Tuesday Oct 03, 2023

006 Po-Shen Lo| math = power

PO'S BIO

Po is the most famous and charismatic math professor in the country. A world class mathematician with degrees in mathematics from CalTech, Cambridge and Princeton happens to teach math at Carnegie Mellon specializing in combinatorics, probability theory and computer science. But this is just one of many hats Po wears. He is also Team USA Coach for the International Mathematics Olympiad (aka the American National Math Team) and is an entrepreneur that has founded three companies.

One of the companies pairs comedians and stage actors with math prodigies to more effectively teach math, is profitable and achieves spectacular results.

As an educator, he was the coach of Carnegie Mellon University’s math team when it achieved its first-ever #1 rank among all North American universities, and the coach of the USA Math Olympiad team when it achieved its first-ever back-to-back #1-rank victories in 2015 and 2016, and then again in 2018 and 2019. His research and educational outreach takes him to cities across the world, reaching over 10,000 people each year through public lectures and events, and he has featured in or co-created videos totaling over 19 million YouTube views.

He recently made news and was profiled by the Wall Street Journal because of a remarkable journey embarked on - the theme - young Americans outsmarting AI. He visited 65 cities, gave 124 lectures and says there is much more to do. And he is doing it - his energy level is astounding, his mind expansive, his mission global, his ideas brilliant. Po is at the top of the game.

"Focus on problems worth solving"

EPISODE OUTLINE

(00:00) - Introduction

(00:38) - Bio

(01:44) - World-scale problems; math, noise

(04:26) - AI promise and peril

(06:54) - Stage actors + math prodigies = wow

(11:23) - Problems worth solving; the future

(13:11) - Lightning round

(14:19) - Outro

PO RELATED LINKS

Po-Shen’s Portfolio of Activities: “Magnetizing Mathematics”