The Information<\/em>. I thought that Shannon\u2019s approach to research seemed so unique and exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nClaude Shannon, often referred to as the \u201cfather of information theory,\u201d was known for his ability to merge theoretical abstractions with practical applications. This duality is what captivated Karamchedu, who highlighted Shannon\u2019s whimsical and playful approach to research in his essay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cShannon was fascinated by theoretical abstractions and was also drawn to the practicality of building things he found fun and interesting,\u201d Karamchedu says. \u201cWhat really stood out to me was how much he allowed his whimsy and sense of fun to drive his research, finding deep abstractions in places we don\u2019t normally look, especially games and toys.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Karamchedu\u2019s essay focuses on the relationship between games and toys and Shannon\u2019s two most famous papers: \u201cA Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits\u201d and \u201cA Mathematical Theory of Communication.\u201d He also touches upon Shannon\u2019s lesser-known passions, such as juggling and chess. Shannon wrote an unpublished paper on the mathematics of juggling and built one of the world\u2019s first chess-playing machines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Through his exploration of Shannon\u2019s work and philosophy, Karamchedu has gained valuable insights into his own research approach. Looking to the 2024 fall semester, Karamchedu is eager to bring Shannon\u2019s playful spirit and innovative mindset to the HMC makerspace, a student-run facility with access to tools, resources, space and storage for personal and academic projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLearning about Shannon has taught me the importance of looking for ideas in all things,\u201d he says. \u201cShannon\u2019s skill was being able to take complex ideas that we see in games, toys, puzzles and the world around us and distill them into elegant formulations. While many deep and beautiful ideas are motivated by pure theory, the cool things that we see in the world or that we build can have ideas that are just as powerful. This philosophy is incredibly inspiring to me, and I hope to implement it as much as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Harvey Mudd College computer science and mathematics major Mithra Karamchedu \u201926 was recognized by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":13401,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,967,22,30],"class_list":["post-13399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-computer-science","category-general-feed","category-mathematics","category-students"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13399"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13400,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13399\/revisions\/13400"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}