Online courses directory (19947)

Professor Eavan Boland provides an introduction to poetry through the works, and the life stories, of ten women.

The goal of this course is to offer a general introduction to 20^th and 21^st century literature and cultural production about Modern Mexico. Emphasis will be placed on the way intellectuals and artists have presented the changes in Mexico City's urban life, and how these representations question themes and trends in national identity, state control, globalization, and immigration.

This course reviews the processing and structure of cellular materials as they are created from polymers, metals, ceramics, glasses, and composites, develops models for the mechanical behavior of cellular solids, and shows how the unique properties of honeycombs and foams are exploited in applications such as lightweight structural panels, energy absorption devices and thermal insulation. The applications of cellular solids in medicine include increased fracture risk due to trabecular bone loss in patients with osteoporosis, the development of metal foam coatings for orthopaedic implants, and designing porous scaffolds for tissue engineering that mimic the extracellular matrix. Modelling of cellular materials applied to natural materials and biomimicking is explored. Students taking the graduate version of the class are required to complete additional assignments.

This course is an introductory exploration of documentary film theory and production, focusing on documentaries about science, engineering, and related fields. Students engage in digital video production as well as social and media analysis of science documentaries. Readings are drawn from social studies of science as well as from documentary film theory. The courses uses documentary video making as a tool to explore the worlds of science and engineering, as well as a tool for thinking analytically about media itself and the social worlds in which science is embedded. The course includes a hands-on lab component devoted to digital video production, in addition to classroom lectures and in-class film screenings.

This course introduces the concepts of system safety and how to analyze and design safer systems. Topics include the causes of accidents in general, and recent major accidents in particular; hazard analysis, safety-driven design techniques; design of human-automation interaction; integrating safety into the system engineering process; and managing and operating safety-critical systems.

6.890 Algorithmic Lower Bounds: Fun with Hardness Proofs is a class taking a practical approach to proving problems can't be solved efficiently (in polynomial time and assuming standard complexity-theoretic assumptions like P ≠ NP). The class focuses on reductions and techniques for proving problems are computationally hard for a variety of complexity classes. Along the way, the class will create many interesting gadgets, learn many hardness proof styles, explore the connection between games and computation, survey several important problems and complexity classes, and crush hopes and dreams (for fast optimal solutions).

Discover how to integrate nature’s value into decisions affecting the environment and human well-being.

Provides a firm grounding in the foundations of probability and statistics, the course focuses on real examples from the medical literature and popular press

A short intervention designed to change students' relationships with math - this course is for teachers of math (K-12) or for other helpers of students, such as parents.

An accessible but substantial introduction to quantum mechanics for anyone with a reasonable college-level understanding of physical science or engineering.

This course examines different types of violent political conflict. It compares and contrasts several social science approaches (psychological, sociological, and political) and analyzes their ability to explain variation in outbreak, duration and outcome of conflict. Incidents such as riots in the U.S. during the 1960's, riots in India, the Yugoslav wars, and the Russian Revolution, as well as current international events are discussed.

This is the third course in the core physics curriculum at MIT, following 8.01 Physics I: Classical Mechanics and 8.02 Physics II: Electricity and Magnetism. Topics include mechanical vibrations and waves, electromagnetic waves, and optics. Students will learn about musical instruments, red sunsets, glories, coronae, rainbows, haloes, X-ray binaries, neutron stars, black holes and Big Bang cosmology.

Course Components

• Lecture Videos by MIT Physics Professor Walter Lewin
• Viewing Notes aligned with the lecture videos
• Concept Questions to gauge your understanding
• Problem Sets and Exams with Solutions
• Problem Solving Help Videos by MIT Physics Professor Wit Busza