Online courses directory (2511)

This course is an introduction to differential geometry. The course itself is mathematically rigorous, but still emphasizes concrete aspects of geometry, centered on the notion of curvature.

Networks are a ubiquitous way to represent complex systems, including those in the social and economic sciences. The goal of the course is to equip students with conceptual tools that can help them understand complex systems that emerge in both nature and social systems. This is a course intended for a general audience and will discuss applications of networks and complexity to diverse systems, including epidemic spreading, social networks and the evolution of economic development.

This course examines the politics of international economic relations. We begin with a discussion of the analytical "lenses" through which we can view the global economy. We then examine the politics of trade policy, multinational corporations, and international monetary and financial relations. We will also examine third-world development, communist transition, and the debate over "globalization." Finally we will explore the fight against terrorist financing and money laundering, the proper role of international financial institutions (including the IMF), and the impact of the global economy on the ability of governments to make policy within their own borders.

This course is designed to introduce first-year Sloan MBA students to the fundamental techniques of using data. In particular, the course focuses on various ways of modeling, or thinking structurally about decision problems in order to make informed management decisions.

This course introduces scholarly debates about sexual identities, gender identities and expressions, and sexual orientation and its representation in film and literature. We begin with a contemporary debate about biology and gender identity, considering its relationship to the historical understanding of sex, gender, and sexual identity. Our investigation continues with the theoretical underpinnings of the emerging field of queer studies, from the nineteenth century to the present day, and considers how subsequent work in transgender studies continues to challenge traditional understandings of sex, gender, and sexuality.

This class uses lab exercises and a workshop setting to help students develop a solid understanding of the planning and public management uses of geographic information systems (GIS). The goals are to help students: acquire technical skills in the use of GIS software; acquire qualitative methods skills in data and document gathering, analyzing information, and presenting results; and investigate the potential and practicality of GIS technologies in a typical planning setting and evaluate possible applications.

The workshop teaches GIS techniques and basic database management at a level that extends somewhat beyond the basic thematic mapping and data manipulation skills included in the MCP core classes (viz. 11.204 and 11.220). Instead of focusing on one thematic map of a single variable, students will concentrate on more open-ended planning questions that invite spatial analysis but will require judgment and exploration to select relevant data and mapping techniques; involve mixing and matching new, local data with extracts from official records (such as census data, parcel data and regional employment and population forecasts); utilize spatial analysis techniques such as buffering, address matching, overlays; use other modeling and visualization techniques beyond thematic mapping; and raise questions about the skills, strategy, and organizational support needed to sustain such analytic capability within a variety of local and regional planning settings.

Students seeking graduate credit should enroll in the subject 11.520; undergraduates should enroll in the subject 11.188. The subjects meet together and have nearly identical content.

ArcGIS/ArcMap/ArcInfo Graphical User Interface is the intellectual property of ESRI and is used herein with permission. Copyright © ESRI. All rights reserved.

This course introduces interactive oral and interpersonal communication skills critical to leaders, including strategies for presenting to a hostile audience, running effective and productive meetings, active listening, and contributing to group decision-making. There are team-run classes on chosen communication topics, and an individual analysis of leadership qualities and characteristics. Students deliver an oral presentation and an executive summary, both aimed at a business audience.

This course studies basic optimization and the principles of optimal control. It considers deterministic and stochastic problems for both discrete and continuous systems. The course covers solution methods including numerical search algorithms, model predictive control, dynamic programming, variational calculus, and approaches based on Pontryagin's maximum principle, and it includes many examples and applications of the theory.

This is the first course in the undergraduate Quantum Physics sequence. It introduces the basic features of quantum mechanics. It covers the experimental basis of quantum physics, introduces wave mechanics, Schrödinger's equation in a single dimension, and Schrödinger's equation in three dimensions.

This presentation of 8.04 by Barton Zwiebach (2016) differs somewhat and complements nicely the presentation of Allan Adams (2013). Adams covers a larger set of ideas; Zwiebach tends to go deeper into a smaller set of ideas, offering a systematic and detailed treatment. Adams begins with the subtleties of superpostion, while Zwiebach discusses the surprises of interaction-free measurements. While both courses overlap over a sizable amount of standard material, Adams discussed applications to condensed matter physics, while Zwiebach focused on scattering and resonances. The different perspectives of the instructors make the problem sets in the two courses rather different.
 

The purpose of the course is to cultivate the sensibilities necessary for effective planning practice. This objective rests on one key assumption: that a set of key sensibilities creates the right mindset for practice.

The project for this studio is to design a demonstration project for a site near the French Quarter in New Orleans. The objectives of the project are the following:

1. To design more intense housing, community, educational and commercial facilities in four to six story buildings.
2. To explore the "space between" buildings as a way of designing and shaping objects.
3. To design at three scales - dwelling, cluster and overall.
4. To design dwellings where the owners may be able to help build and gain a skill for employment.
5. To provide/design facilities that can help the residents to gain education and skills.