ESP Biography



KRIS SANKARAN, Math and Statistics Student



Major: Mathematics

College/Employer: Stanford

Year of Graduation: 2013

Picture of Kris Sankaran

Brief Biographical Sketch:

Kris Sankaran is currently a junior majoring in mathematics with an active interest in statistics. He is excited by interdisciplinary problems and has wide-ranging intellectual interests. He has held research internships in the Stanford Department of Statistics and the Carnegie Institution for Science, where he investigated multiple testing of hierarchically dependent hypotheses and the protein network of Arabidopsis thaliana, respectively. Outside of academics, Kris is involved in activism and the arts.



Past Classes

  (Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

M1642: Probability and Statistics Paradoxes in Splash! Fall 2011 (Oct. 29 - 30, 2011)
Even in introductory probability theory and statistics, paradoxes abound. We'll encounter some of these counterintuitive results in an informal and interactive setting. For example, we'll discuss the classic Monty Hall, gambler's ruin, and St. Petersburg problems along with Simpson's Paradox. In the process, we'll begin to see how probability and statistics approach the rigorous quantification and understanding of uncertainty and randomness. And hopefully we'll all have fun too.


M1232: Puzzling Problems in Probability in Splash! Spring 2011 (Apr. 16 - 17, 2011)
We will look at some of the classic problems from beginning probability. What kinds of problems? Well... We will finds the probability that any two people in the audience have the same birthday. We will catch a cautious counterfeiter, and also a greedy one. We will play matchmaker and collect coupons. And, of course, we will demonstrate the Monty Hall paradox--a problem stumps elementary school and graduate students with equal probability.