Online courses directory (2511)

This Freshman Advising Seminar surveys the many applications of magnets and magnetism. To the Chinese and Greeks of ancient times, the attractive and repulsive forces between magnets must have seemed magical indeed. Through the ages, miraculous curative powers have been attributed to magnets, and magnets have been used by illusionists to produce "magical" effects. Magnets guided ships in the Age of Exploration and generated the electrical industry in the 19th century. Today they store information and entertainment on disks and tapes, and produce sound in speakers, images on TV screens, rotation in motors, and levitation in high-speed trains. Students visit various MIT projects related to magnets (including superconducting electromagnets) and read about and discuss the history, legends, pseudoscience, science, and technology of types of magnets, including applications in medicine. Several short written reports and at least one oral presentation will be required of each participant.

Are you interested in investigating how nature engineers itself? How engineers copy the shapes found in nature ("biomimetics")? This Freshman Seminar investigates why similar shapes occur in so many natural things and how physics changes the shape of nature. Why are things in nature shaped the way they are? How do birds fly? Why do bird nests look the way they do? How do woodpeckers peck? Why can't trees grow taller than they are? Why is grass skinny and hollow? What is the wood science behind musical instruments? Questions such as these are the subject of biomimetic research and they have been the focus of investigation in this course for the past three years.

TV programs such as "Law and Order" show how forensic experts are called upon to give testimony that often determines the outcome of court cases. Engineers are one class of expert who can help display evidence in a new light to solve cases. In this seminar you will be part of the problem-solving process, working through both previously solved and unsolved cases. Each week we will investigate cases, from the facts that make up each side to the potential evidence we can use as engineers to expose culprits. The cases range from disintegrating airplane engines to gas main explosions to Mafia murders. This seminar will be full of discussions about the cases and creative approaches to reaching the solutions. The approach is hands-on so you will have a chance to participate in the process, not simply study it. Some background reading and oral presentation are required.

Overview of mechanical properties of ceramics, metals, and polymers, emphasizing the role of processing and microstructure in controlling these properties. Basic topics in mechanics of materials including: continuum stress and strain, truss forces, torsion of a circular shaft and beam bending. Design of engineering structures from a materials point of view.

Material covered in this course includes the following topics:

• Laws of thermodynamics: general formulation and applications to mechanical, electromagnetic and electrochemical systems, solutions, and phase diagrams
• Computation of phase diagrams
• Statistical thermodynamics and relation between microscopic and macroscopic properties, including ensembles, gases, crystal lattices, phase transitions
• Applications to phase stability and properties of mixtures
• Computational modeling
• Interfaces

This course was also taught as part of the Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA) programme as course number SMA 5111 (Materials at Equilibrium).

Here we will learn about the mechanical behavior of structures and materials, from the continuum description of properties to the atomistic and molecular mechanisms that confer those properties to all materials. We will cover elastic and plastic deformation, creep, fracture and fatigue of materials including crystalline and amorphous metals, semiconductors, ceramics, and (bio)polymers, and will focus on the design and processing of materials from the atomic to the macroscale to achieve desired mechanical behavior. We will cover special topics in mechanical behavior for material systems of your choice, with reference to current research and publications.

This course uses the theory and application of atomistic computer simulations to model, understand, and predict the properties of real materials. Specific topics include: energy models from classical potentials to first-principles approaches; density functional theory and the total-energy pseudopotential method; errors and accuracy of quantitative predictions: thermodynamic ensembles, Monte Carlo sampling and molecular dynamics simulations; free energy and phase transitions; fluctuations and transport properties; and coarse-graining approaches and mesoscale models. The course employs case studies from industrial applications of advanced materials to nanotechnology. Several laboratories will give students direct experience with simulations of classical force fields, electronic-structure approaches, molecular dynamics, and Monte Carlo.

This course was also taught as part of the Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA) programme as course number SMA 5107 (Atomistic Computer Modeling of Materials).

Acknowledgements

Support for this course has come from the National Science Foundation's Division of Materials Research (grant DMR-0304019) and from the Singapore-MIT Alliance.

Discusses a wide variety of processes and materials from the viewpoint of their fundamental physical and chemical properties. Specific topics: cold welding, adhesive bonding, diffusion bonding, soldering, brazing, flames, arcs, high-energy density heat sources, solidification, cracking resistance, shielding methods, and electric contacts. Emphasis on underlying science of a given process rather than a detailed description of the technique or equipment.

This course meets with the first half of 3.371J in the Fall Term.

The central point of this course is to provide a physical basis that links the structure of materials with their properties, focusing primarily on metals. With this understanding in hand, the concepts of alloy design and microstructural engineering are also discussed, linking processing and thermodynamics to the structure and properties of metals.

This course will cover the following topics:

• Magnetostatics
• Origin of magnetism in materials
• Magnetic domains and domain walls
• Magnetic anisotropy
• Reversible and irreversible magnetization processes
• Hard and soft magnetic materials
• Magnetic recording

Special topics include magnetism of thin films, surfaces and fine particles; transport in ferromagnets, magnetoresistive sensors, and amorphous magnetic materials.

This course covers the theory, design, fabrication and applications of photonic materials and devices. After a survey of optical materials design for semiconductors, dielectrics and polymers, the course examines ray optics, electromagnetic optics and guided wave optics; physics of light-matter interactions; and device design principles of LEDs, lasers, photodetectors, modulators, fiber and waveguide interconnects, optical filters, and photonic crystals. Device processing topics include crystal growth, substrate engineering, thin film deposition, etching and process integration for dielectric, silicon and compound semiconductor materials. The course also covers microphotonic integrated circuits and applications in telecom/datacom systems. Course assignments include four design projects that emphasize materials, devices and systems applications.

This course covers a variety of topics concerning superconducting magnets, including thermodynamic and transport properties of aqueous and nonaqueous electrolytes, the electrode/electrolyte interface, and the kinetics of electrode processes. It also covers electrochemical characterization with regards to d.c. techniques (controlled potential, controlled current) and a.c. techniques (voltametry and impedance spectroscopy). Applications of the following will also be discussed: electrowinning, electrorefining, electroplating, and electrosynthesis, as well as electrochemical power sources (batteries and fuel cells).

This course covers the derivation of symmetry theory; lattices, point groups, space groups, and their properties; use of symmetry in tensor representation of crystal properties, including anisotropy and representation surfaces; and applications to piezoelectricity and elasticity.

One objective of 15.066J is to introduce modeling, optimization and simulation, as it applies to the study and analysis of manufacturing systems for decision support. The introduction of optimization models and algorithms provide a framework to think about a wide range of issues that arise in manufacturing systems. The second objective is to expose students to a wide range of applications for these methods and models, and to integrate this material with their introduction to operations management.

This course is aimed at presenting the concepts underlying the response of polymeric materials to applied loads. These will include both the molecular mechanisms involved and the mathematical description of the relevant continuum mechanics. It is dominantly an "engineering" subject, but with an atomistic flavor. It covers the influence of processing and structure on mechanical properties of synthetic and natural polymers: Hookean and entropic elastic deformation, linear viscoelasticity, composite materials and laminates, yield and fracture.

This is an undergraduate course on differential calculus in one and several dimensions. It is intended as a one and a half term course in calculus for students who have studied calculus in high school. The format allows it to be entirely self contained, so that it is possible to follow it without any background in calculus.

18.014, Calculus with Theory, covers the same material as 18.01 (Single Variable Calculus), but at a deeper and more rigorous level. It emphasizes careful reasoning and understanding of proofs. The course assumes knowledge of elementary calculus.

This course is a continuation of 18.014. It covers the same material as 18.02 (Multivariable Calculus), but at a deeper level, emphasizing careful reasoning and understanding of proofs. There is considerable emphasis on linear algebra and vector integral calculus.

This course covers the same material as Differential Equations (18.03) with more emphasis on theory. In addition, it treats mathematical aspects of ordinary differential equations such as existence theorems.

This course explored topics such as complex algebra and functions, analyticity, contour integration, Cauchy's theorem, singularities, Taylor and Laurent series, residues, evaluation of integrals, multivalued functions, potential theory in two dimensions, Fourier analysis and Laplace transforms.