Online courses directory (272)

This is an engineering laboratory subject for mechanical engineering juniors and seniors. Major emphasis is on interplay between analytical and experimental methods in solution of research and development problems. Communication (written and oral) of results is also a strong component of the course. Groups of two or three students work together on three projects during the term.

We will cover fundamentals of ecology, considering Earth as an integrated dynamic system. Topics include coevolution of the biosphere, geosphere, atmosphere and oceans; photosynthesis and respiration; the hydrologic, carbon and nitrogen cycles. We will examine the flow of energy and materials through ecosystems; regulation of the distribution and abundance of organisms; structure and function of ecosystems, including evolution and natural selection; metabolic diversity; productivity; trophic dynamics; models of population growth, competition, mutualism and predation. This course is designated as Communication-Intensive; instruction and practice in oral and written communication provided. Biology is a recommended prerequisite.

Water supply is a problem of worldwide concern: more than 1 billion people do not have reliable access to clean drinking water. Water is a particular problem for the developing world, but scarcity also impacts industrial societies. Water purification and desalination technology can be used to convert brackish ground water or seawater into drinking water. The challenge is to do so sustainably, with minimum cost and energy consumption, and with appropriately accessible technologies.

This subject will survey the state-of-the-art in water purification by desalination and filtration. Fundamental thermodynamic and transport processes which govern the creation of fresh water from seawater and brackish ground water will be developed. The technologies of existing desalination systems will be discussed, and factors which limit the performance or the affordability of these systems will be highlighted. Energy efficiency will be a focus. Nanofiltration and emerging technologies for desalination will be considered. A student project in desalination will involve designing a well-water purification system for a village in Haiti.

1.040 Project Management focuses on the management and implementation of construction projects, primarily infrastructure projects. A project refers to a temporary piece of work undertaken to create a unique product or service. Whereas operations are continuous and repeating, projects are finite and have an end date. Projects bring form or function to ideas or need. Some notable projects include the Manhattan Project (developing the first nuclear weapon); the Human Genome Project (mapping the human genome); and the Central Artery Project (Boston's "Big Dig"). The field of project management deals with the planning, execution, and controlling of projects.

The course is divided into three parts:

Part 1: project finance
Part 2: project evaluation
Part 3: project organization

This course will cover the basic tools, skills, and knowledge necessary to successfully manage a project through its inception, design, planning, construction, and transition phases. There will be several guest lectures discussing current projects, and a construction site visit to MIT's Media Lab extension.

This course discusses the evolution and role of urban public transportation modes, systems and services, focusing on bus and rail. Technological characteristics are described, along with their impacts on capacity, service quality, and cost. Current practice and new methods for data collection and analysis, performance monitoring, route and network design, frequency determination, and vehicle and crew scheduling are covered. The course also discusses effects of pricing policy and service quality on ridership, methods for estimating costs associated with proposed service changes, organizational models for delivering public transportation service including finance and operations, and select transit management topics including labor relations, fare policy and technology, marketing and operations management.

The theme that unites the Level II studios in the fall semester is a focus upon the 'making of architecture and built form' as a tectonic, technical and materially driven endeavor. It is a design investigation that is rooted in a larger culture of materiality and the associated phenomena, but a study of the language and production of built form as an integrated response to the conceptual proposition of the project. The studio will look to works of architecture where the material tectonic and its resultant technology or fabrication become instrumental to the realization of the ideas, in whatever form they may take. This becomes the 'art of technology' -- suggesting a level of innovation and creative manipulation as part of the design process to transform material into a composition of beauty and poetry as well as environmental control. In this regard the studio will look to the works and design processes of a number of architects including Shigeru Ban, Peter Zumthor, Herzog and deMeuron, Kazuyo Sejima, Richard Horden, Rick Joy and Glenn Murcutt among others.

Carrier systems involve the design, operation and management of transportation networks, assets, personnel, freight and passengers. In this course, we will present models and tools for analyzing, optimizing, planning, managing and controlling carrier systems.

This course is about maneuvering motions of surface and underwater vehicles. Topics covered include: derivation of equations of motion, hydrodynamic coefficients, memory effects, linear and nonlinear forms of the equations of motion, control surfaces modeling and design, engine, propulsor, and transmission systems modeling and simulation during maneuvering. The course also deals with stability of motion, principles of multivariable automatic control, optimal control, Kalman filtering, and loop transfer recovery. We will also explore applications chosen from autopilots for surface vehicles; towing in open seas; and remotely operated vehicles.

This course was originally offered in Course 13 (Department of Ocean Engineering) as 13.49. In 2005, ocean engineering subjects became part of Course 2 (Department of Mechanical Engineering), and this course was renumbered 2.154.

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 class provides a general introduction to the diverse roles of microorganisms in natural and artificial environments. It will cover topics including: cellular architecture, energetics, and growth; evolution and gene flow; population and community dynamics; water and soil microbiology; biogeochemical cycling; and microorganisms in biodeterioration and bioremediation.

This course provides a solid theoretical foundation for the analysis and processing of experimental data, and real-time experimental control methods. Topics covered include spectral analysis, filter design, system identification, and simulation in continuous and discrete-time domains. The emphasis is on practical problems with laboratory exercises.

This course illustrates how knowledge and principles of biology, biochemistry, and engineering are integrated to create new products for societal benefit. It uses a case study format to examine recently developed products of pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries: how a product evolves from initial idea, through patents, testing, evaluation, production, and marketing. Emphasizes scientific and engineering principles; the responsibility scientists, engineers, and business executives have for the consequences of their technology; and instruction and practice in written and oral communication.

The topic focus of this class will vary from year to year. This version looks at inflammation underlying many diseases, specifically its role in cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

This course addresses the architecting of air transportation systems. The focus is on the conceptual phase of product definition, including technical, economic, market, environmental, regulatory, legal, manufacturing, and societal factors. It centers on a realistic system case study and includes a number of lectures from industry and government. Past examples include: the Very Large Transport Aircraft, a Supersonic Business Jet, and a Next Generation Cargo System. The course identifies the critical system level issues and analyzes them in depth via student team projects and individual assignments. The overall goal of the semester is to produce a business plan and a system specifications document that can be used to assess candidate systems.

This course presents principles of naval architecture, ship geometry, hydrostatics, calculation and drawing of curves of form, intact and damage stability, hull structure strength calculations and ship resistance. It introduces computer-aided naval ship design and analysis tools. Projects include analysis of ship lines drawings, calculation of ship hydrostatic characteristics, analysis of intact and damaged stability, ship model testing, and hull structure strength calculations.

This course addresses information technology fundamentals, including project management and software processes, data modeling, UML, relational databases and SQL. Topics covered include internet technologies, such as XML, web services, and service-oriented architectures. This course provides an introduction to security and presents the fundamentals of telecommunications and includes a project that involves requirements / design, data model, database implementation, website, security and data network. No prior programming experience required.

This course gives an overview of engineering management and covers topics such as financial principles, management of innovation, technology strategy, and best management practices. The focus of the course is the development of individual skills and team work. This is carried out through an exposure to management tools.

This course develops and applies scaling laws and the methods of continuum and statistical mechanics to biomechanical phenomena over a range of length scales, from molecular to cellular to tissue or organ level.

This course discusses the selection and evaluation of commercial and naval ship power and propulsion systems. It will cover the analysis of propulsors, prime mover thermodynamic cycles, propeller-engine matching, propeller selection, waterjet analysis, and reviews alternative propulsors. The course also investigates thermodynamic analyses of Rankine, Brayton, Diesel, and Combined cycles, reduction gears and integrated electric drive. Battery operated vehicles and fuel cells are also discussed. The term project requires analysis of alternatives in propulsion plant design for given physical, performance, and economic constraints. Graduate students complete different assignments and exams.

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.

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.