Online courses directory (272)

Through a combination of lectures, cases, and class discussions this subject examines the economic and political conflict between transportation and the environment. It investigates the role of government regulation, green business and transportation policy as facilitators of economic development and environmental sustainability. It analyzes a variety of international policy problems including government-business relations; the role of interest groups, non-governmental organizations, and the public and media in the regulation of the automobile; sustainable development; global warming; the politics of risk and siting of transport facilities; environmental justice; equity; and transportation and public health in the urban metropolis. It provides students with an opportunity to apply transportation and planning methods to developing policy alternatives in the context of environmental politics.

This class surveys the current concepts, theories, and issues in strategic management of transportation organizations. It provides transportation logistics and engineering systems students with an overview of the operating context, leadership challenges, strategies, and management tools that are used in today's public and private transportation organizations. The following concepts, tools, and issues are presented in both public and private sector cases: alternative models of decision-making, strategic planning (e.g., use of SWOT analysis and scenario development), stakeholder valuation and analysis, government-based regulation and cooperation within the transportation enterprise, disaster communications, systems safety, change management, and the impact of globalization.

Approaching transportation as a complex, large-scale, integrated, open system (CLIOS), this course strives to be an interdisciplinary systems subject in the "open" sense. It introduces qualitative modeling ideas and various techniques and philosophies of modeling complex transportation enterprises. It also introduces conceptual frameworks for qualitative analysis, such as frameworks for regional strategic planning, institutional change analysis, and new technology development and deployment. And it covers transportation as a large-scale, integrated system that interacts directly with the social, political, and economic aspects of contemporary society. Fundamental elements and issues shaping traveler and freight transportation systems are covered, along with underlying principles governing transportation planning, investment, operations, and maintenance.

The main objective of this course is to give broad insight into the different facets of transportation systems, while providing a solid introduction to transportation demand and cost analyses. As part of the core in the Master of Science in Transportation program, the course will not focus on a specific transportation mode but will use the various modes to apply the theoretical and analytical concepts presented in the lectures and readings.

Introduces transportation systems analysis, stressing demand and economic aspects. Covers the key principles governing transportation planning, investment, operations and maintenance. Introduces the microeconomic concepts central to transportation systems. Topics covered include economic theories of the firm, the consumer, and the market, demand models, discrete choice analysis, cost models and production functions, and pricing theory. Application to transportation systems include congestion pricing, technological change, resource allocation, market structure and regulation, revenue forecasting, public and private transportation finance, and project evaluation; covering urban passenger transportation, freight, aviation and intelligent transportation systems.

This course gives an introduction to probability and statistics, with emphasis on engineering applications. Course topics include events and their probability, the total probability and Bayes' theorems, discrete and continuous random variables and vectors, uncertainty propagation and conditional analysis. Second-moment representation of uncertainty, random sampling, estimation of distribution parameters (method of moments, maximum likelihood, Bayesian estimation), and simple and multiple linear regression. Concepts illustrated with examples from various areas of engineering and everyday life.

1.34 focuses on the geotechnical aspects of hazardous waste management, with specific emphasis on the design of land-based waste containment structures and hazardous waste remediation. Topics include: introduction to hazardous waste, definition of hazardous waste, regulatory requirements, waste characteristics, geo-chemistry, and contaminant transport; the design and operation of waste containment structures, landfills, impoundments, and mine-waste disposal; the characterization and remediation of contaminated sites, the superfund law, preliminary site assessment, site investigation techniques, and remediation technologies; and monitoring requirements.

This course is an overview of engineering approaches to protecting water quality with an emphasis on fundamental principals. Theory and conceptual design of systems for treating municipal wastewater and drinking water are discussed, as well as reactor theory, process kinetics, and models. Physical, chemical, and biological processes are presented, including sedimentation, filtration, biological treatment, disinfection, and sludge processing. Finally, there is discussion of engineered and natural processes for wastewater treatment.

The course material emphasizes mathematical models for predicting distribution and fate of effluents discharged into lakes, reservoirs, rivers, estuaries, and oceans. It also focuses on formulation and structure of models as well as analytical and simple numerical solution techniques. Also discussed are the role of element cycles, such as oxygen, nitrogen, and phosphorus, as water quality indicators; offshore outfalls and diffusion; salinity intrusion in estuaries; and thermal stratification, eutrophication, and sedimentation processes in lakes and reservoirs. This course is a core requirement for the Environmental MEng program.

This subject is concerned with quantitative methods for analyzing large-scale water resource problems. Topics covered include the design and management of facilities for river basin development, flood control, water supply, groundwater remediation, and other activities related to water resources. Simulation models and optimization methods are often used to support analyses of water resource problems. In this subject we will be constructing simulation models with the MATLAB® programming language and solving numerical optimization problems with the GAMS optimization package.

This course covers the basic principles of elastic behavior for different materials such as wood, steel, concrete, and composite materials and compares the properties and applications of materials generally. It investigates cross sectional stress and strain behavior in flexure and in shear, and torsion as well as the stability of beams and columns. The qualitative behavior of combined stresses and fracture in materials is also covered. Course Level: Undergraduate This Work, ARCH 324 - Structures 2, by Peter von Buelow is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license.

Recommender systems guide people to interesting materials based on information from other people. A large design space of alternative ways to organize such systems exists. The information that other people provide may come from explicit ratings, tags, or reviews, or implicitly from how they spend their time or money. The information can be aggregated and used to select, filter, or sort items. The recommendations may be personalized to the preferences of different users. Course Level: Graduate This Work, SI 580 - Understanding Records and Archives: Principles and Practices, by Paul Conway is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.

This course builds on the conceptual framework of information needs and the use of information provided in SI 501. In that course the focus is on techniques that information professionals use to understand the needs of people who employ a wide variety of information systems. Emphasis is on professional practice. Professional practice occurs both in institutional settings (including public, academic, special, and school libraries and information centers) and directly between information professionals and clients (such as information brokers). Prepares students for need-based, client-centered professional practice in a variety of information environments (including public, academic, special libraries and school media centers) in a period of major change. Professional practice consists of a variety of functions and practices which increase client access to information and knowledge. It is based both on an understanding of user information constructs and on knowledge of information systems and services. Course addresses concepts related to public libraries, academic libraries, special libraries, medical libraries, school libraries, and information centers, strategy and strategies, competency, and competencies. Course Level: Graduate This Work, SI 643 - Professional Practice in Libraries and Information Centers, by Joan C. Durrance is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.

In the third edition of Solar Energy, you will learn to design a complete photovoltaic system. This course introduces the technology that converts solar energy into electricity, heat and solar fuels with a main focus on electricity generation. Photovoltaic (PV) devices are presented as advanced semiconductor devices that deliver electricity directly from sunlight. The emphasis is on understanding the working principle of a solar cell, fabrication of solar cells, PV module construction and the design of a PV system. You will gain a greater understanding of the principles of the photovoltaic conversion— the conversion of light into electricity. This course explores the advantages, limitations and challenges of different solar cell technologies, such as crystalline silicon solar cell technology, thin film solar cell technologies and the latest novel solar cell concepts as studied on lab-scale. We will discuss the specifications of solar modules and demonstrate how to design a complete solar system for any particular application.

Education Method

The class will consist of a collection of eight to twelve minute lecture videos, exercises, assignments and exams. Specified assignments and the three exams will determine the final grade. The new textbook on “Solar Energy, basics, technology and systems” from the Delft University of Technology will be available for the students on-line and free of charge. Your course staff will encourage and challenge you to learn from, and interact with, your fellow students by helping each other and sharing ideas and best practices, in the course forum. We were happy to see the incredible number of interesting student videos on solar energy systems from all over the world in the previous edition of this course. 

Professor Smets was the first ever recipient of the edX Prize for Exceptional Contributions to Online Teaching and Learning. His previous online courses attracted over 150,000 students worldwide, who were inspired to take their first steps in the transition to renewable energy. 

LICENSE

The course materials of this course are Copyright Delft University of Technology and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC-BY-NC-SA) 4.0 International License.

We live on the surface of a dynamic and yet paradoxically stable planet that experiences a remarkable range of energetic phenomena, from waves and currents in the ocean to wind and thunderstorms in the atmosphere. This course traces how the remarkable concept called energy is the natural way of describing, understanding and unifying these diverse phenomena. The course traces the cascade of energy from sunlight to its final destination in a thermal form, considering differential surface heating, the role of convection and buoyancy and the formation of the Earth’s circulation system, and the links to the ocean circulation system. We consider the curvature and rotation of the Earth as key constraints on a system driven by sunlight and energy transformations.

Before your course starts, try the new edX Demo where you can explore the fun, interactive learning environment and virtual labs. Learn more.

How much time will the course take?

Obviously the answer will depend on your background and motivation to master the course material. Each week will consist of 5 or 6 segments that will each take 5 to 10 minutes to watch or listen to once. There will be some exploratory questions for each lesson and a confirmation quiz for each week. There will be one exploratory activity for each week. The average commitment will be 2-3 hours per week with perhaps 20 hours required for the whole course.

What background does the course assume?

We’ll ask you to pull out a calculator from time to time (but not all the time!) simply as this will help you really master the key ideas. The key thing is to have a curiosity and interest in what makes our planet tick!

What kind of learning activities will the course involve?

The activities are designed to use basic household objects, and our own senses, to engage with observations of the world, and to think about what these mean and lead to. We’ll get you to sense how cold or warm different objects get when left in the sun, and to observe how energy explains things we see and hear.

What difference will the course make to my life?

The course has the conviction that it is hard to care for or value things that we don’t appreciate or have never considered. Although harsh in certain places and times, the Earth’s surface is remarkably habitable. Many forms of life can make their way in many kinds of terrain and climate. What produces these conditions? How are they maintained? We will seek to answer those questions in rudimentary form at least.

What conversations will the course help to perform?

Courses often imagine a context in which the course material is discussed, and this one is no different. It imagines a setting with family or friends where you might have just learned of a news event involving a storm like a hurricane or thunderstorm, or where a community might have experienced a flood or a drought, or merely unusual weather. You might have heard of El Nino or climate change in the news. This course will give you a background to better engage in a conversation about these great matters, and offer a better sense of the complexity, challenge and wonder connected to living on the surface of such an energetic planet.

6.823 is a course in the department's "Computer Systems and Architecture" concentration. 6.823 is a study of the evolution of computer architecture and the factors influencing the design of hardware and software elements of computer systems. Topics may include: instruction set design; processor micro-architecture and pipelining; cache and virtual memory organizations; protection and sharing; I/O and interrupts; in-order and out-of-order superscalar architectures; VLIW machines; vector supercomputers; multithreaded architectures; symmetric multiprocessors; and parallel computers.

Modern computer technology requires an understanding of both hardware and software, as the interaction between the two offers a framework for mastering the fundamentals of computing. The purpose of this course is to cultivate an understanding of modern computing technology through an in-depth study of the interface between hardware and software. In this course, you will study the history of modern computing technology before learning about modern computer architecture and a number of its important features, including instruction sets, processor arithmetic and control, the Von Neumann architecture, pipelining, memory management, storage, and other input/output topics. The course will conclude with a look at the recent switch from sequential processing to parallel processing by looking at the parallel computing models and their programming implications.

This course provides an integrated introduction to electrical engineering and computer science, taught using substantial laboratory experiments with mobile robots. Our primary goal is for you to learn to appreciate and use the fundamental design principles of modularity and abstraction in a variety of contexts from electrical engineering and computer science.

Our second goal is to show you that making mathematical models of real systems can help in the design and analysis of those systems. Finally, we have the more typical goals of teaching exciting and important basic material from electrical engineering and computer science, including modern software engineering, linear systems analysis, electronic circuits, and decision-making.

Course Format

This course has been designed for independent study. It includes all of the materials you will need to understand the concepts covered in this subject. The materials in this course include:

• Lecture videos from Spring 2011, taught by Prof. Dennis Freeman
• Recitation videos, developed for OCW Scholar by teaching assistant Kendra Pugh
• Course notes
• Software and design labs
• Homework assignments and additional exercises
• Nano-quizzes and exams with solutions

Content Development

6.002 is designed to serve as a first course in an undergraduate electrical engineering (EE), or electrical engineering and computer science (EECS) curriculum. At MIT, 6.002 is in the core of department subjects required for all undergraduates in EECS.

The course introduces the fundamentals of the lumped circuit abstraction. Topics covered include: resistive elements and networks; independent and dependent sources; switches and MOS transistors; digital abstraction; amplifiers; energy storage elements; dynamics of first- and second-order networks; design in the time and frequency domains; and analog and digital circuits and applications. Design and lab exercises are also significant components of the course. 6.002 is worth 4 Engineering Design Points. The 6.002 content was created collaboratively by Profs. Anant Agarwal and Jeffrey H. Lang.

The course uses the required textbook Foundations of Analog and Digital Electronic Circuits. Agarwal, Anant, and Jeffrey H. Lang. San Mateo, CA: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Elsevier, July 2005. ISBN: 9781558607354.

Principles of Electric Circuits (20220214x) is one of the kernel courses in the broad EECS subjects. Almost all the required courses in EECS are based on the concepts learned in this course, so it’s the gateway to a qualified EECS engineer.

The main content of this course contains linear and nonlinear resistive circuits, time domain analysis of the dynamic circuits, and the steady state analysis of the dynamic circuits with sinusoidal excitations. Important concepts, e.g. filters, resonance, quiescent point, etc., cutting-edge elements, e.g. MOSFETs and Op Amps, etc., systematic analyzing tools, e.g. node method and phasor method, etc., and real-world engineering applications, e.g. square wave generator and pulse power supply for railgun, etc., will be discussed in depth.

In order to facilitate the learning for students with middle school level, we prepare the necessary knowledge for calculus and linear algebra in week 0. With your effort, we can show you the fantastic view of electricity.

电路原理课程是电类各专业最重要的一门学科基础课，后续各专业基础课和专业课都建立在这门课程的知识体系之上，因此是电类专业本科生的“看家 课”之一。电路原理课程的主要内容包括：线性电阻电路分析、非线性电阻电路分析、动态电路的时域分析和正弦激励下动态电路的稳态分析4大部分。清华大学电 路原理课程的教学包括电路分析基本方法、当代电路元器件、电路原理的实际工程应用等，为学生提供了扎实的基础和丰富的应用。

为方便至只有中学知识的学生学习，电路原理MOOC专门利用第0周准备必要的微积分、线性代数和大学物理电学的基础。我们有信心：你能领悟电世界的奇妙。    

The course is designed to provide a practical - hands on - introduction to electronics with a focus on measurement and signals. The prerequisites are courses in differential equations, as well as electricity and magnetism. No prior experience with electronics is necessary. The course will integrate demonstrations and laboratory examples with lectures on the foundations. Throughout the course we will use modern "virtual instruments" as test-beds for understanding electronics. The aim of the course is to provide students with the practical knowledge necessary to work in a modern science or engineering setting.