Student teams design, build and test small-sized gliders to maximize flight distance and an aerodynamic ratio, applying their knowledge of fluid dynamics to its role in flight. Students experience the entire engineering design process, from brainstorming to CAD (or by hand) drafting, including researching (physics of aerodynamics and glider components that take advantage of that science), creating materials lists, constructing, testing and evaluating—all within constraints (works with a launcher, budget limitation, maximizing flight distance to mass ratio), and concluding with a summary final report. Numerous handouts and rubrics are provided.

Students use the engineering design process to design and build magnetic-field detectors, and use them to find hidden magnets. Parallels are drawn to real-world NASA missions and how NASA scientists use magnetic field data from planets and moons. The website has video clips, teaching suggestions, a student handout, and a link to the pdf of the Teacher’s Guide for Mission: Solar System. The Inspector Detector challenge is a series of activities that form a unit in the Mission: Solar System collection. * NOTE: The Teacher’s Guide does not contain the lesson plan. You will need to click on the Student Handout heading of the website to download the “Inspector Detector Challenge Leader’s Notes”.

This course uses reaction kinetics, batch reactor analysis, batch distillation, batch operations scheduling, safety analysis, and the ABACUSS process simulator to introduce process design and analysis techniques.

Presents and solves chemical engineering problems in an industrial context, with applications varying by semester. Emphasis on the integration of fundamental concepts with approaches of process design. Emphasis on problems that demand synthesis, economic analysis, and process design .This course introduces students to methods and background needed for the conceptual design of continuously operating chemical plants. Particular attention is paid to the use of process modeling tools such as Aspen that are used in industry and to problems of current interest. Each student team is assigned to evaluate and design a different technology and prepare a final design report. For spring 2006, the theme of the course is to design technologies for lowering the emissions of climatically active gases from processes that use coal as the primary fuel.

This course provides a brief introduction to the field of biocatalysis in the context of process design. Fundamental topics include why and when one may choose to use biological systems for chemical conversion, considerations for using free enzymes versus whole cells, and issues related to design and development of bioconversion processes. Biological and engineering problems are discussed as well as how one may arrive at both biological and engineering solutions.

The lectures introduce a number of topics that are important for IWRM and the modeling exercise. The lectures introduce water management issues in the Netherlands, Rhine Basin, and Volta Basin. The role-play is meant to experience some of the social processes that, together with technical knowledge, determine water management.

This graduate-level course covers fluid systems dominated by the influence of interfacial tension. The roles of curvature pressure and Marangoni stress are elucidated in a variety of fluid systems. Particular attention is given to drops and bubbles, soap films and minimal surfaces, wetting phenomena, water-repellency, surfactants, Marangoni flows, capillary origami and contact line dynamics.

Analysis, modeling, and design of heat and mass transfer processes with application to common technologies. Unsteady heat conduction in one or more dimensions, steady conduction in multidimensional configurations, numerical simulation; forced convection in laminar and turbulent flows; natural convection in internal and external configurations; phase change heat transfer; thermal radiation, black bodies, grey radiation networks, spectral and solar radiation; mass transfer at low rates, evaporation.

After watching a 1940 film clip of the "Galloping Gertie" bridge collapse and a teacher demo with a simple pendulum, student groups discuss and then research the idea of motion that repeats itself specifically the concepts of periodic and harmonic motion. They become aware of where and how these types of motion occur and affect them in everyday applications, both natural (seasons, tides, waves) and engineered (swings, clocks, mechanical systems). They learn the basic properties of this type of motion (period, amplitude, frequency) and how the rearrangement of the simple pendulum equation can be used to solve for gravitational acceleration, pendulum length and gravity. At lesson end, students are ready to conduct the associated activity during which they conduct experiments that utilize swinging Android® devices as pendulums.

This course provides an introduction to the universe beyond the Earth. We begin with a study of the night sky and the history of the science of astronomy. We then explore the various objects seen in the cosmos including the solar system, stars, galaxies, and the evolution of the universe itself. As an online course, it is equivalent to 6 lecture hours, and satisfies science requirements for the AA and AS degree. It is designed to be thorough enough to prepare you for more advanced work, while presenting the concepts to non-majors in a way that is meaningful and not overwhelming. We will consider the course a success if you have learned how to think about the universe critically in an organized, logical way, and to have enhanced your appreciation of the sky around us.

The fundamental concepts, and approaches of aerospace engineering, are highlighted through lectures on aeronautics, astronautics, and design. Active learning aerospace modules make use of information technology. Student teams are immersed in a hands-on, lighter-than-air (LTA) vehicle design project, where they design, build, and fly radio-controlled LTA vehicles. The connections between theory and practice are realized in the design exercises. Required design reviews precede the LTA race competition. The performance, weight, and principal characteristics of the LTA vehicles are estimated and illustrated using physics, mathematics, and chemistry known to freshmen, the emphasis being on the application of this knowledge to aerospace engineering and design rather than on exposure to new science and mathematics.

This class covers basic concepts of nuclear physics with emphasis on nuclear structure and interactions of radiation with matter. Topics include elementary quantum theory; nuclear forces; shell structure of the nucleus; alpha, beta and gamma radioactive decays; interactions of nuclear radiations (charged particles, gammas, and neutrons) with matter; nuclear reactions; fission and fusion.

Microcontrollers are the brains of the electronic world, but in order to play with one, you must first get it connected! For this maker challenge, students learn how to connect their Arduino microcontroller circuit boards to computers. First, students are walked through the connection process, helped to troubleshoot common pitfalls, and write their first Arduino programs (setup and loop functions, semicolons, camel case, pin 13 LED). Then they are given the open-ended challenge to create their own blinking LED code—such as writing Morse code messages and mimicking the rhythm of a heartbeat. This practice helps students become comfortable with the fundamental commands before progressing to more difficult programs.

This course includes Quantitative introduction to physics of the solar system, stars, interstellar medium, the Galaxy, and Universe, as determined from a variety of astronomical observations and models. Topics: planets, planet formation; stars, the Sun, "normal" stars, star formation; stellar evolution, supernovae, compact objects (white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes), plusars, binary X-ray sources; star clusters, globular and open clusters; interstellar medium, gas, dust, magnetic fields, cosmic rays; distance ladder; galaxies, normal and active galaxies, jets; gravitational lensing; large scaling structure; Newtonian cosmology, dynamical expansion and thermal history of the Universe; cosmic microwave background radiation; big-bang nucleosynthesis. No prior knowledge of astronomy necessary. Not usable as a restricted elective by physics majors.

This class is a project-based introduction to the engineering of synthetic biological systems. Throughout the term, students develop projects that are responsive to real-world problems of their choosing, and whose solutions depend on biological technologies. Lectures, discussions, and studio exercises will introduce (1) components and control of prokaryotic and eukaryotic behavior, (2) DNA synthesis, standards, and abstraction in biological engineering, and (3) issues of human practice, including biological safety; security; ownership, sharing, and innovation; and ethics. Enrollment preference is given to freshmen. This subject was originally developed and first taught in Spring 2008 by Drew Endy and Natalie Kuldell. Many of Drew's materials are used in this Spring 2009 version, and are included with his permission. This OCW Web site is based on the OpenWetWare class Wiki, found at OpenWetWare: 20.020 (S09)

From consumer products to space-age technologies, chemistry affects our daily lives. In this course, students will learn the structure of matter and how it behaves under various conditions in order to better understand the chemical world. Designed for students with little or no chemistry background. Laboratory activities extend lecture concepts and introduce students to the experimental process. This course is designed for a face-to-face mode of instruction using online resources. Course content is divided into units. Each unit may include text readings, laboratory preparation, study questions, thought-provoking discussions, written assignments, learning activities, and group projects.Login: guest_oclPassword: ocl

This course gives a mathematical introduction to neural coding and dynamics. Topics include convolution, correlation, linear systems, game theory, signal detection theory, probability theory, information theory, and reinforcement learning. Applications to neural coding, focusing on the visual system are covered, as well as, Hodgkin-Huxley and other related models of neural excitability, stochastic models of ion channels, cable theory, and models of synaptic transmission. Visit the Seung Lab Web site.

This textbook emphasizes connections between theory and application, making physics concepts interesting and accessible to students while maintaining the mathematical rigour inherent in the subject. Frequent, strong examples focus on how to approach a problem, how to work with the equations, and how to check and generalize the result.

This course is the first part of a modular sequence of increasingly sophisticated (and challenging) laboratory courses required of all Chemistry majors: 5.35 Introduction to Experimental Chemistry, 5.36 Biochemistry and Organic Laboratory, 5.37 Organic and Inorganic Laboratory, and 5.38 Physical Chemistry Laboratory. This course provides students with a survey of spectroscopy, and introduces synthesis of coordination compounds and kinetics. This class is part of the new laboratory curriculum in the MIT Department of Chemistry. Undergraduate Research-Inspired Experimental Chemistry Alternatives (URIECA) introduces students to cutting edge research topics in a modular format.   AcknowledgementsProfessor Nelson and Dr. Twardowski would like to acknowledge the contributions of MIT Professor Timothy Swager to the development of this course. 

Students are introduced to the concept of simple tools and how they can make difficult or impossible tasks easier. They begin by investigating the properties of inclined planes and how implementing them can reduce the force necessary to lift objects off the ground.