This is a seminar about the ways that urban design contributes to the distribution of political power and resources in cities. "Design," in this view, is not some value-neutral aesthetic applied to efforts at urban development but is, instead, an integral part of the motives driving that development. The class investigates the nature of the relations between built form and political purposes through close examination of a wide variety of situations where public and private sector design commissions and planning processes have been clearly motivated by political pressures, as well as situations where the political assumptions have remained more tacit. We will explore cases from both developed and developing countries.

This course is a requirement for completion of the Urban Design Certificate Program. It investigates the complex nature of 'successful' urban design, and attempts to identify and evaluate examples of urban design that are at the leading edge of practice, anticipating the future. The seminar will deal with two parallel questions: What are the key trends that will shape the future form and function of cities? and how will these changes affect the role of the urban designer? The first part of the seminar focuses on the present, and the second part of the semester will consider the future. After the course surveys the landscape of contemporary urban design practice, the challenge it will pose to students will be to identify the trajectory of cities and city design from both physical and social perspectives.

An introduction to the methods of recording, evaluating, and communicating about the urban environment. Through visual observation, field analysis, measurements, interviews, and other means, students learn to draw on their senses and develop their ability to deduce, conclude, question, and test conclusions about how the environment is used and valued. Through the use of representational tools such as drawing, photographing, computer modeling and desktop publishing, students communicate what is observed as well as their impressions and ideas. Intended as a foundation for future studio work in urban design.

The design of urban environments. Strategies for change in large areas of cities, to be developed over time, involving different actors. Fitting forms into natural, man-made, historical, and cultural contexts; enabling desirable activity patterns; conceptualizing built form; providing infrastructure and service systems; guiding the sensory character of development. Involves architecture and planning students in joint work; requires individual designs or design and planning guidelines.

This class presents an analysis of the development of housing models and their urban implications in Paris, London, and New York City from the seventeenth century to the present. The focus will be on three models: the French hotel, the London row house, and the New York City tenement and apartment building. Other topics covered will include twentieth-century housing reform movements and work by the London County Council, CIAM, and American public housing agencies.

Subject discusses the broader trends in the labor market, how urban labor markets function, public and private training policy, other labor market programs, the link between labor market policy and economic development, and the organization of work within firms.

This readings-based course analyzes the structure and operation of government systems in developing countries, with particular emphasis on regional and local governments. Major topics include: the role of decentralization in national economic reform programs; the potential impact of decentralized governments on local economic development; determination of optimal arrangements for sharing fiscal responsibilities among levels of government; evaluation of local revenue and expenditure decisions; and assessment of prospects and options for intergovernmental fiscal reform. Emphasis is on basic economic concerns, with consideration given to political, institutional, and cultural factors.

This course is intended to introduce graduate students to a set of core writings in the field of urban sociology. Topics include the changing nature of community, social inequality, political power, socio-spatial change, technological change, and the relationship between the built environment and human behavior. We examine the key theoretical paradigms that have constituted the field since its founding, assess how and why they have changed over time, and discuss the implications of these paradigmatic shifts for urban scholarship, social policy and the planning practice.

This course explores the creative dialectic—and sometimes conflict—between sociology and urban policy and design. Topics include the changing conceptions of "community," the effects of neighborhood characteristics on individual outcomes, the significance of social capital and networks, the drivers of categorical inequality, and the interaction of social structure and political power. Students will examine key theoretical paradigms that have constituted sociology since its founding, assess how and why they have changed over time, and discuss the implications of these shifts for urban research and planning practice.

The course examines the causes and effects of rapid urbanization in developing countries. Using case studies from the world's four major developing regions, including (among others) Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Managua, Singapore, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Kabul, Beirut, Cairo, Kinshasa, Cape Town and Johannesburg, it explores the economic and political dynamics that grease the wheels of contemporary patterns of growth. In addition to examining both local and transnational forces that drive contemporary urbanization, the course focuses on key issues that emerge in rapidly growing cities of the developing world, ranging from growing income inequality and socio-economic exclusion, environmental challenges, and rising violence. Class sessions are discussion-based and focus on a critical analysis of the arguments presented in the readings.

11.941 and 11.942 make up a one-year seminar. The goal of this seminar is to explore the role of science and scientists in ecosystems and natural resources management focusing on joint fact finding as a new approach to environmental policy-making. Increasingly scientists and science organizations are confronting a conundrum: Why is science often ignored in important societal decisions even as the call for decisions based on sound science escalates? One reason is that decision-making is often driven by a variety of nonscientific, adversarial, and stakeholder dynamics. Thus, even though science helps inform choices, it is only one of many values and interests considered by each stakeholder. In response to this emerging challenge, scientists, and science agencies such as the U.S. Geological Survey, are embarking upon research that explores the problems of incorporating science into value-laden societal decisions. This research includes designing experiments that will assess the appropriateness of using the new and emerging approach of Joint Fact Finding to address some of the Nation's most contentious environmental conflicts. In the first few sessions we will examine the problems of using science in environmental disputes. In following sessions, students will analyze and discuss cases that involved or that should have involved Joint Fact Finding of various kinds.

This course makes up the second half of a year-long seminar on Joint Fact Finding in Science-Intensive Disputes. In 11.941, the first half of the seminar, students analyzed and discussed cases that involved or that should have involved Joint Fact Finding of various kinds. In this portion, students concentrate on gathering information to assist in resolving the Cape Wind project, the dispute concerning the placement of wind farms in waters adjacent to Nantucket. Students will lay the groundwork for a collaborative project that includes Federal and State agencies, academic institutions and non-profits.

This course examines human-computer interaction in the context of graphical user interfaces. The course covers human capabilities, design principles, prototyping techniques, evaluation techniques, and the implementation of graphical user interfaces. Deliverables include short programming assignments and a semester-long group project. Students taking the graduate version also have readings from current literature and additional assignments.

How do scientists discover the basic biology underlying human diseases? Simple organisms such as baker's yeast, nematodes, fruit flies, zebrafish, mice and rats have allowed biologists to investigate disease at multiple levels, from molecules to behavior. In this course students will learn strategies of disease modeling by critically reading and discussing primary research articles. We will explore current models of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease, childhood genetic diseases such as Fragile X syndrome, as well as models of deafness and wound healing. Our goal will be to understand the strategies biologists use to build appropriate models of human disease and to appreciate both the power and limitations of using simple organisms to analyze human disease. 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 growth of blood vessels, a process known as angiogenesis, is one of the earliest events in mammalian development and is regulated by a sensitive interplay of growth factors and other molecules. In this course, we will discuss the key molecular regulators of blood vessel development as well as the techniques and experimental systems that have been utilized by vascular biologists. We will also examine the success of several anti-angiogenic treatments that have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), that inhibit the pro-angiogenic vascular endothelial growth factor, VEGF, and that are now being used to treat age-related macular degeneration. Finally, we will explore how during the course of cancer progression, establishment of a blood supply into a tumor can lead to the growth and spread of cancer cells to secondary sites. We will discuss the caveats and potential pitfalls of targeting tumor blood vessels to starve cancer cells and prevent the spread of cancer, which remains one of the leading causes of death in the USA. 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.

British literature and culture during Queen Victoria's long reign, 1837-1901. Authors studied may include Charles Dickens, the Brontes, Lewis Carroll, George Eliot, Robert Browning, Oscar Wilde, Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling, and Alfred Lord Tennyson. Discussion of many of the era's major developments such as urbanization, steam power, class conflict, Darwin, religious crisis, imperial expansion, information explosion, and bureaucratization. Fiction, nonfiction, and poetry; syllabi vary.

This resource contains demonstrations used to illustrate the theory and applications of lasers and optics. A detailed listing of the topics can be found below. Lasers today are being used in an ever-increasing number of applications. In fact, there is hardly a field that has not been touched by the laser. Lasers are playing key roles in the home, office, hospital, factory, outdoors, and theater, as well as in the laboratory.To learn about lasers and related optics, one usually takes a course or two, or acquires the necessary information from books and journal articles. To make this learning more vivid and more exciting, and, one hopes, more understandable, one needs to see some of the basic phenomena involved. To fill this need, Professor Ezekiel has videotaped 48 demonstrations that illustrate most of the fundamental phenomena relating to lasers and physical optics.By using split-screen inserts and a wide range of video-recording capabilities, it is possible to show real-time effects in lasers and optics with the simultaneous manipulation of the components that cause these effects. In this way, one can see effects in close up that would be difficult, if not impossible, to display in front of an audience or in the classroom.These video demonstrations are designed for:The individual student of lasers and optics who wants to observe the various phenomena covered in theoretical treatments in courses, books, and technical papers.The Instructor in lasers and optics in a company, university, college, or high school who wants to illustrate, in class, many of the fundamental phenomena in optics and lasers.These videos were produced by the MIT Center for Advanced Engineering Study.To obtain high quality versions of the demonstrations, visit Zeelase.

This course examines the problem of mass violence and oppression in the contemporary world, and the concept of human rights as a defense against such abuse. It explores questions of cultural relativism, race, gender and ethnicity. It examines case studies from war crimes tribunals, truth commissions, anti-terrorist policies and other judicial attempts to redress state-sponsored wrongs. It also considers whether the human rights framework effectively promotes the rule of law in modern societies. Students debate moral positions and address ideas of moral relativism.

Co-evolution and adaptation between viruses and humans are often portrayed as a zero-sum biological arms race. Viruses enter host cells equipped with an array of mechanisms to evade the host defense responses and replicate. The rapid rate of mutation of viruses permits evolution of various methodologies for infection, which in turn drive development of non-specific but highly effective host mechanisms to restrict infection. This class will discuss the varied solutions each side has developed as a means for survival. We will use examples drawn from human disease-causing pathogens that contribute seriously to the global health burden, including HIV, influenza and dengue virus. Primary research papers will be discussed to help students learn to pose scientific questions and design and conduct experiments to answer the questions and critically interpret data. 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.

This course is an invitation to German film-making since the end of the Second World War. We investigate how German cinema captured the atmosphere of the immediate post-war years and discuss extensively major works of the "New German Cinema" of the Sixties and Seventies. We also look at examples of East Germany's film production and finally observe the very different roads German cinema has been taking from the 1990's into the present.