Abstract: I will discuss geometric structures that have gained interest in (higher) differential geometry and mathematical physics in recent years. A key focus will be on "Courant algebroids", objects with roots in geometric mechanics and Poisson geometry. I will show how concepts from "supergeometry" lead to effective methods for studying these differential geometric objects. The underlying principle is that complicated/unfamiliar objects in classical geometry can often be translated into standard/familiar geometric structures defined on "graded" manifolds. I will illustrate fruitful applications of this viewpoint.
