Courses tagged with "Information environments" (108)

This seminar-style class will focus on evaluating and recommending alternative commuter and business-related transportation policies for the MIT campus. Emphasis will be placed on reducing transportation-related energy usage in a sustainable manner in response to President Hockfield's "Walk the Talk" energy initiative. Students will explore the relative roles of MIT and the MBTA as transportation providers, as well as the efficiency and effectiveness of related subsidy policies currently in place for all modes of transportation.

Designed to familiarize students with theories and analytical tools useful for studying research literature, this course is a survey of fluid mechanical problems in the water environment. Because of the inherent nonlinearities in the governing equations, we shall emphasize the art of making analytical approximations not only for facilitating calculations but also for gaining deeper physical insight. The importance of scales will be discussed throughout the course in lectures and homeworks. Mathematical techniques beyond the usual preparation of first-year graduate students will be introduced as a part of the course. Topics vary from year to year.

1.364 examines site characterization and geotechnical aspects of the design and construction of foundation systems. Topics include: site investigation (with emphasis on in situ testing), shallow (footings and raftings) and deep (piles and caissons) foundations, excavation support systems, groundwater control, slope stability, soil improvement (compaction, soil reinforcement, etc.), and construction monitoring. This course is a core requirement for the Geotechnical Master of Engineering program at MIT.

This class presents the application of principles of soil mechanics. It considers the following topics: the origin and nature of soils; soil classification; the effective stress principle; hydraulic conductivity and seepage; stress-strain-strength behavior of cohesionless and cohesive soils and application to lateral earth stresses; bearing capacity and slope stability; consolidation theory and settlement analysis; and laboratory and field methods for evaluation of soil properties in design practice.

Explores a variety of models and optimization techniques for the solution of airline schedule planning and operations problems. Schedule design, fleet assignment, aircraft maintenance routing, crew scheduling, passenger mix, and other topics are covered. Recent models and algorithms addressing issues of model integration, robustness, and operations recovery are introduced. Modeling and solution techniques designed specifically for large-scale problems, and state-of-the-art applications of these techniques to airline problems are detailed.

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) represent a major transition in transportation on many dimensions. This course considers ITS as a lens through which one can view many transportation and societal issues. ITS is an international program intended to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of surface transportation systems through advanced technologies in information systems, communications, and sensors. In the United States, ITS represents the major post-Interstate-era program for advancing surface transportation in highways and public transportation, and is potentially comparable to the air traffic control system in impact. The readings for the class come primarily from the instructor's own text: Sussman, Joseph. Perspectives on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). New York, NY: Springer, 2005. ISBN: 0387232575.

This course details the quantitative treatment of chemical processes in aquatic systems such as lakes, oceans, rivers, estuaries, groundwaters, and wastewaters. It includes a brief review of chemical thermodynamics that is followed by discussion of acid-base, precipitation-dissolution, coordination, and reduction-oxidation reactions. Emphasis is on equilibrium calculations as a tool for understanding the variables that govern the chemical composition of aquatic systems and the fate of inorganic pollutants.

This course is offered through The MIT/WHOI Joint Program. The MIT/WHOI Joint Program is one of the premier marine science graduate programs in the world. It draws on the complementary strengths and approaches of two great institutions: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).

This core class in the Environmental M.Eng. program is for all students interested in the behavior of chemicals in the environment. The emphasis is on man-made chemicals; their movement through water, air, and soil; and their eventual fate. Physical transport, as well as chemical and biological sources and sinks, are discussed. Linkages to health effects, sources and control, and policy aspects are discussed and debated.

This course covers concepts of computation used in analysis of engineering systems. It includes the following topics: data structures, relational database representations of engineering data, algorithms for the solution and optimization of engineering system designs (greedy, dynamic programming, branch and bound, graph algorithms, nonlinear optimization), and introduction to complexity analysis. Object-oriented, efficient implementations of algorithms are emphasized.

This course addresses information technology fundamentals, including project management and software processes, data modeling, UML, relational databases and SQL. Topics covered include internet technologies, such as XML, web services, and service-oriented architectures. This course provides an introduction to security and presents the fundamentals of telecommunications and includes a project that involves requirements / design, data model, database implementation, website, security and data network. No prior programming experience required.

The course considers the growing popularity of sustainability and its implications for the practice of engineering, particularly for the built environment. Two particular methodologies are featured: life cycle assessment (LCA) and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). The fundamentals of each approach will be presented. Specific topics covered include water and wastewater management, energy use, material selection, and construction.

1.464 examines the long term effects of information technology on business strategy in the real estate and construction industry. Considerations include: supply chain, allocation of risk, impact on contract obligations and security, trends toward consolidation, and the convergence of information transparency and personal effectiveness. Resources are drawn from the world of dot.com entrepreneurship and "old economy" responses.

This class is one of the core requirements for the Environmental Masters of Engineering program, in conjunction with 1.133 Masters of Engineering Concepts of Engineering Practice. It is designed to teach about environmental engineering through the use of case studies, computer software tools, and seminars from industrial experts. Case studies provide the basis for group projects as well as individual theses. Recent 1.782 projects include the MMR Superfund site on Cape Cod, appropriate wastewater treatment technology for Brazil and Honduras, point-of-use water treatment and safe storage procedures for Nepal and Ghana, Brownfields Development in Providence, RI, and water resource planning for the island of Cyprus and refugee settlements in Thailand. This class spans the entire academic year; students must register for the Fall and Spring terms.

This is a foundation subject in modern software development techniques for engineering and information technology. The design and development of component-based software (using C# and .NET) is covered; 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. This course is a core requirement for the Information Technology M. Eng. program.

This class was also offered in Course 13 (Department of Ocean Engineering) as 13.470J. In 2005, ocean engineering subjects became part of Course 2 (Department of Mechanical Engineering), and the 13.470J designation was dropped in lieu of 2.159J.

The objective of this course is to introduce large-scale atomistic modeling techniques and highlight its importance for solving problems in modern engineering sciences. We demonstrate how atomistic modeling can be used to understand how materials fail under extreme loading, involving unfolding of proteins and propagation of cracks.

This course was featured in an MIT Tech Talk article.

The class will cover quantitative techniques of Operations Research with emphasis on applications in transportation systems analysis (urban, air, ocean, highway, pick-up and delivery systems) and in the planning and design of logistically oriented urban service systems (e.g., fire and police departments, emergency medical services, emergency repair services). It presents a unified study of functions of random variables, geometrical probability, multi-server queueing theory, spatial location theory, network analysis and graph theory, and relevant methods of simulation. There will be discussion focused on the difficulty of implementation, among other topics.

This course is a core requirement for the Masters in Engineering program, designed to teach students about the roles of today's professional engineer and expose them to team-building skills through lectures, team workshops, and seminars. Topics include: written and oral communication, job placement skills, trends in the engineering and construction industry, risk analysis and risk management, managing public information, proposal preparation, project evaluation, project management, liability, professional ethics, and negotiation. The course draws on relevant large-scale projects to illustrate each component of the subject.

This course presents a rational basis for the preliminary design of motion-sensitive structures. Topics covered include: analytical and numerical techniques for establishing the optimal stiffness distribution, the role of damping in controlling motion, tuned mass dampers, base isolation systems, and active structural control. Examples illustrating the application of the motion-based design paradigm to building structures subjected to seismic excitation are discussed.

This class covers quantitative analysis of uncertainty and risk for engineering applications. Fundamentals of probability, random processes, statistics, and decision analysis are covered, along with random variables and vectors, uncertainty propagation, conditional distributions, and second-moment analysis. System reliability is introduced. Other topics covered include Bayesian analysis and risk-based decision, estimation of distribution parameters, hypothesis testing, simple and multiple linear regressions, and Poisson and Markov processes. There is an emphasis placed on real-world applications to engineering problems.

1.040 Project Management focuses on the management and implementation of construction projects, primarily infrastructure projects. A project refers to a temporary piece of work undertaken to create a unique product or service. Whereas operations are continuous and repeating, projects are finite and have an end date. Projects bring form or function to ideas or need. Some notable projects include the Manhattan Project (developing the first nuclear weapon); the Human Genome Project (mapping the human genome); and the Central Artery Project (Boston's "Big Dig"). The field of project management deals with the planning, execution, and controlling of projects.

The course is divided into three parts:

Part 1: project finance
Part 2: project evaluation
Part 3: project organization

This course will cover the basic tools, skills, and knowledge necessary to successfully manage a project through its inception, design, planning, construction, and transition phases. There will be several guest lectures discussing current projects, and a construction site visit to MIT's Media Lab extension.