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PROFESSOR: For me, growing
up, one of my frustrations

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was that I felt like I
was really interested

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in this stuff, and I sort of had
the sense that nobody else was.

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And, you know, I felt often
very isolated growing up,

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and one of the
things that I think

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is great about the program
that MIT has here is

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that it gives a chance for kids
from lots of different areas

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to come together, and
be with each other,

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and be in a very
stimulating environment.

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For me, personally, I find it--

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you know, I mentioned before,
the light bulb moment, the aha

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moment, there's nothing
more exciting to me

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than seeing that happen,
and it's you know--

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I learned a lot in the
process of working with kids.

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I learn a lot, myself.

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It's very easy to think
you understand something,

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and it's not uncommon
for me to get halfway

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through explaining
something on the chalkboard

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and realize that
there's actually

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something non-trivial that I
hadn't really explored fully

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before.

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And, in fact, my thesis topic,
which I just finished up

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last week, was actually
triggered by a very simple

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question that one
of the students

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asked me in a related class,
a number theory class.

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Last summer, there was
a particular algorithm

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that I was presenting
in a particular problem,

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and he asked, well,
what about this case?

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And I said, well, that
case is a lot harder.

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And his simple question
was why is it any harder?

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It doesn't seem
like it should be.

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And it turns out he was right.

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It's not any harder, and
proving that was actually

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the basis of my
research results.