Algorithms: The Invisible Mathematics of Everyday Life

How does your phone know you’re holding it sideways and should rotate the screen?
How do Google Maps tell you which way to go home and when you’ll arrive?
And how are schedules planned in a hospital when there are thousands of waiting patients, hundreds of rules and restrictions, and no perfect solution?

In the course, we will focus on the mathematics of algorithms that power our daily lives in the background. We will analyze specific examples from recommendation systems, optimization, networks, or data compression. But mainly, we will brainstorm our own solutions, compare them, and ask why some work better than others.
We will show how simple ideas become systems that handle the enormous complexity of the real world.

This course is for everyone who likes puzzles and pattern seeking. Neither programming nor any advanced mathematics is expected.

Anna Hlédiková

After high school, Anna went from Prague to London, where she began studying mathematics together with philosophy at King’s College London, aiming to focus on the ethics of technology. However, she soon realized she wanted to fully devote herself to mathematics and its practical applications. After completing her bachelor’s degree, she continued with a master’s in artificial intelligence at Imperial College London, supported by a scholarship from DeepMind. She most enjoyed the use of AI in healthcare, which led her to research methods for detecting Alzheimer’s disease from spoken language. After her studies, she gained experience with the use of AI in the media, again in the field of natural language processing. Currently, she is a co-founder of a startup in London, where she focuses on increasing the efficiency of hospital scheduling. In her free time, she likes to travel, dance salsa, discover cafes and galleries, and draw.