Online courses directory (2511)

The Experimental Project Lab in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics is a two-semester course sequence: 16.621 Experimental Projects I (this course) and 16.622 Experimental Projects II. This site offers material on 16.621. In the course, two-person teams initiate a project of their own conception and design in 16.621 and then complete it in 16.622. For many students, this is a first encounter with research standards and techniques. It is a complicated course that requires a lot of interaction and support and also access to facilities and materials, but it is rewarding for students to explore an hypothesis under the guidance of a faculty advisor.

This OCW site presents the building block materials of the course, which can provide only a profile of the course because the most important learning elements are the interactions between student team, faculty, project advisor, and shop staff and also between student team members. However, this site offers some of the preparation and guidance materials for students embarking on an experimental project. To emphasize the focus on communication skills, a set of study materials and examples of student work are provided.

The Experimental Project Lab in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics is a two-semester course sequence: 16.621 Experimental Projects I and 16.622 Experimental Projects II (this course). Students in 16.622 gain practical insight and improved understanding of engineering experimentation through design and execution of "project" experiments. Building upon work in course 16.621, students construct and test equipment, make systematic experimental measurements of phenomena, analyze data, and compare theoretical predictions with results. Deliverables comprise a written final project report and formal oral presentations. Instructions on oral presentations and multi-section reporting are given. Experimental Projects I and II provide a valuable link between theory (16.621) and practice (16.622).

Study of physical effects in the vicinity of a black hole as a basis for understanding general relativity, astrophysics, and elements of cosmology. Extension to current developments in theory and observation. Energy and momentum in flat spacetime; the metric; curvature of spacetime near rotating and nonrotating centers of attraction; trajectories and orbits of particles and light; elementary models of the Cosmos. Weekly meetings include an evening seminar and recitation. The last third of the semester is reserved for collaborative research projects on topics such as the Global Positioning System, solar system tests of relativity, descending into a black hole, gravitational lensing, gravitational waves, Gravity Probe B, and more advanced models of the Cosmos.

From Abilify to Zyrtec, the world is full of interesting drugs. Such substances have cured diseases, started wars, and ended careers. This seminar will explain how drugs can elicit a range of medicinal and recreational effects. Planned topics include over-the-counter drugs and "dietary supplements," drugs of abuse, treatments for neurological disorders, psychiatric medications, and many more. Prior experience is neither expected nor required, but student participation is essential.

From Abilify to Zyrtec, the world is full of interesting drugs. Such substances have cured diseases, started wars, and ended careers. This seminar will explain how drugs can elicit a range of medicinal and recreational effects. Planned topics include over-the-counter drugs and "dietary supplements," drugs of abuse, treatments for neurological disorders, psychiatric medications, and many more. Prior experience is neither expected nor required, but student participation is essential.

Student teams formulate and complete space/earth/ocean exploration-based design projects with weekly milestones. This course introduces core engineering themes, principles, and modes of thinking, and includes exercises in written and oral communication and team building. Specialized learning modules enable teams to focus on the knowledge required to complete their projects, such as machine elements, electronics, design process, visualization and communication. Examples of projects include surveying a lake for millfoil from a remote controlled aircraft, then sending out robotic harvesters to clear the invasive growth; and exploration to search for the evidence of life on a moon of Jupiter, with scientists participating through teleoperation and supervisory control of robots.

The purpose of this course is to develop your writing skills so that you can feel confident writing the essays, term papers, reports, and exams you will have to produce during your career here at MIT. We will read and analyze samples of expository writing, do some work on vocabulary development, and concentrate on developing your ability to write clear, accurate, sophisticated prose. We will also deal with the grammar and mechanical problems you may have trouble with.

The purpose of this course is to develop your writing skills so that you can feel confident writing the essays, term papers, reports, and exams you will have to produce during your career here at MIT. We will read and analyze samples of expository writing, do some work on vocabulary development, and concentrate on developing your ability to write clear, accurate, sophisticated prose. We will also deal with the grammar and mechanical problems you may have trouble with.

This section of Expository Writing provides the opportunity for students- as readers, viewers, writers and speakers - to engage with social and ethical issues that they care deeply about. Through discussing selected documentary and feature films and the writings of such authors as Maya Angelou, Robert Coles, Charles Dickens, Barbara Ehrenreich, Martin Luther King, Jr., Jonathan Kozol, and Alice Walker, we will explore different perspectives on a range of social problems such as poverty, homelessness, and racial and gender inequality. In assigned essays, students will have the opportunity to write about social and ethical issues of their own choice. This course aims to help students to grow significantly in their ability to understand and grapple with arguments, to integrate secondary print and visual sources and to craft well-reasoned and elegant essays. Students will also keep a reader-writer notebook and give at least one oral presentation. In class we will discuss assigned films and readings, explore strategies for successful academic writing, freewrite and critique one another's essays. Satisfies Phase I and CI Writing Requirements.

This course covers the basic principles of planet atmospheres and interiors applied to the study of extrasolar planets (exoplanets). We focus on fundamental physical processes related to observable exoplanet properties. We also provide a quantitative overview of detection techniques and an introduction to the feasibility of the search for Earth-like planets, biosignatures and habitable conditions on exoplanets.

This course will teach fundamentals of control design and analysis using state-space methods. This includes both the practical and theoretical aspects of the topic. By the end of the course, you should be able to design controllers using state-space methods and evaluate whether these controllers are robust to some types of modeling errors and nonlinearities. You will learn to:

• Design controllers using state-space methods and analyze using classical tools.
• Understand impact of implementation issues (nonlinearity, delay).
• Indicate the robustness of your control design.
• Linearize a nonlinear system, and analyze stability.

This course will teach fundamentals of control design and analysis using state-space methods. This includes both the practical and theoretical aspects of the topic. By the end of the course, you should be able to design controllers using state-space methods and evaluate whether these controllers are robust to some types of modeling errors and nonlinearities. You will learn to:

• Design controllers using state-space methods and analyze using classical tools.
• Understand impact of implementation issues (nonlinearity, delay).
• Indicate the robustness of your control design.
• Linearize a nonlinear system, and analyze stability.

This course provides an introduction to the design of feedback systems. Topics covered include: properties and advantages of feedback systems, time-domain and frequency-domain performance measures, stability and degree of stability, root locus method, Nyquist criterion, frequency-domain design, compensation techniques, application to a wide variety of physical systems, internal and external compensation of operational amplifiers, modeling and compensation of power converter systems, and phase lock loops.

The purpose of this seminar is to provide a context for understanding the challenges of urban food provisioning from a perspective of sustainability and social inclusion in cities of the global South. The seminar will be specifically geared towards preparing students for direct participation in urban markets and food policy project intervention in Cartagena, Colombia. 

To learn more about the Cartagena Practicum, visit the class website.

This course is a seminar on creativity in art, science, and technology. We discuss how these pursuits are jointly dependent on affective as well as cognitive elements in human nature. We study feeling and imagination in relation to principles of idealization, consummation, and the aesthetic values that give meaning to science and technology as well as literature and the other arts. Readings in philosophy, psychology, and literature are part of the course.

This course investigates theories and practices of feminist inquiry across a range of disciplines. Feminist research involves rethinking disciplinary assumptions and methodologies, developing new understandings of what counts as knowledge, seeking alternative ways of understanding the origins of problems/issues, formulating new ways of asking questions and redefining the relationship between subjects and objects of study.

What makes research distinctively feminist lies in the complex connections between epistemologies, methodologies and research methods. This course explores how these connections are formed in the traditional disciplines and raise questions about why they are inadequate and/or problematic for feminist inquiry and what, specifically, are the feminist critiques of these intersections.

This course is part of the Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies at MIT.

This course focuses on a range of theories of gender in modern life. In recent years feminist scholars in a range of disciplines have challenged previously accepted notions of political theory such as the distinctions between public and private, the definitions of politics itself, the nature of citizenship, and the roles of women in civil society. In this course we will examine different aspects of women's lives through the life cycle as seen from the vantage point of political theory. In addition we will consider different ways of looking at power and political culture in modern societies, issues of race and class, poverty and welfare, sexuality and morality.

In this course we will examine the development of feminist theory over time. Some subjects we will examine in detail include suffrage and equality; radical feminism; psychoanalysis and feminism; theories of power; sexuality and gender; embodied knowledge; pornography; identities and global feminism; militarism; and the welfare state. Throughout the course we will analyze different ways of looking at power and political culture in modern societies, issues of race and class, poverty and welfare, sexuality and morality.

This course analyzes theories of gender and politics, especially ideologies of gender and their construction. Also discussed are definitions of public and private spheres, gender issues in citizenship, the development of the welfare state, experiences of war and revolution, class formation, and the politics of sexuality.

Graduate students are expected to pursue the subject in greater depth through reading and individual research.

This course analyzes theories of gender and politics, especially ideologies of gender and their construction. Also discussed are definitions of public and private spheres, gender issues in citizenship, the development of the welfare state, experiences of war and revolution, class formation, and the politics of sexuality.

Graduate students are expected to pursue the subject in greater depth through reading and individual research.