Online courses directory (2511)

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 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.

Parasites require a hospitable organism to reproduce and spread and have evolved multiple strategies to subvert their hosts. Parasites scavenge nutrients directly from host cells, evade the host immune system and even modify host behavior to increase their transmission. This course will explore the strategies used by a ubiquitous and harmful class of parasites to hijack the biology of their host cells. We will discuss pathogens such as Plasmodium and Toxoplasma, responsible for some of the deadliest and most pervasive infectious diseases on the planet.

By exploring how these pathogens invade a host cell and replicate while evading the immune system, students will gain a broad understanding of basic cell biology, biochemistry and immunology, as well as learn techniques commonly used in cell biology. Students will be challenged to think creatively and flexibly to understand, critique, interpret, and design scientific experiments in the field of host-pathogen interactions.

This class focuses on how the housing and human service systems interact: how networks and social capital can build between elements of the two systems. It explores ways in which the differing world views, professional perspectives, and institutional needs of the two systems play out operationally. Part I establishes the nature of the action frames of these two systems. Part II applies these insights to particular vulnerable groups: "at risk" households in transitional housing, the chronically mentally ill, and the frail elderly.

A truly inter-disciplinary course, Housing and Land Use in Rapidly Urbanizing Regions reviews how law, economics, sociology, political science, and planning conceptualize urban land and property rights and uses cases to discuss what these different lenses illuminate and obscure. It also looks at how the social sciences might be informed by how design, cartography, and visual studies conceptualize space's physicality. This year's topics include land trusts for affordable housing, mixed-use in public space, and critical cartography.

Subject studies how and why machines work, how they are conceived, how they are developed (drawn), and how they are utilized. Students learn from the hands-on experiences of taking things apart mentally and physically, drawing (sketching, 3D CAD) what they envision and observe, taking occasional field trips, and completing an individual term project (concept, creation, and presentation). Emphasis on understanding the physics and history of machines.

This course introduces diverse meanings and uses of the concept of culture with historical and contemporary examples from scholarship and popular media around the globe. It includes first-hand observations, synthesized histories and ethnographies, and visual and narrated representations of human experiences. Students conduct empirical research on cultural differences through the systematic observation of human interaction, employ methods of interpretative analysis, and practice convincing others of the accuracy of their findings.

Firms must develop major innovations to prosper, but they don't know how to. However, recent research into the innovation process has made it possible to develop breakthroughs systematically. 15.356 How to Develop Breakthrough Products and Services explores several practical idea generation development methods. To convey the art required to implement each of these methodologies, experts are invited to present real cases to the class.

As the digital revolution brings with it radical changes in how and what we learn, people must continue to learn all the time. New technologies make possible new approaches to learning, new contexts for learning, new tools to support learning, and new ideas of what can be learned. This course will explore these new opportunities for learning with a special focus on what can be learned through immersive, hands-on activities. Students will participate in (and reflect on) a variety of learning situations, and will use Media Lab technologies to develop new workshops, iteratively run and refine the workshops, and analyze how and what the workshop participants learn.

This course provides a hands-on introduction to the resources for designing and fabricating smart systems, including CAD/CAM/CAE; NC machining, 3-D printing, injection molding, laser cutting; PCB layout and fabrication; sensors and actuators; analog instrumentation; embedded digital processing; wired and wireless communications. This course also puts emphasis on learning how to use the tools as well as understand how they work.

This course explores fundamental questions about the causes and nature of revolutions by looking at how people overthrow their rulers and establish new governments. Considers a set of major political transformations throughout the world and across centuries to understand the meaning of revolution and evaluate its impact. Examines how revolutionaries have attempted to establish their ideals and realize their goals. Asks whether radical upheavals require bloodshed, violence, or even terror. Seeks to explain why some revolutions succeed and others fail. Materials include the writings of revolutionaries, declarations and constitutions, music, films, art, novels, memoirs, and newspapers.

Offered during MIT's Independent Activites Period (IAP), this short course covers the poker concepts, math concepts, and general concepts needed to play the game of Texas Hold'em on a professional level.

IAP is a special 4-week term in January that provides members of the MIT community including students, faculty, staff, and alums with an opportunity to organize, sponsor and participate in a wide variety of activities and topics that are often outside of the regular MIT curriculum.

Faculty Advisor: Paul Mende

This course is designed to provide both undergraduate and graduate students with a fundamental understanding of human factors that must be taken into account in the design and engineering of complex aviation and space systems. The primary focus is the derivation of human engineering design criteria from sensory, motor, and cognitive sources to include principles of displays, controls and ergonomics, manual control, the nature of human error, basic experimental design, and human-computer interaction in supervisory control settings. Undergraduate students will demonstrate proficiency through aviation accident case presentations, quizzes, homework assignments, and hands-on projects. Graduate students will complete all the undergraduate assignments; however, they are expected to complete a research-oriented project with a final written report and an oral presentation.

This course is designed to provide both undergraduate and graduate students with a fundamental understanding of human factors that must be taken into account in the design and engineering of complex aviation and space systems. The primary focus is the derivation of human engineering design criteria from sensory, motor, and cognitive sources to include principles of displays, controls and ergonomics, manual control, the nature of human error, basic experimental design, and human-computer interaction in supervisory control settings. Undergraduate students will demonstrate proficiency through aviation accident case presentations, quizzes, homework assignments, and hands-on projects. Graduate students will complete all the undergraduate assignments; however, they are expected to complete a research-oriented project with a final written report and an oral presentation.

Surveys the literature on the cognitive and neural organization of human memory and learning. Includes consideration of working memory and executive control, episodic and semantic memory, and implicit forms of memory. Emphasizes integration of cognitive theory with recent insights from functional neuroimaging (e.g., fMRI and PET).

This course examines the dynamic interrelations among physical and behavioral traits of humans, environment, and culture to provide an integrated framework for studying human biological evolution and modern diversity. Topics include issues in morphological evolution and adaptation; fossil and cultural evidence for human evolution from earliest times through the Pleistocene; evolution of tool use and social behavior; modern human variation and concepts of race. The class also studies stone artifacts and fossil specimens.

This course is designed to give the student a clear understanding of the pathophysiology of the menstrual cycle, fertilization, implantation, ovum growth development, differentiation and associated abnormalities. Disorders of fetal development including the principles of teratology and the mechanism of normal and abnormal parturition will be covered as well as the pathophysiology of the breast and disorders of lactation. Fetal asphyxia and its consequences will be reviewed with emphasis on the technology currently available for its detection. In addition the conclusion of the reproductive cycle, menopause, and the use of hormonal replacement will be covered.

This course provides a rigorous and critical introduction to the foundation, structure and operation of the international human rights movement, as it has evolved through the years and as it impacts the United States. The course introduces students to the key theoretical debates in the field including the historical origin and character of the modern idea of human rights, the debate between universality and cultural relativism, between civil and human rights, between individual and community, and the historically contentious relationship between the West and the Rest in matters of sovereignty and human rights, drawing on real life examples from current affairs.

This course provides a rigorous and critical introduction to the foundation, structure and operation of the international human rights movement, as it has evolved through the years and as it impacts the United States. The course introduces students to the key theoretical debates in the field including the historical origin and character of the modern idea of human rights, the debate between universality and cultural relativism, between civil and human rights, between individual and community, and the historically contentious relationship between the West and the Rest in matters of sovereignty and human rights, drawing on real life examples from current affairs.

This course provides a rigorous and critical introduction to the foundation, structure and operation of the international human rights movement, as it has evolved through the years and as it impacts the United States. The course introduces students to the key theoretical debates in the field including the historical origin and character of the modern idea of human rights, the debate between universality and cultural relativism, between civil and human rights, between individual and community, and the historically contentious relationship between the West and the Rest in matters of sovereignty and human rights, drawing on real life examples from current affairs.