Online courses directory (10358)

The main goal of this course is to study the generalization ability of a number of popular machine learning algorithms such as boosting, support vector machines and neural networks. Topics include Vapnik-Chervonenkis theory, concentration inequalities in product spaces, and other elements of empirical process theory.

21G.031 examines the terms "avant garde" and "Kulturindustrie" in French and German culture of the early twentieth century. Considering the origins of these concepts in surrealist and dadaist literature, art, and cinema, the course then expands to engage parallel formations across Europe, particularly in the former Soviet Union. Emphasis on the specific historical conditions that enabled these interventions. Guiding questions are these: What was original about the historical avant-garde? What connections between art and revolution did avant-garde writers and artists imagine? What strategies did they deploy to meet their modernist imperatives? To what extent did their projects maintain a critical stance towards the culture industry?

Surveying key interventions in the fields of poetry, painting, sculpture, photography, film, and music, the readings also include signal moments in critical thought of the last century. Figures to be considered are: Adorno, Aragon, Bataille, Beckett, Brecht, Breton, Bürger, Duchamp, Eisenstein, Ernst, Jünger, Greenberg, Kandinsky, Malevich, Mayakovsky, and Tzara. Taught in English, but students are encouraged to consult original sources when possible.

21G.031 examines the terms "avant garde" and "Kulturindustrie" in French and German culture of the early twentieth century. Considering the origins of these concepts in surrealist and dadaist literature, art, and cinema, the course then expands to engage parallel formations across Europe, particularly in the former Soviet Union. Emphasis on the specific historical conditions that enabled these interventions. Guiding questions are these: What was original about the historical avant-garde? What connections between art and revolution did avant-garde writers and artists imagine? What strategies did they deploy to meet their modernist imperatives? To what extent did their projects maintain a critical stance towards the culture industry?

Surveying key interventions in the fields of poetry, painting, sculpture, photography, film, and music, the readings also include signal moments in critical thought of the last century. Figures to be considered are: Adorno, Aragon, Bataille, Beckett, Brecht, Breton, Bürger, Duchamp, Eisenstein, Ernst, Jünger, Greenberg, Kandinsky, Malevich, Mayakovsky, and Tzara. Taught in English, but students are encouraged to consult original sources when possible.

This course will provide a selective historical survey of some philosophical approaches to questions of political economy and justice. Political economy is the integrated study of the relationships of government, political processes, property, production, markets, trade, and distribution from the standpoint of assessing these arrangements with respect to human welfare and justice.

The idea behind topological systems is simple: if there exists a quantity, which cannot change in an insulating system where all the particles are localized, then the system must become conducting and obtain propagating particles when the quantity (called a "topological invariant") finally changes.

The practical applications of this principle are quite profound, and already within the last eight years they have lead to prediction and discovery of a vast range of new materials with exotic properties that were considered to be impossible before.

What will you gain from this course?

• Learn about the variety of subtopics in topological materials, their relation to each other and to the general principles.
• Learn to follow active research on topology, and critically understand it on your own.
• Acquire skills required to engage in research on your own, and to minimize confusion that often arises even among experienced researchers.

What is the focus of this course?

• Applications of topology in condensed matter based on bulk-edge correspondence.
• Special attention to the most active research topics in topological condensed matter: theory of topological insulators and Majorana fermions, topological classification of "grand ten” symmetry classes, and topological quantum computation
• Extensions of topology to further areas of condensed matter, such as photonic and mechanical systems, topological quantum walks, topology in fractionalized systems, driven or dissipative systems.

What tools does this course use?

• Simple thought experiments that rely on considerations of symmetry or continuity under adiabatic deformations
• Computer simulations similar to those used in actual research will give a more detailed and visual understanding of the involved concepts
• Dissecting research papers that teaches you to simply understand the idea even in the rather involved ones.

This course is a joint effort of Delft University of Technology, QuTech, NanoFront, University of Maryland, and Joint Quantum Institute.

FAQs

Are there any books that are required for the course?

No, the course will only rely on materials and software freely available online.

Is it possible to get credit for this course at my university?

Not by default, but we invite anyone to use the course materials as a basis for a graduate course, with course materials studied as preparation and followed by a classroom discussion. Such courses are planned at universities of Copenhagen, Delft, Leiden, and University of Maryland. Following such a course will obviously give you credit points.

Would it not be better to take a more formal approach, and to describe the math in a more rigorous and systematic way?

While advanced math is certainly relevant for some researchers, in our experience it is the simple things that are the most confusing. We aim for the course to stay accessible and relevant to advanced undergraduate/beginner graduate students, both the theorists and experimentalists.

I do not know enough about condensed matter physics, but I have attended an exciting talk/read a cool article, and I'd like to learn more. Would the course be useful for me?

We are not sure. On the one hand, we will aim the course at people familiar with basic condensed matter physics and the necessary math, hence we will always assume that we don't need to explain e.g. band structures from scratch. However, a good share of the course materials are just discussions which would give you some sort of overview and understanding what this is all about.

Why didn't you discuss my favorite topic, which is certainly relevant and exciting?

Hey, that's a great idea! We aim to start from covering the basic questions, and then let the course evolve together with the field. So if you want, please help us by preparing the materials that would be helpful for the course, and they will become a bonus topic. By the way, same holds if you spot an error, or know how to improve the course: everything about this course is open, so don't hesitate to contribute.

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

Touch typing is a skill that will serve you for a lifetime. Develop your keyboard skills and save yourself hours with this free online course from ALISON, which will improve your typing speed and accuracy.<br /><br />ALISON's Touch Typing Training includes typing tests, which will help you to work effectively and efficiently, increasing your productivity at work and home.<br />

This dynamic course focuses on the history of modern and postmodern art from the 19th and 20th centuries, with an emphasis on major works found in the collection of the renowned Art Institute of Chicago.  Painting, sculpture, photography, and other media, placed within a larger socio-political context, will reveal how aesthetic expression proves a compelling barometer of the modern human experience. 

From the advent of European democracy and the parallel birth of the avant-garde artist, whose singular vision boldly shattered prevailing styles and norms, to the radical rise of abstract painting and the even more provocative introduction of everyday objects into works of art, this course will unfold modernism’s defiant embrace of the new. This course will engage the major issues of twentieth-century aesthetic practice, from Freud’s description of the unconscious and the play of dreams as fertile source material for the artist, to the explosive rise of pop art and the dizzying information age that has profoundly shaped contemporary practice. To closely study modern and postmodern art is to learn how to look at the world, to take notice of form, color, and image, and to respond to the richness of visual and material culture that is all around us. 

This course will not only provide a canonical repertoire of great works of historic art, as well as the context for understanding them, but through the unfolding of such a narrative, these lectures will allow new ways of observing one’s own contemporary world and reimagining its value.

As with all industries, the tourism industry is centered upon sales. Up to ten years ago most holiday packages were sold through high street travel agencies but since then online booking has greatly increased its share of revenue. This free online course explains how the travel industry packages and sells tourism products to consumers. The industry is very effective at packaging its services and selling them as products through retail and online channels. The first section explains the role of tourism wholesalers in the travel industry and the methods they use to create an appealing product. The following section describes how travel agencies create an effective retail space for tourism products. The final section describes how online travel retail developed, how it benefits the customer and what its effect on the travel industry as a whole has been. This course will be of great interest to tourism professionals working in tourism retail. It will also be of interest to owners of tourism businesses as well as anyone interested in a career in the area of retail travel sales.<br />

Understanding the travel patterns of tourists and why they choose which destinations they go to is of vital importance if tourism-focused organisations and businesses are to maximise the financial benefits of the international travel industry in a particular country or region. In this free online tourism course the learner will study the travel patterns of tourists and the most common reasons for why people travel. The course also explains the six main types of pleasure trips and the ways in which holiday resorts can attract tourists. The priorities of business travellers are also explained as well as the ways in which companies can instil loyalty in business customers. The second section of the course describes the various types of holiday destinations and the key factors needed for these destinations to be successful. This course will be of great interest to owners of tourism-focused organisations and businesses who would like to learn more about the travel patterns and destinations of the international tourist. It will also be of interest to people who wish to begin working and develop a career in the tourist industry.<br />

In order to attract tourists, any organisation or business in the tourist industry must create successful marketing and promotion campaigns. The tourist industry is one of the most important in the world, worth up to one trillion dollars annually, so successful marketing and promotion campaigns have the potential to generate huge revenue. This free online course will explain how tourist destinations and tourism businesses can successfully market themselves. The first section of the course explains the main challenges of promoting tourism and how they may be overcome. The following section explains how to identify the target audience of tourism campaigns as well as which methods of advertising are best suited for tourism. The following section explains the customer buying process and how it can be used to determine the objectives for a tourism promotional campaign. The final section explains how an effective marketing campaign can instil brand loyalty in customers and encourage repeat purchases. This course will be of great interest to marketers that wish to learn how to create campaigns for the tourism industry. It will also be of great interest to tourism board employees and owners of tourism businesses that wish to attract more tourists to a location.

Tourism has become one of the biggest industries globally generating up to 10% of world GDP. It is a vital industry for the economy of many communities and countries as it supports nearly 300 million jobs globally. There are many sectors in the tourist industry, each of which provides numerous employment and career opportunities. This free online course provides an overview of the various sectors and describes the type of employment and career opportunities that are available. The course also describes how tourism has been defined by tourist authorities and diplomatic organisations, and how these definitions have evolved over time. The final section describes the four essential elements needed to establish and develop an area as a tourist destination. This course will be of great interest to people who wish to gain employment or a career in the tourist industry as well as people already working in tourism. It will also be of interest to owners of tourism focused businesses.<br />

This course examines basic and broad knowledge of economic impact modeling and Tourism Satellite Accounts. In the end, participants will see tourism from a fascinating new perspective and will envision possibilities for improving various regions of the world through tourism.

Learn about the key issues and the campaigns for Scotland's 2014 independence referendum with the help of Edinburgh University.

Participants get an up-close understanding of alternative and innovative cooperative and social enterprise and the practical steps each take to nurture ecological and social change.

Toy Product Design is a MIT Public Service Center service learning design course offered in the Spring semester. This course, previously listed as SP.778, is an introduction to the product design process with a focus on designing for play and entertainment.

In this course, students work in small teams of 5-6 members to design and prototype new toys. Students work closely with a local sponsor, an elementary school, and experienced mentors on a themed toy design project. Students will be introduced to the product development process, including determining customer needs; brainstorming; estimation; sketching; sketch modeling; concept development; design aesthetics; detailed design; prototyping; and written, visual, and oral communication.

At the end of the course, students present their toy products at the Playsentations to toy designers, engineers, elementary school children and the MIT community.

For more information about this course, see the 2.00B Web site.

Getting a grip on complex, uncertain multi actor problems.

The SAT is a timed standardized test, taken by most students in their junior or senior year of high school, often required for college admission.  In the increasingly competitive college admission process, students today are looking for any and all ways to improve their candidacy.  One element of your college application that can definitely be improved on to help your chances of admission is your SAT score. The test is made up of 10 sections, drawn from three subjects: reading, mathematics, and writing.  All of these subjects review topics you have already learned in school: critical reading skills, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, grammar, and essay writing.  You already have basic knowledge on these subjects.  However, you can gain an extra edge and improve your score by reviewing the specific material that will be covered on the test and by becoming familiar with the rules and strategies specific to correctly answering SAT questions. Doing well on the test provides important information about you as…

The emphasis of this course is to use Trace Element Geochemistry to understand the origin and evolution of igneous rocks. The approach is to discuss the parameters that control partitioning of trace elements between phases and to develop models for the partitioning of trace elements between phases in igneous systems, especially between minerals and melt. Subsequently, published papers that are examples of utilizing Trace Element Geochemistry are read and discussed.

Tracy Leadership Toastmasters - easy-Speak Demo

A look at trading futures options on Crude Oil, eMini S&P, Bonds, Soybeans. Period is from Jan 17th - Feb 5th, 2014.