The following gives the materials for my contributions to the NU Mirai Education Project 2021

Polyas's four step problem solving method (​Workshop Day 1, 21st August 2021)
Mathematics in daily life and the wonderful(?) world of artificial intelligence  (24th July 2021)
  • Talk slides 
  • Abstract: This lecture was about mathematics and artificial intelligence. The main message of the lecture was to be aware of negative as well positive effects of artificial intelligence. It was shown in a few examples that machine learning (which is part of artificial intelligence) can be used to solve problems, which are hard to solve by conventional methods. This was illustrated by talking about "stupid machines", which are programs/algorithms which are design to do one specific task (e.g. the discrete Fourier transform). These machines are often hard to build but we understand completely how they function. The downside is that some problems are too complicated to be described by an algorithm. Therefore the "smart machines" are machines which can learn via machine learning. These machines can solve hard tasks (such as image recognition) but after learning it is not clear for us how they function. This makes them unpredictable and maybe in some applications this can be dangerous. 
    ​Another aspect of the talk was to illustrate that these "smart machines" can be really powerful. When implementing them, for example, in automated driving cars, one should be aware of the risks and the ethical questions involved. One example given in the lecture is the problem of deciding who is responsible when an automated driving car is involved in an accident.  ​