Good Problems
7 . Which classes were NOT offered at the original Craft Center ? o Glass Blowing o Ceramics o Homebrewing o Book Arts o Surfboard Shaping o Neon Sign Making o Jewelry Making o Culinary Arts
8 . What campus tradition began in 1984 , featuring “ Arab folk dancing , martial arts demonstrations , juggling , breakdancing , and a performance by the Koala Waltzers ”?
9 . True or false : a ) ___ If not Tritons , we could have been the Dolphins . b ) ___ UC San Diego ’ s Supercomputer Center powers only research initiatives on our campus . c ) ___ More alumni have graduated from the Division of Biological Sciences than from any other . d ) ___ Blacks Beach is named for its dark sand . e ) ___ UC San Diego has never had a university football team . f ) ___ The university once authorized a ropes course between residence hall rooftops . g ) ___ The iconic Ellen B . Scripps Memorial Pier at Scripps Institution of Oceanography is over 100 years old .
MATH PROFESSOR DAVID QUARFOOT , PhD ’ 15 , loves problems . You can tell by the words he uses to describe them : “ elegant ” and “ beautiful ” and “ authentic .” Quarfoot chooses his words carefully , a habit picked up from his hobby making crossword puzzles for The New York Times .
“ I got into them at first as a solver , like most people ,” he says . But he soon had ideas for themes and clues he wanted to see , so he tried his hand at making them . Quarfoot has since created more than 40 puzzles for the Times , and when asked , he believes his background in math helps the creation process . “ If you ’ ve gone deep enough into mathematics , you ’ ve developed an ability to get excited about challenges you can ’ t immediately solve ,” Quarfoot says . “ You ’ ve developed a resilience and can say , ‘ Maybe I won ’ t figure this out in 10 minutes . Maybe it will take an hour to think of this word .’ That frame of mind can be applied to other disciplines , of course , and goes for both creating or solving puzzles .”
Puzzles and problems go hand in hand for Quarfoot , and they have a remarkable relation to his academic pursuits . In addition to his teaching , Quarfoot ’ s research concerns the nature of problems — articulating different qualities and types , the purposes they may serve and simply , what might make them good or bad .
“ There are many ways to define a problem as ‘ good ’— a problem can be good because it helps a student understand an idea , or have greater creativity or build a skill that would serve them well in life . I ’ ve always believed that an easy way to change education is to just put better problems in front of students . Unlike broad curriculum requirements and other enforced standards , teachers really do have control over the kinds of problems they give . And if we understand what it means to give better problems , it could improve education overall .”
As a puzzle creator , Quarfoot often incorporates creative characters — he ’ s used directional arrows before , and may feature a number on occasion ( hint , hint ). He also enjoys themed puzzles — in which the longer entries are all related with the same clue . We asked him for one especially for Tritons , and he didn ’ t hold back . “ Using the Times scale of difficulty , starting with Monday and getting harder through the week , I ’ d call this a Wednesday .”
44 TRITON | FALL 2019