Online courses directory (19947)

This course presents the fundamentals of digital signal processing with particular emphasis on problems in biomedical research and clinical medicine. It covers principles and algorithms for processing both deterministic and random signals. Topics include data acquisition, imaging, filtering, coding, feature extraction, and modeling. The focus of the course is a series of labs that provide practical experience in processing physiological data, with examples from cardiology, speech processing, and medical imaging. The labs are done in MATLAB® during weekly lab sessions that take place in an electronic classroom. Lectures cover signal processing topics relevant to the lab exercises, as well as background on the biological signals processed in the labs.

This class introduces the craft of writing for the theater. Through weekly assignments, in class writing exercises, and work on a sustained piece, students explore scene structure, action, events, voice, and dialogue. We examine produced playscripts and discuss student work. This class's emphasis is on process, risk-taking, and finding one's own voice and vision.

This course is intended to assist undergraduates with learning the basics of programming in general and programming MATLAB® in particular.

This class provides an overview of some of the techniques used in creating costume pieces that are crafted rather than sewn. We will use a variety of materials and techniques to create specific costume pieces while at the same time exploring alternative applications possible for each material/technique.

Each term, the class selects a new set of professional journal articles on bioengineering topics of current research interest. Some papers are chosen because of particular content, others are selected because they illustrate important points of methodology. Each week, one student leads the discussion, evaluating the strengths, weaknesses, and importance of each paper. Subject may be repeated for credit a maximum of four terms. Letter grade given in the last term applies to all accumulated units of 16.459.

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".

This course provides an overview of airline management decision processes with a focus on economic issues and their relationship to operations planning models and decision support tools. It emphasizes the application of economic models of demand, pricing, costs, and supply to airline markets and networks, and it examines industry practice and emerging methods for fleet planning, route network design, scheduling, pricing and revenue management.

The class will cover quantitative techniques of Operations Research with emphasis on applications in transportation systems analysis (urban, air, ocean, highway, pick-up and delivery systems) and in the planning and design of logistically oriented urban service systems (e.g., fire and police departments, emergency medical services, emergency repair services). It presents a unified study of functions of random variables, geometrical probability, multi-server queueing theory, spatial location theory, network analysis and graph theory, and relevant methods of simulation. There will be discussion focused on the difficulty of implementation, among other topics.

Explores a variety of models and optimization techniques for the solution of airline schedule planning and operations problems. Schedule design, fleet assignment, aircraft maintenance routing, crew scheduling, passenger mix, and other topics are covered. Recent models and algorithms addressing issues of model integration, robustness, and operations recovery are introduced. Modeling and solution techniques designed specifically for large-scale problems, and state-of-the-art applications of these techniques to airline problems are detailed.

This course will examine theory of scenic design as currently practiced, as well as historical traditions for use of performance space and audience/performer engagement. Four play scripts and one opera or dance theater piece will be designed after in-depth analysis; emphasis will be on the social, political and cultural milieu at the time of their creation, and now.

This course provides continued work in the development of play scripts for the theater. Writers work on sustained pieces in weekly workshop meetings, individual consultation with the instructor, and in collaboration with student actors, directors, and designers. Fully developed scripts are eligible for inclusion in the Playwrights' Workshop Production.

This course introduces fundamental properties of the neutron. It covers reactions induced by neutrons, nuclear fission, slowing down of neutrons in infinite media, diffusion theory, the few-group approximation, point kinetics, and fission-product poisoning. It emphasizes the nuclear physics bases of reactor design and its relationship to reactor engineering problems.

In this course, students explore the engineering design of nuclear power plants using the basic principles of reactor physics, thermodynamics, fluid flow and heat transfer. Topics include reactor designs, thermal analysis of nuclear fuel, reactor coolant flow and heat transfer, power conversion cycles, nuclear safety, and reactor dynamic behavior.

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.

Engineering systems design must have the flexibility to take advantage of new opportunities while avoiding disasters. This subject develops "real options" analysis to create design flexibility and measure its value so that it can be incorporated into system optimization. It builds on essential concepts of system models, decision analysis, and financial concepts. Emphasis is placed on calculating value of real options with special attention given to efficient analysis and practical applications. The material is organized and presented to deal with the contextual reality of technological systems, that substantially distinguishes the analysis of real options in engineering systems from that of financial options.

Note

This MIT OpenCourseWare site is based on the materials from Professor de Neufville's ESD.71 Web site. Additional materials, updated as needed by Professor de Neufville, can be found there.

This course covers important concepts and techniques in designing and operating safety-critical systems. Topics include the nature of risk, formal accident and human error models, causes of accidents, fundamental concepts of system safety engineering, system and software hazard analysis, designing for safety, fault tolerance, safety issues in the design of human-machine interaction, verification of safety, creating a safety culture, and management of safety-critical projects. Includes a class project involving the high-level system design and analysis of a safety-critical system.

This course was created for the "product development" track of MIT's System Design and Management Program (SDM) in conjunction with the Center for Innovation in Product Development.  After taking this course, a student should be able to:

• Formulate measures of performance of a system or quality characteristics. These quality characteristics are to be made robust to noise affecting the system.
• Sythesize and select design concepts for robustness.
• Identify noise factors whose variation may affect the quality characteristics.
• Estimate the robustness of any given design (experimentally and analytically).
• Formulate and implement methods to reduce the effects of noise (parameter design, active control, adjustment).
• Select rational tolerances for a design.
• Explain the role of robust design techniques within the wider context of the product development process.
• Lead product development activities that include robust design techniques.