Online courses directory (219)
15.769 Operations Strategy provides a unifying framework for analyzing strategic issues in manufacturing and service operations. Students analyze the relationships between manufacturing and service companies and their suppliers, customers, and competitors. The course covers strategic decisions in technology, facilities, vertical integration, human resources, and other areas, and also explores means of competition such as cost, quality, and innovativeness.
D-Lab: Development, Design and Dissemination is a design studio course in which students work on international development projects for underserved communities. The class is focused on a participatory, iterative prototyping design process, with particular attention on the constraints faced when designing for developing communities. Students work in multidisciplinary teams on term-long projects in collaboration with community partners, field practitioners, and experts in relevant fields. Students will learn about their partner communities through the collaborative design process and be exposed to many hands-on fabrication and prototyping skills relevant to development at MIT and manufacturing in their partner community. The course will consist of hands-on labs, guest speakers, and a guided design process with review by experts and professionals in development and design. This course builds on SP.721, although that course is not a required prerequisite.
This course is divided into two sections, Part I and Part II. Part I, found here, provides an introduction to statistical theory. A brief review of probability will be given mainly as background material, however, it is assumed to be known. Topics include normal distribution, limit theorems, Bayesian concepts, and testing, among others.
Part II prepares students for the remainder of the econometrics sequence and and can be found by visiting 14.381 Fall 2006.
This course seeks to establish understanding of the development processes of societies and economies by studying several dimensions of sustainability (environmental, social, political, institutional, economy, organizational, relational, and personal) and the balance among them. It explores the basics of governmental intervention, focusing on areas such as the judicial system, environment, social security, and health, and builds skills to determine what type of policy is most appropriate. We also consider implications of new technologies on the financial sector: Internationalization of currencies, mobile payment systems, and cryptocurrencies, and discuss the institutional framework to ensure choices are sustainable across all dimensions and applications.
This class uses lab exercises and a workshop setting to help students develop a solid understanding of the planning and public management uses of geographic information systems (GIS). The goals are to help students: acquire technical skills in the use of GIS software; acquire qualitative methods skills in data and document gathering, analyzing information, and presenting results; and investigate the potential and practicality of GIS technologies in a typical planning setting and evaluate possible applications.
The workshop teaches GIS techniques and basic database management at a level that extends somewhat beyond the basic thematic mapping and data manipulation skills included in the MCP core classes (viz. 11.204 and 11.220). Instead of focusing on one thematic map of a single variable, students will concentrate on more open-ended planning questions that invite spatial analysis but will require judgment and exploration to select relevant data and mapping techniques; involve mixing and matching new, local data with extracts from official records (such as census data, parcel data and regional employment and population forecasts); utilize spatial analysis techniques such as buffering, address matching, overlays; use other modeling and visualization techniques beyond thematic mapping; and raise questions about the skills, strategy, and organizational support needed to sustain such analytic capability within a variety of local and regional planning settings.
Students seeking graduate credit should enroll in the subject 11.520; undergraduates should enroll in the subject 11.188. The subjects meet together and have nearly identical content.
ArcGIS/ArcMap/ArcInfo Graphical User Interface is the intellectual property of ESRI and is used herein with permission. Copyright © ESRI. All rights reserved.
This course introduces interactive oral and interpersonal communication skills critical to leaders, including strategies for presenting to a hostile audience, running effective and productive meetings, active listening, and contributing to group decision-making. There are team-run classes on chosen communication topics, and an individual analysis of leadership qualities and characteristics. Students deliver an oral presentation and an executive summary, both aimed at a business audience.
This course explores the theoretical and empirical perspectives on individual and industrial demand for energy, energy supply, energy markets, and public policies affecting energy markets. It discusses aspects of the oil, natural gas, electricity, and nuclear power sectors and examines energy tax, price regulation, deregulation, energy efficiency and policies for controlling emission.
This course is an introduction to labor economics with an emphasis on applied microeconomic theory and empirical analysis. We are especially interested in the link between research and public policy. Topics to be covered include: labor supply and demand, taxes and transfers, minimum wages, immigration, human capital, education production, inequality, discrimination, unions and strikes, and unemployment.
This course introduces the principal algorithms for linear, network, discrete, nonlinear, dynamic optimization and optimal control. Emphasis is on methodology and the underlying mathematical structures. Topics include the simplex method, network flow methods, branch and bound and cutting plane methods for discrete optimization, optimality conditions for nonlinear optimization, interior point methods for convex optimization, Newton's method, heuristic methods, and dynamic programming and optimal control methods.
This course is designed to teach students how to price goods and services by providing a framework for understanding pricing strategies and tactics. Topics covered include economic value analysis, price elasticities, price customization, pricing complementary products, pricing in platform markets and anticipating competitive price responses.