Online courses directory (2511)

This course studies what makes a good design and how one develops a good design. Students consider how the design of engineered systems (such as hardware, software, materials, and manufacturing systems) differ from the "design" of natural systems such as biological systems; discuss complexity and how one makes use of complexity theory to improve design; and discover how one uses axiomatic design theory (AD theory) in design of many different kinds of engineered systems. Questions are analyzed using Axiomatic Design Theory and Complexity Theory. Case studies are presented including the design of machines, tribological systems, materials, manufacturing systems, and recent inventions. Implications of AD and complexity theories on biological systems discussed.

MAS.450 is a laboratory course about holography and holographic imaging.

This course teaches holography from a scientific and analytical point of view, moving from interference and diffraction to imaging of single points to the display of three-dimensional images. Using a "hands-on" approach, students explore the underlying physical phenomena that make holograms work, as well as designing laboratory setups to make their own images. The course also teaches mathematical techniques that allow the behavior of holography to be understood, predicted, and harnessed.

Holography today brings together the fields of optics, chemistry, computer science, electrical engineering, visualization, three-dimensional display, and human perception in a unique and comprehensive way. As such, MAS.450 offers interesting and useful exposure to a wide range of principles and ideas. As a course satisfying the Institute Laboratory Requirement, MAS.450 teaches about science, scientific research, and the scientific method through observation and exploration, hinting at the excitement that inventors feel before they put their final equations to paper.

This course focuses on reading a script theatrically with a view to mounting a coherent production. Through careful, intensive reading of a variety of plays from different periods and different aesthetics, a pattern emerges for discerning what options exist for interpretating a script.

The Fall 2005 version of this course contains alternate readings and assignments sections.

This course provides a broad overview of the theories of and approaches to the study of nationalist thought and practice. It also explores the related phenomena termed nationalism: national consciousness and identity, nations, nation-states, and nationalist ideologies and nationalist movements. The course analyzes nationalism's emergence and endurance as a factor in modern politics and society. Topics include: nationalism and state-building, nationalism and economic modernization, nationalism and democratization, and nationalism and religious conflict.

This course focuses on some of the important current issues in strategic management. It will concentrate on modern analytical approaches and on enduring successful strategic practices. It is consciously designed with a technological and global outlook since this orientation in many ways highlights the significant emerging trends in strategic management. The course is intended to provide the students with a pragmatic approach that will guide the formulation and implementation of corporate, business, and functional strategies.

This class investigates the theory, method, and form of collage. It studies not only the historical precedents for collage and their physical attributes, but the psychology and process that plays a part in the making of them. The class was broken into three parts, changing scales and methods each time, to introduce and study the rigor by which decisions were made in relation to the collage. The class was less about the making of art than the study of the processes by which art is made.

This course provides an aggressively gentle introduction to MATLAB®. It is designed to give students fluency in MATLAB, including popular toolboxes. The course consists of interactive lectures with students doing sample MATLAB problems in real time. Problem-based MATLAB assignments are given which require significant time on MATLAB.

This course is offered during the Independent Activities Period (IAP), which is a special 4-week term at MIT that runs from the first week of January until the end of the month.

Acknowledgements

The 6.094 course materials were developed by Danilo Šćepanović, Sourav R. Dey, Ankit Patel, and Patrick Ho.

6.826 provides an introduction to the basic principles of computer systems, with emphasis on the use of rigorous techniques as an aid to understanding and building modern computing systems. Particular attention is paid to concurrent and distributed systems. Topics covered include: specification and verification, concurrent algorithms, synchronization, naming, networking, replication techniques (including distributed cache management), and principles and algorithms for achieving reliability.

This course provides an introduction to the mechanics of solids with applications to science and engineering. We emphasize the three essential features of all mechanics analyses, namely: (a) the geometry of the motion and/or deformation of the structure, and conditions of geometric fit, (b) the forces on and within structures and assemblages; and (c) the physical aspects of the structural system (including material properties) which quantify relations between the forces and motions/deformation.

Survey of principles underlying the structure and function of the nervous system, integrating molecular, cellular, and systems approaches. Topics: development of the nervous system and its connections, cell biology or neurons, neurotransmitters and synaptic transmission, sensory systems of the brain, the neuro-endocrine system, the motor system, higher cortical functions, behavioral and cellular analyses of learning and memory. First half of an intensive two-term survey of brain and behavioral studies for first-year graduate students.

Numerous recent studies have shown that the U.S. has relatively low percentages of students who enter science and engineering and a high drop-out rate. Some other countries are producing many more scientists and engineers per capita than the U.S. What does this mean for the future of the U.S. and the global economy?

In this readings and discussion-based seminar you will meet weekly with the Dean of Undergraduate Education to explore the kind of education MIT and other institutions are and should be giving. Based on data from National Academy and other reports, along with what pundits have been saying, we'll see if we can decide how much the U.S. may or may not be at risk.

This course is an introduction to the basics of random matrix theory, motivated by engineering and scientific applications.

Topics in surface modeling: b-splines, non-uniform rational b-splines, physically based deformable surfaces, sweeps and generalized cylinders, offsets, blending and filleting surfaces. Non-linear solvers and intersection problems. Solid modeling: constructive solid geometry, boundary representation, non-manifold and mixed-dimension boundary representation models, octrees. Robustness of geometric computations. Interval methods. Finite and boundary element discretization methods for continuum mechanics problems. Scientific visualization. Variational geometry. Tolerances. Inspection methods. Feature representation and recognition. Shape interrogation for design, analysis, and manufacturing. Involves analytical and programming assignments.

This course was originally offered in Course 13 (Department of Ocean Engineering) as 13.472J. In 2005, ocean engineering subjects became part of Course 2 (Department of Mechanical Engineering), and this course was renumbered 2.158J.

This seminar-format course provides an in-depth presentation and discussion of how engineering and biological approaches can be combined to solve problems in science and technology, emphasizing integration of biological information and methodologies with engineering analysis, synthesis, and design. Emphasis is placed on molecular mechanisms underlying cellular processes, including signal transduction, gene expression networks, and functional responses.

This course focuses on the interaction of chemical engineering, biochemistry, and microbiology. Mathematical representations of microbial systems are featured among lecture topics. Kinetics of growth, death, and metabolism are also covered. Continuous fermentation, agitation, mass transfer, and scale-up in fermentation systems, and enzyme technology round out the subject material.

Explores the role of government in the economy, applying tools of basic microeconomics to answer important policy questions such as government response to global warming, school choice by K-12 students, Social Security versus private retirement savings accounts, government versus private health insurance, setting income tax rates for individuals and corporations.

This course focuses on dynamic optimization methods, both in discrete and in continuous time. We approach these problems from a dynamic programming and optimal control perspective. We also study the dynamic systems that come from the solutions to these problems. The course will illustrate how these techniques are useful in various applications, drawing on many economic examples. However, the focus will remain on gaining a general command of the tools so that they can be applied later in other classes.

This course is the intermediate level of the streamlined curriculum, which is intended for students who, when they began streamlined I, had some background in the language, whether it be comprehension with limited speaking ability or quite fluent speaking ability. The focus of the course is on standard pronunciation and usage, on reading in both complex and simplified characters, and on writing. It is presupposed that students in Chinese III have already learned the pinyin system of representing pronunciation sufficiently well to be able to read texts in pinyin accurately. (If not, there are pinyin tutorials to assist you to learn the system.)

This class is a selective survey of Latin American history from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present. Issues studied include Latin America in the global economy, relations between Latin America and the U.S., dictatorships and democracies in the twentieth century, African and Indigenous cultures, feminism and gender, cultural politics, revolution in Mexico, Cuba, and Central America, and Latin American identity.

This course is a seminar on the philosophical analysis of film art, with an emphasis on the ways in which it creates meaning through techniques that define a formal structure. There is a particular focus on aesthetic problems about appearance and reality, literary and visual effects, communication and alienation through film technology.