#183 – Po-Shen Loh: Mathematics, Math Olympiad, Combinatorics & Contact Tracing

Po-Shen Loh, a mathematics professor at Carnegie Mellon, discusses his work in mathematics, education, and disease control. He emphasizes the importance of invention in education, advocating for problem-solving over rote memorization, and details his approach to teaching math through improvisation and guided discovery. Loh also explains NOVID, an app designed to control disease spread by providing users with information about their proximity to outbreaks based on network connections rather than precise location, and frames it as a game theory problem. He also touches on the challenges of scaling algorithms and the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in public health research. The conversation explores the beauty of mathematics, the nature of intelligence, and the value of pursuing ambitious goals.