Gain practical insight and improved understanding of engineering experimentation through design and execution of "project" experiments. Building upon work in 16.621, students construct and test equipment, make systematic experimental measurements of phenomena, analyze data, and compare theoretical predictions with results. Written final report on entire project and formal oral presentation. Includes instructions on oral presentations. Provides valuable link between theory and practice.

Introduces laboratory experimental techniques. Principles of experimental design and reliable measurement. Laboratory safety. Instruction in effective report writing and oral presentation, including revision of written work. Selection and detailed planning of an individual research project, including design of components or equipment. Preparation of a detailed proposal for the selected project carried through to completion under 16.622.

Study of physical effects in the vicinity of a black hole as the 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 or spacetime near rotating and nonrotating centers of attraction; the Global Positioning System and its dependence on general relativity; trajectories and orbits of particles. Subject has online component and classroom lectures are replaced with online interactions: manipulation of visualization software, access to websites describing current research, electronic submission of homework, and structured online discussions between undergraduates and alumni and with instructors and graduate specialists in the topics covered.

" 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."

Civilization is mostly the story of how seeds, meats, and ways to cook them travel from place to place. - Adam Gopnik, "What's Cooking" "A significant part of the pleasure of eating is in one's accurate consciousness of the lives and the world from which food comes." - Wendell Berry, "The Pleasures of Eating" If you are what you eat, what are you? Food is at once the stuff of life and a potent symbol; it binds us to the earth, to our families, and to our cultures. The aroma of turkey roasting or the taste of green tea can be a portal to memories, while too many Big Macs can clog our arteries. The chef is an artist, yet those who pick oranges or process meat may be little more than slaves. In this class, we will explore many of the fascinating issues that surround food as both material fact and personal and cultural symbol. We will read essays by Chang-Rae Lee, Francine du Plessix Gray, M. F. K. Fisher, Anthony Bourdain, and others on such topics as family meals, the art and science of cooking, fair trade, eating disorders, and food's ability to awaken us to "our own powers of enjoyment" (M. F. K. Fisher). We will also read Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation and view one or more films or videos as a class. Assigned essays will grow out of memories and the texts we read, and will include personal narratives and essays that depend on research. Workshop review of writing in progress and revision of essays will be an important part of the course.

Basic principles of planet atmospheres and interiors applied to the study of extrasolar planets (exoplanets). Focus on fundamental physical processes related to observable exoplanet properties. Quantitative overview of detection techniques. Introduction to the feasibility of the search for Earth-like planets, biosignatures and habitable conditions on exoplanets.

Introduces issues and programmatic strategies related to the development, organization, and management of family planning programs, especially those in developing countries. Topics include social, economic, health, and human rights rationale for family planning; identifying and measuring populations in need of family planning services; social, cultural, political, and ethical barriers; contraceptive methods and their programmatic requirements; strategic alternatives, including integrated and vertical programs and public and private sector services; information, education, and communication strategies; management information systems; and the use of computer models for program design.

Introduction to design of feedback systems. Properties and advantages of feedback systems. Time-domain and frequency-domain performance measures. Stability and degree of stability. Nyquist criterion. Frequency-domain design. Root locus method. Compensation techniques. Application to a wide variety of physical systems. Some previous laboratory experience with electronic systems is assumed (6.002 or 6.071 or 16.040).

This course introduces the basic driving forces for electric current, fluid flow, and mass transport, plus their application to a variety of biological systems. Basic mathematical and engineering tools will be introduced, in the context of biology and physiology. Various electrokinetic phenomena are also considered as an example of coupled nature of chemical-electro-mechanical driving forces. Applications include transport in biological tissues and across membranes, manipulation of cells and biomolecules, and microfluidics.

Inspired by the work of the architect Antoni Gaudi, this research workshop will explore three-dimensional problems in the static equilibrium of structural systems. Through an interdisciplinary collaboration between computer science and architecture, we will develop design tools for determining the form of three-dimensional structural systems under a variety of loads. The goal of the workshop is to develop real-time design and analysis tools which will be useful to architects and engineers in the form-finding of efficient three-dimensional structural systems.

This practicum focuses on applying the principles of sustainability to improve the quality of life and activity along the Foshan downtown riverfront. The City has recently engaged in several planning efforts that, with the help of consultants and experts, will help to identify strategies to revitalize the City's center and establish a new downtown. This practicum will compliment these efforts by focusing on planning and design options in and around the Pearl River, a now underutilized waterway that runs through the City's new downtown.

This subject describes and illustrates computational approaches to solving problems in systems biology. A series of case-studies will be explored that demonstrate how an effective match between the statement of a biological problem and the selection of an appropriate algorithm or computational technique can lead to fundamental advances. The subject will cover several discrete and numerical algorithms used in simulation, feature extraction, and optimization for molecular, network, and systems models in biology.

This course is an introduction to computational biology emphasizing the fundamentals of nucleic acid and protein sequence and structural analysis; it also includes an introduction to the analysis of complex biological systems. Topics covered in the course include principles and methods used for sequence alignment, motif finding, structural modeling, structure prediction and network modeling, as well as currently emerging research areas.

Foundations subject in modern software development techniques for engineering and information technology. Covers the design and development of component-based software (using C# and .NET); data structures and algorithms for modeling, analysis, and visualization; basic problem-solving techniques; web services; and the management and maintenance of software. Includes a treatment of topics such as sorting and searching algorithms; and numerical simulation techniques. Foundation for in-depth exploration of image processing, computational geometry, finite element methods, network methods and e-business applications.

" During development, the genetic content of each cell remains, with a few exceptions, identical to that of the zygote. Most differentiated cells therefore retain all of the genetic information necessary to generate an entire organism. It was through pioneering technology of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) that this concept was experimentally proven. Only 10 years ago the sheep Dolly was the first mammal to be cloned from an adult organism, demonstrating that the differentiated state of a mammalian cell can be fully reversible to a pluripotent embryonic state. A key conclusion from these experiments was that the difference between pluripotent cells such as embryonic stem (ES) cells and unipotent differentiated cells is solely a consequence of reversible changes. These changes, which have proved to involve reversible alterations to both DNA and to proteins that bind DNA, are known as epigenetic, to distinguish them from genetic alterations to DNA sequence. In this course we will explore such epigenetic changes and study different approaches that can return a differentiated cell to an embryonic state in a process referred to as epigenetic reprogramming, which will ultimately allow generation of patient-specific stem cells and application to regenerative therapy. This course is one of many Advanced Undergraduate Seminars offered by the Biology Department at MIT. These seminars are tailored for students with an interest in using primary research literature to discuss and learn about current biological research in a highly interactive setting. Many instructors of the Advanced Undergraduate Seminars are postdoctoral scientists with a strong interest in teaching."

Continues 18.100. Roughly half the subject devoted to the theory of the Lebesgue integral with applications to probability, and half to Fourier series and Fourier integrals.

Linear elastic and elastic-plastic fracture mechanics. Experimental methods. Microstructural effects on fracture in metals, ceramics, polymers, thin films, biological materials and composites. Toughening mechanisms. Crack growth resistance and creep fracture. Interface fracture mechanics. Fatigue damage and dislocation substructures in single crystals. Stress- and strain-life approach to fatigue. Fatigue crack growth models and mechanisms. Variable amplitude fatigue. Corrosion fatigue. Case studies of fracture and fatigue in structural, bioimplant, and microelectronic components.

This is the first semester in a two-semester introductory course focused on current theories of structure and mechanism in organic chemistry, their historical development, and their basis in experimental observation. The course is open to freshmen with excellent preparation in chemistry and physics, and it aims to develop both taste for original science and intellectual skills necessary for creative research.

Since the discovery of the structure of the DNA double helix in 1953 by Watson and Crick, the information on detailed molecular structures of DNA and RNA, namely, the foundation of genetic material, has expanded rapidly. This discovery is the beginning of the "Big Bang" of molecular biology and biotechnology. In this seminar, students discuss, from a historical perspective and current developments, the importance of pursuing the detailed structural basis of genetic materials.

Why are things in nature shaped the way they are? How do birds fly? Why do bird nests look the way they do? How do woodpeckers peck? These are the types of questions Dr. Lorna Gibson's freshman seminar at MIT has been investigating. We invite you to explore with us. Questions such as these are the subject of biomimetic research. When engineers copy the shapes found in nature we call it Biomimetics. The word biomimic comes from bio, as in biology and mimetic, which means to copy. Join us as we explore and look for answers to why similar shapes occur in so many natural things and how physics change the shape of nature.