Online courses directory (273)

This course will cover various topics on the discoveries about how the Universe evolved in 13.7 billion years since the Big Bang.

This course focuses on three particularly interesting areas of astronomy that are advancing very rapidly: Extra-Solar Planets, Black Holes, and Dark Energy. Particular attention is paid to current projects that promise to improve our understanding significantly over the next few years. The course explores not just what is known, but what is currently not known, and how astronomers are going about trying to find out.

Fluid power has the highest power density of all conventional power-transmission technologies. Learn the benefits and limitations of fluid power, how to analyze fluid power components and circuits, and how to design and simulate fluid power circuits for applications.

This course provides a thorough introduction to the principles and methods of physics for students who have good preparation in physics and mathematics. Emphasis is placed on problem solving and quantitative reasoning. This course covers Newtonian mechanics, special relativity, gravitation, thermodynamics, and waves.

This is a continuation of Fundamentals of Physics, I (PHYS 200), the introductory course on the principles and methods of physics for students who have good preparation in physics and mathematics. This course covers electricity, magnetism, optics and quantum mechanics.

General introduction to systems engineering using both the classical V-model and the new Meta approach. Topics include stakeholder analysis, requirements definition, system architecture and concept generation, trade-space exploration and concept selection, design definition and optimization, system integration and interface management, system safety, verification and validation, and commissioning and operations. Discusses the trade-offs between performance, lifecycle cost and system operability. Readings based on systems engineering standards and papers. Students apply the concepts of systems engineering to a cyber-electro-mechanical system, which is subsequently entered into a design competition.

Students will prepare a PDR (Preliminary Design Review)-level design intended for the Cansat Competition.This year's class will be taught in the form of a Small-Private-Online-Course (SPOC) and offered simultaneously to students at MIT under number 16.842 and Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) as ENG-421.

An introduction to the modern extragalactic astronomy and cosmology, the physical universe, big bang, formation and evolution of galaxies, quasars, and large-scale structure.

8.962 is MIT's graduate course in general relativity, which covers the basic principles of Einstein's general theory of relativity, differential geometry, experimental tests of general relativity, black holes, and cosmology.

Students will explore energy consumption patterns including individuals, countries and the entire globe. These patterns will include all sectors of the global economy from fully developed countries to developing nations. New energy sources will be investigated and international solutions to future needs will be analyzed.

Despite spectacular recent progress, there is still a lot we don't know about our universe. We don't know why the Big Bang happened. We don't know what most of the universe is made of. We don't know whether there is life in space. We don't know how planets form, how black holes get so big, or where the first stars have gone. This course will take you through nine of the greatest unsolved problems of modern astrophysics. We can't promise you the answers, but we will explain what we do and don't know, and give you an up-to-date understanding of current research. This course is designed for people who would like to get a deeper understanding of these mysteries than that offered by popular science articles and shows. 

This is the first of four ANUx courses which together make up the Australian National University's first year astrophysics program. It is followed by courses on exoplanets, on the violent universe, and on cosmology. These courses compromise the Astrophysics XSeries. Learn more about the XSeries program and register for all the courses in the series today!

An introduction to physics in the context of everyday objects.

Human Supervisory Control of Automated Systems discusses elements of the interactions between humans and machines.  These elements include: assignment of roles and authority; tradeoffs between human control and human monitoring; and human intervention in automatic processes.  Further topics comprise: performance, optimization and social implications of the system; enhanced human interfaces; decision aiding; and automated alterting systems.  Topics refer to applications in aerospace, industrial and transportation systems.

A flow is called hypersonic if the Mach number is greater than 5. This means that the flow speed is more than five times the speed of sound. In air at room temperature, the speed of sound is around 340 m/s, so a Mach 5 flow would have a flow speed of 1.7 km/s or just over 6,000 km/h. When a rocket launches a satellite into earth orbit, when a probe enters the atmosphere of another planet or when an aircraft is propelled by a supersonic combustion ramjet engine (a scramjet), hypersonic flows are encountered. Hypersonics – from Shock Waves to Scramjets introduces the basic concepts associated with flight at speeds greater than Mach 5 and takes students to the stage where they can analyse the performance of a scramjet engine that might be used in a future access-to-space system.

Are we alone? This course introduces core concepts in astronomy, biology, and planetary science that enable the student to speculate scientifically about this profound question and invent their own solar systems.

This class addresses some of the important issues involved with the planning, development, and implementation of lean enterprises. People, technology, process, and management dimensions of an effective lean manufacturing company are considered in a unified framework. Particular emphasis is placed on the integration of these dimensions across the entire enterprise, including product development, production, and the extended supply chain. Analysis tools as well as future trends and directions are explored. A team project is a key component of this subject.

This course integrates studies of engineering sciences, reactor physics and safety assessment into nuclear power plant design. Topics include materials issues in plant design and operations, aspects of thermal design, fuel depletion and fission-product poisoning, and temperature effects on reactivity, safety considerations in regulations and operations, such as the evolution of the regulatory process, the concept of defense in depth, General Design Criteria, accident analysis, probabilistic risk assessment, and risk-informed regulations.

Organic chemistry course covering intermediate topics in structure and reactivity with emphasis on electronic structure, pericyclic reactions and aromatic heterocycles.

Organic chemistry course covering intermediate topics in structure and reactivity with special applications to the life sciences.

In 16.540 we address fluid dynamic phenomena of interest in internal flow situations. The emphasis tends to be on problems that arise in air breathing propulsion, but the application of the concepts covered is more general, and the course is wider in scope, than turbomachines (in spite of the title). Stated more directly, the focus is on the fluid mechanic principles that determine the behavior of a broad class of industrial devices. The material can therefore be characterized, only partly tongue in cheek, as "industrial strength fluid mechanics done in a rigorous manner".

Study physics abroad in Europe -- virtually! Learn the basics of physics on location in Italy, the Netherlands and the UK, by answering some of the discipline's major questions from over the last 2000 years.