Fundamentals of photoelectric conversion: charge excitation, conduction, separation, and collection. Lectures cover commercial and emerging photovoltaic technologies and cross-cutting themes, including conversion efficiencies, loss mechanisms, characterization, manufacturing, systems, reliability, life-cycle analysis, risk analysis, and technology evolution in the context of markets, policies, society, and environment.

This course is one of many OCW Energy Courses, and it is an elective subject in MIT's undergraduate Energy Studies Minor. This Institute–wide program complements the deep expertise obtained in any major with a broad understanding of the interlinked realms of science, technology, and social sciences as they relate to energy and associated environmental challenges.

Furniture making is in many ways like bridge building, connections holding posts apart with spans to support a deck. Many architects have tried their hand at furniture design, Wright, Mies Van Der Rohe, Aalto, Saarinen, Le Corbusier, and Gerhy. We will review the history of furniture making in America with a visit to the Decorative Arts Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and have Cambridge artist/craftsman Mitch Ryerson show us his work and talk about design process. Students will learn traditional woodworking techniques beginning with the use of hand tools, power tools and finally woodworking machines. Students will build a single piece of furniture of an original design that must support someone weighing 185 lbs. sitting on it 12 inches off the ground made primarily of wood. Students should expect to spend approximately 80 hours in the shop outside of class time. Preregistered architecture students will get first priority but first meeting attendance is mandatory. Twelve student maximum, no exceptions.

This is a freshman advising seminar. The professor of a FAS is the first year advisor to the (no more than 8) students in the seminar. The use of Global Positioning System (GPS) in a wide variety of applications has exploded in the last few years. In this seminar we will explore how GPS works, the range of applications, and the conflict between civilian users and military planners. This seminar is followed by a UROP research project in the spring semester where results from precise GPS measurements will be analyzed and displayed on the web.

" This is a freshman advising seminar. The professor of a FAS is the first year advisor to the (no more than 8) students in the seminar. The use of Global Positioning System (GPS) in a wide variety of applications has exploded in the last few years. In this seminar we explore how positions on the Earth were determined before GPS; how GPS itself works and the range of applications in which GPS is now a critical element. This seminar is followed by a UROP research project in the spring semester where results from precise GPS measurements will be analyzed and displayed on the Web."

How do we communicate with the outside world? How are our senses of vision, smell, taste and pain controlled at the cellular and molecular levels? What causes medical conditions like allergies, hypertension, depression, obesity and various central nervous system disorders? G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) provide a major part of the answer to all of these questions. GPCRs constitute the largest family of cell-surface receptors and in humans are encoded by more than 1,000 genes. GPCRs convert extracellular messages into intracellular responses and are involved in essentially all physiological processes. GPCR dysfunction results in numerous human disorders, and over 50% of all prescription drugs on the market today directly or indirectly target GPCRs.In this course, we will discuss GPCR signal transduction pathways, GPCR oligomerization and the diseases caused by GPCR dysfunction. We will study the structure and function of rhodopsin, a dim-light photoreceptor and a well-studied GPCR that converts light into electric impulses sent to the brain and leads to vision. We will also discuss how mutations in rhodopsin cause retinal degeneration and congenital night blindness. 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.

The studio will focus on the district of Gaoming, located in the northwest of the Pearl River Delta (PRD) - the fastest growing and most productive region of China. The District has recently completed a planning effort in which several design institutes and a Hong Kong planning firm prepared ideas for a new central area near the river. The class will complement these efforts by focusing on planning and design options on the waterfront of the proposed new district and ways of integrating water/hydrological factors into all aspects and land uses of a modern city (residential, commercial, industrial) - including watershed and natural ecosystem protection, economic and recreational activities, transportation, and tourism.

Diagnostic studies and discussion of their implications for the theory of the structure and general circulation of the Earth's atmosphere. Includes some discussion of the validation and use of general circulation models as atmospheric analogs.

Deals with the specific functions of neurons, the interactions of neurons in development, and the organization of neuronal ensembles to produce behavior, by functional analysis of mutations and molecular analysis of their genes. Concentrates on work with nematodes, fruit flies, mice, and humans.

This course reviews the key genomic technologies and computational approaches that are driving advances in prognostics, diagnostics, and treatment. Throughout the semester, emphasis will return to issues surrounding the context of genomics in medicine including: what does a physician need to know? what sorts of questions will s/he likely encounter from patients? how should s/he respond? Lecturers will guide the student through real world patient-doctor interactions. Outcome considerations and socioeconomic implications of personalized medicine are also discussed. The first part of the course introduces key basic concepts of molecular biology, computational biology, and genomics. Continuing in the informatics applications portion of the course, lecturers begin each lecture block with a scenario, in order to set the stage and engage the student by showing: why is this important to know? how will the information presented be brought to bear on medical practice? The final section presents the ethical, legal, and social issues surrounding genomic medicine. A vision of how genomic medicine relates to preventative care and public health is presented in a discussion forum with the students where the following questions are explored: what is your level of preparedness now? what challenges must be met by the healthcare industry to get to where it needs to be?

Subject assesses the relationships between sequence, structure, and function in complex biological networks as well as progress in realistic modeling of quantitative, comprehensive functional-genomics analyses. Topics include: algorithmic, statistical, database, and simulation approaches; and practical applications to biotechnology, drug discovery, and genetic engineering. Future opportunities and current limitations critically assessed. Problem sets and project emphasize creative, hands-on analyses using these concepts. From the course home page: In addition to the regular lecture sessions, supplementary sections are scheduled to address issues related to Perl, Mathematica and biology.

This course introduces the parallel evolution of life and the environment. Life processes are influenced by chemical and physical processes in the atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere and the solid earth. In turn, life can influence chemical and physical processes on our planet. This course explores the concept of life as a geological agent and examines the interaction between biology and the earth system during the roughly 4 billion years since life first appeared.

This course deals with mechanics of deformation of the crust and mantle, with emphasis on the importance of different rheological descriptions: brittle, elastic, linear and nonlinear fluids, and viscoelastic.

Introduction to discrete and computational geometry. Topics covered: planar graphs, geometric graphs, the theory of crossings, extremal graph theory, arrangements of curves and points in the plane (mainly pseudolines and pseudocircles), problems involving distances, Gallai-Sylvester-type problems, Davenport-Schinzel sequences. Emphasis on teaching methods in combinatorial geometry. Many results presented are recent, and include open problems.

A rigorous introduction designed for mathematicians into perturbative quantum field theory, using the language of functional integrals. Basics of classical field theory. Free quantum theories. Feynman diagrams. Renormalization theory. Local operators. Operator product expansion. Renormalization group equation. The goal is to discuss, using mathematical language, a number of basic notions and results of QFT that are necessary to understand talks and papers in QFT and string theory.

This is a second-semester graduate course on the geometry of manifolds. The main emphasis is on the geometry of symplectic manifolds, but the material also includes long digressions into complex geometry and the geometry of 4-manifolds, with special emphasis on topological considerations.

Fundamental principles of biochemistry. Analysis of the mode of action and structure of regulatory, binding, and catalytic proteins. The tools and analytical methods that biochemists use to dissect biological problems. Analysis of the mode of action and structure of regulatory, binding, and catalytic proteins.

This course provides a challenging introduction to some of the central ideas of theoretical computer science. It attempts to present a vision of "computer science beyond computers": that is, CS as a set of mathematical tools for understanding complex systems such as universes and minds. Beginning in antiquity--with Euclid's algorithm and other ancient examples of computational thinking--the course will progress rapidly through propositional logic, Turing machines and computability, finite automata, GĚŚdel's theorems, efficient algorithms and reducibility, NP-completeness, the P versus NP problem, decision trees and other concrete computational models, the power of randomness, cryptography and one-way functions, computational theories of learning, interactive proofs, and quantum computing and the physical limits of computation. Class participation is essential, as the class will include discussion and debate about the implications of many of these ideas.

Background for and techniques of visual observation, electronic imaging, and spectroscopy of the Moon, planets, satellites, stars, and brighter deep-space objects. Weekly outdoor observing sessions using 8-inch diameter telescopes when weather permits. Indoor sessions introduce needed skills. Introduction to contemporary observational astronomy including astronomical computing, image and data processing, and how astronomers work. Student must maintain a careful and complete written log which is graded. In this seminar we explore the background and techniques of visual observation and imaging of the Moon, planets, and brighter deep-space objects using 8-inch telescopes. (Some sample images appear in our "photo album".) Telescope work begins with visual observing, then we advance to CCD (charge-coupled device) cameras. Each class observing session meets one evening a week. Whenever weather conditions permit us to observe outdoors we do so! In cloudy weather we'll try some astronomical computing and image processing indoors instead. Either way, virtually all the work for the seminar is done during the evening sessions, so students must attend section every week in order to pass. Past experience has been that if you're really enthusiastic about hands-on out-under-the-sky astronomy, enough to be willing to deal with dressing warmly, tinkering with equipment, and committing one evening a week, 12.409 is great fun! One student wrote, "Unlike most seminars, you will earn your units and, unlike most other MIT courses, you will look forward to doing it!" But we'll be direct: 12.409 is not for everyone, and in past years many whose interest was merely casual found themselves unwilling to devote one entire evening every week to the class. If your interest is only casual then consider whether a more typical astronomy survey subject might be a better choice, since it'll have more outside preparation time that you can rearrange at your discretion and less in-class time that you can't.

This course introduces students to both passive and active electronic components (op-amps, 555 timers, TTL digital circuits). Basic analog and digital circuits and theory of operation are covered. The labs allow the students to master the use of electronic instruments and construct and/or solder several circuits. The labs also reinforce the concepts discussed in class with a hands-on approach and allow the students to gain significant experience with electrical instruments such as function generators, digital multimeters, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers and power supplies. In the last lab, the students build an electronic circuit that they can keep. The course is geared to freshmen and others who want an introduction to electronics circuits. 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.

6.776 covers circuit and system level design issues of high speed communication systems, with primary focus being placed on wireless and broadband data link applications. Specific circuit topics include transmission lines, high speed and low noise amplifiers, VCO's, and high speed digital circuits. Specific system topics include frequency synthesizers, clock and data recovery circuits, and GMSK transceivers. In addition to learning analysis skills for the above items, students will gain a significant amount of experience in simulating circuits in SPICE and systems in CppSim (a custom C++ simulator).