different areas
to come together, and be with each other,
and be in a very stimulating environment.
For me, personally, I find it--
you know, I mentioned before, the light bulb moment, the aha
moment, there's nothing more exciting to me
than seeing that happen, and it's you know--
I learned a lot in the process of working with kids.
I learn a lot, myself.
It's very easy to think you understand something,
and it's not uncommon for me to get halfway
through explaining something on the chalkboard
and realize that there's actually
something non-trivial that I hadn't really explored fully
before.
And, in fact, my thesis topic, which I just finished up
last week, was actually triggered by a very simple
question that one of the students
asked me in a related class, a number theory class.
Last summer, there was a particular algorithm
that I was presenting in a particular problem,
and he asked, well, what about this case?
And I said, well, that case is a lot harder.
And his simple question was why is it any harder?
It doesn't seem like it should be.
And it turns out he was right.
It's not any harder, and proving that was actually
the basis of my research results.