Courses tagged with "Information policy" (252)

STS.467 examines the intellectual foundations of archaeology in the deep sea. The course explores the current convergence of oceanography, archaeology, and engineering which allows scientists to discover, survey, and excavate shipwrecks in deep water with robots and submarines. The course seeks to address the following questions: How are new devices best employed for archaeological work? How do new capabilities (e.g. higher frequencies, higher resolution, all digital data output) change operations plans and research designs? What new technologies will be required? Area studies focus on the Aegean in Minoan times and western Sicily during Phoenician, Greek, and Roman hegemony.

Our climate is changing rapidly, and now more than ever we need to be ready to act and prepare the next generation to do the same.

This course explores the basic science behind climate change and presents the tools to teach it in a positive, engaging and participatory way. The course also introduces some of the ethical and social issues around climate change.

This is a hands-on course that makes use of videos, lesson plans and online games developed by the IDB's "Rise-Up: Education Against Climate Change" initiative with examples coming directly from Latin America and the Caribbean. It is intended to assist elementary and high-school teachers or teachers-in-training in the launch of climate change education and actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change in their school community.

This course provides a mathematical introduction to the mechanics and control of robots that can be modeled as kinematic chains. Topics covered include the concept of a robot’s configuration space and degrees of freedom, static grasp analysis, the description of rigid body motions, kinematics of open and closed chains, and the basics of robot control. The emphasis is not on the latest research trends and technological innovations in robotics, but on learning the fundamental concepts and core principles that underlie robotics as a scientific discipline. The intent is to help students acquire a unified set of analytical tools for the modeling and control of robots, together with a reliable physical intuition that recognizes the unique and interdisciplinary nature of robotics—in short, content that will serve as a reliable foundation for whatever trends may appear later, and remain relevant to both the practitioner and researcher. This course is the first of two parts of “Robot Mechanics and Control.” Part II will start shortly after completion of Part I.

This course is Part II of a two-part mathematical introduction to the mechanics and control of robots that can be modeled as kinematic chains. Topics covered include the concept of a robot’s configuration space and degrees of freedom, static grasp analysis, the description of rigid body motions, kinematics of open and closed chains, and the basics of robot control. The emphasis is not on the latest research trends and technological innovations in robotics, but on learning the fundamental concepts and core principles that underlie robotics as a scientific discipline. The intent is to help students acquire a unified set of analytical tools for the modeling and control of robots, together with a reliable physical intuition that recognizes the unique and interdisciplinary nature of robotics—in short, content that will serve as a reliable foundation for whatever trends may appear later, and remain relevant to both the practitioner and researcher. NOTE: Part II will cover screw motions and the product of exponentials kinematics formula, inverse kinematics of open chains, velocity kinematics and statics, closed chain kinematics, and basics of robot control.

This course will cover the theory and the fundamentals of the emerging science of Sabermetrics. We will discuss the game of baseball, not through consensus or a fan’s conventional wisdom, but by searching for objective knowledge in baseball performance. These and other areas of sabermetrics will be analyzed and better understood with current and historical baseball data. 

The course also serves as applied introduction to the basics of data science, an emerging field of scholarship, that requires skills in computation, statistics, and communicating results of analyses. Using baseball data, the basics of statistical regression, the R Language, and SQL will be covered.

This course was successfully taught on the edX platform as a MOOC in 2014. This course has also been successfully taught at the Experimental College at Tufts University since 2004.  Many of its former students have gone on to careers writing about baseball and working in various MLB baseball operations and analytics departments.

In Part 2 of Science and Cooking (Part 1 is available here), we will be visited by more world-famous chefs who use a number of different styles and techniques in their cooking.  Each chef will demonstrate how he or she prepares delicious and interesting creations, and we will explore how fundamental scientific principles make them possible.

Topics will include:

• How cooking changes food texture
• Making emulsions and foams
• Phase changes in cooking

You will also have the opportunity to become an experimental scientist in your very own laboratory — your kitchen! By following along with the recipes of the week, taking precise measurements, and making skillful observations, you will learn to think like both a chef and a scientist.  This practice will prepare you for the final project, when you will design and perform an experiment to analyze a recipe of your choice from a scientific perspective.

The lab is certainly one of the most unique components of this course — after all, in what other science course can you eat your experiments?

This course focuses on the physical changes that occur during cooking.  If you are interested in signing up for “Part 1,” which focuses more on the chemistry of cooking, you can do so here.

Build your earth science vocabulary and learn about cycles of matter and types of sedimentary rocks through the Education Portal course Earth Science 101: Earth Science. Our series of video lessons and accompanying self-assessment quizzes can help you boost your scientific knowledge ahead of the Excelsior Earth Science exam . This course was designed by experienced educators and examines both science basics, like experimental design and systems of measurement, and more advanced topics, such as analysis of rock deformation and theories of continental drift.

Build your earth science vocabulary and learn about cycles of matter and types of sedimentary rocks through the Education Portal course Earth Science 101: Earth Science. Our series of video lessons and accompanying self-assessment quizzes can help you boost your scientific knowledge ahead of the Excelsior Earth Science exam . This course was designed by experienced educators and examines both science basics, like experimental design and systems of measurement, and more advanced topics, such as analysis of rock deformation and theories of continental drift.

This class develops the abilities of students to communicate science effectively in a variety of real-world contexts. It covers strategies for dealing with complex areas like theoretical physics, genomics and neuroscience, and addresses challenges in communicating about topics such as climate change and evolution. Projects focus on speaking and writing, being an expert witness, preparing briefings for policy-makers, writing blogs, and giving live interviews for broadcast, as well as the creation of an interactive exhibit for display in the MIT Museum.

How do artists create visual effects? In order to create an artistic impression, artists select materials that allow image formation, and that lend color, emphasis, shape, and size to the object created.

A scientist might follow up by asking, why those materials?  What characteristics do they have that allow them to embody the artist’s intent? How durable are they? Will they maintain the same qualities, both physical and aesthetic, they had when the work left the studio?

Conservation science further notes that all materials deteriorate over time, and then asks a follow-up question: What physical interventions are possible to maintain, preserve and protect the work as the artist intended? Whatever is done to the art object, the result must be to make the work recognizable as the artist’s work or the result is a failure.  

That is a key goal of this course: to understand, from a chemical point of view, how conservation protocols and the material aspects of an art work allow a better appreciation of an artwork and its creation, as well as confidence that it is the artist’s work.

These are not new problems. According to Leonardo da Vinci, the study of art should include the following topics:

• A knowledge of materials
• The chemistry of colors
• The mathematics of composition
• The laws of perspective
• The illusions of chiaroscuro

As the briefest study of Leonardo's life shows, he was clearly ahead of his time in wanting to understand the reasons for a vast array of natural and artificial phenomena. Even so, a thorough understanding of those subjects listed above still escapes us today – but, progress has been made and that progress is at once the subject matter and the goal of this course.

Course banner painting: Unknown (previously attributed to Vincent van Gogh), Poppies, c.1886-c.1887, oil on canvas, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Bequest of Anne Parrish Titzell, 1957.617

This class is an introduction to studies in science, technology, and society (STS), through examining a series of issues, events, conflicts, and problems as illuminated by STS approaches. This iteration includes units on the Aaron Swartz case, photography, and utopia / dystopia. There are regular guest speakers, and several field trips to encourage hands on learning.

This subject exposes students to a variety of visualization techniques so that they learn to understand the work involved in producing them and to critically assess the power and limits of each. Students concentrate on areas where visualizations are crucial for meaning making and data production. Drawing on scholarship in science and technology studies on visualization, critical art theory, and core discussions in science and engineering, students work through a series of case studies in order to become better readers and producers of visualizations.

Interaktiver MOOC mit Operationsvideos der Universität Tübingen. Chirurgen aller Fachrichtungen und Anatomen erklären das zentrale Fach der Medizin im chirurgisch-operativen Kontext.

Interaktiver MOOC mit spannenden anatomischen und medizinischen Videos der Universität Tübingen. Anatomen und Kliniker erklären die Anatomie der Kopf- und Hals-Region im klinischen und chirurgisch-operativen Kontext.

In this course, we will take you on a virtual journey covering different Earth observation tools. In the course modules, we cover the most crucial measurement tools for solid Earth, the atmosphere, and the biosphere. Our experts will give you first-hand insights why, where, and how those techniques are applied and they will show you how sensors work in space, on aircrafts, and on the ground.

You will be given insights on how you can use data from various sensors to better understand our living planet and how it changes. Together with your fellow learners all over the world, you will conduct joined experiments that demonstrate, how easy it is to sense the Earth’s environment. On top of that, world-renowned experts will be interviewed - telling you why they think it is so important that we study our planet.

Join us and let’s sense planet Earth together!

Global warming. Rising sea levels. Droughts. Flooding. The melting of the polar ice caps.

Join us, when we discover how continental water and ice masses are measured and monitored through remote sensing. Our experts give you first-hand insights how water and mass transport can be traced, and how this relates to the complex processes in the Earth‘s system.

Together with your fellow learners you will assess and evaluate statements made in relation to climate change. This will prepare you to make evidence-based decisions for a sustainable future.

Join us and let’s sense planet Earth together!

Ever wondered why you hear the term “smart grid” so often these days, and what it’s all about? This engineering course will explain the essential nature of the smart grid, an electricity network based on digital technology, and the importance of grid modernization.

This course will provide high-level insight into a smart grid’s many aspects such as distributed energy, energy storage, transmission and distribution automation, microgrids, demand response, data analytics, and cyber security.

This course builds an understanding of key smart grid technologies both from a utility and customer perspective. It delivers a business perspective through cost-benefit analysis, market adoption, and industry mega trends.

It concludes by laying out a typical roadmap for the progression of smart grids, along with an implementation methodology for realizing it.

No previous power systems or utility industry knowledge needed. Simply sit back and enjoy your journey through the world of Smart Grid.

This course is a graduate reading seminar, in which historical and contemporary studies are used to explore the interaction of technology with social and political values. Emphasis is on how technological devices, structures, and systems influence the organization of society and the behavior of its members. Examples are drawn from the technologies of war, transportation, communication, production, and reproduction.

This course surveys canonical and recent theories and methods in science studies. We will organize our discussions around the concept of "reproduction," referring variously to:

1. Scientific reproduction (how results are replicated in lab, field, disciplinary contexts)
2. Social reproduction (how social knowledge and relations are regenerated over time)
3. Biological reproduction (how organic substance is managed in the genetic age)
4. Electronic reproduction (how information is reassembled in techniques of transcription, simulation, computation).

Examining intersections and disruptions of these genres of reproduction, we seek to map relations among our social, biological, and electronic lives.

In the third edition of Solar Energy, you will learn to design a complete photovoltaic system. This course introduces the technology that converts solar energy into electricity, heat and solar fuels with a main focus on electricity generation. Photovoltaic (PV) devices are presented as advanced semiconductor devices that deliver electricity directly from sunlight. The emphasis is on understanding the working principle of a solar cell, fabrication of solar cells, PV module construction and the design of a PV system. You will gain a greater understanding of the principles of the photovoltaic conversion— the conversion of light into electricity. This course explores the advantages, limitations and challenges of different solar cell technologies, such as crystalline silicon solar cell technology, thin film solar cell technologies and the latest novel solar cell concepts as studied on lab-scale. We will discuss the specifications of solar modules and demonstrate how to design a complete solar system for any particular application.

Education Method

The class will consist of a collection of eight to twelve minute lecture videos, exercises, assignments and exams. Specified assignments and the three exams will determine the final grade. The new textbook on “Solar Energy, basics, technology and systems” from the Delft University of Technology will be available for the students on-line and free of charge. Your course staff will encourage and challenge you to learn from, and interact with, your fellow students by helping each other and sharing ideas and best practices, in the course forum. We were happy to see the incredible number of interesting student videos on solar energy systems from all over the world in the previous edition of this course. 

Professor Smets was the first ever recipient of the edX Prize for Exceptional Contributions to Online Teaching and Learning. His previous online courses attracted over 150,000 students worldwide, who were inspired to take their first steps in the transition to renewable energy. 

LICENSE

The course materials of this course are Copyright Delft University of Technology and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC-BY-NC-SA) 4.0 International License.