Courses tagged with "Information environments" (108)

This course provides an overview of key concepts in strategic management in the construction, real estate, and architecture industries. Topics include supply chain analysis, market segmentation, vertical integration, competitive advantage, and industry transformation. This course is of interest to students seeking more understanding of the business dynamics of real estate and construction; seeking to provide value in firms which they may join; or seeking to build a foundation for their own entrepreneurial pursuits.

16.885J offers a holistic view of the aircraft as a system, covering: basic systems engineering; cost and weight estimation; basic aircraft performance; safety and reliability; lifecycle topics; aircraft subsystems; risk analysis and management; and system realization. Small student teams retrospectively analyze an existing aircraft covering: key design drivers and decisions; aircraft attributes and subsystems; and operational experience. Oral and written versions of the case study are delivered. For the Fall 2005 term, the class focuses on a systems engineering analysis of the Space Shuttle. It offers study of both design and operations of the shuttle, with frequent lectures by outside experts. Students choose specific shuttle systems for detailed analysis and develop new subsystem designs using state of the art technology.

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.

Design, operation, and management of traffic flows over complex transportation networks are the foci of this course. It covers two major topics: traffic flow modeling and traffic flow operations. Sub-topics include deterministic and probabilistic models, elements of queuing theory, and traffic assignment. Concepts are illustrated through various applications and case studies. This is a half-term subject offered during the second half of the semester.

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.

In this course the fundamentals of fluid mechanics are developed in the context of naval architecture and ocean science and engineering. The various topics covered are: Transport theorem and conservation principles, Navier-Stokes' equation, dimensional analysis, ideal and potential flows, vorticity and Kelvin's theorem, hydrodynamic forces in potential flow, D'Alembert's paradox, added-mass, slender-body theory, viscous-fluid flow, laminar and turbulent boundary layers, model testing, scaling laws, application of potential theory to surface waves, energy transport, wave/body forces, linearized theory of lifting surfaces, and experimental project in the towing tank or propeller tunnel.

This subject was originally offered in Course 13 (Department of Ocean Engineering) as 13.021. In 2005, ocean engineering became part of Course 2 (Department of Mechanical Engineering), and this subject was renumbered 2.20.

Multi-scale systems (MuSS) consist of components from two or more length scales (nano, micro, meso, or macro-scales). In MuSS, the engineering modeling, design principles, and fabrication processes of the components are fundamentally different. The challenge is to make these components so they are conceptually and model-wise compatible with other-scale components with which they interface. This course covers the fundamental properties of scales, design theories, modeling methods and manufacturing issues which must be addressed in these systems. Examples of MuSS include precision instruments, nanomanipulators, fiber optics, micro/nano-photonics, nanorobotics, MEMS (piezoelectric driven manipulators and optics), X-Ray telescopes and carbon nano-tube assemblies. Students master the materials through problem sets and a project literature critique.

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 graduate-level course provides a unified treatment of nonlinear oscillations and wave phenomena with applications to mechanical, optical, geophysical, fluid, electrical and flow-structure interaction problems.

This semester students are asked to transform the Hereshoff Museum in Bristol, Rhode Island, through processes of erasure and addition. Hereshoff Manufacturing was recognized as one of the premier builders of America's Cup racing boats between 1890's and 1930's. The studio, however, is about more than the program. It is about land, water, and wind and the search for expressing materially and tectonically the relationships between these principle conditions. That is, where the land is primarily about stasis (docking, anchoring and referencing our locus), water's fluidity holds the latent promise of movement and freedom. Movement is activated by wind, allowing for negotiating the relationship between water and land.

6.374 examines the device and circuit level optimization of digital building blocks. Topics covered include: MOS device models including Deep Sub-Micron effects; circuit design styles for logic, arithmetic and sequential blocks; estimation and minimization of energy consumption; interconnect models and parasitics; device sizing and logical effort; timing issues (clock skew and jitter) and active clock distribution techniques; memory architectures, circuits (sense amplifiers) and devices; testing of integrated circuits. The course employs extensive use of circuit layout and SPICE in design projects and software labs.

Intensive coverage of precision engineering theory, heuristics, and applications pertaining to the design of systems ranging from consumer products to machine tools. Topics covered include: economics, project management, and design philosophy; principles of accuracy, repeatability, and resolution; error budgeting; sensors; sensor mounting; systems design; bearings; actuators and transmissions; system integration driven by functional requirements, and operating physics. Emphasis on developing creative designs, which are optimized by analytical techniques applied via spreadsheets. This is a projects course with lectures consisting of design teams presenting their work and the class helping to develop solutions; thereby everyone learning from everyone's projects.

This course consists of a series of seminars focused on the development of professional skills. Each semester focuses on a different topic, resulting in a repeating cycle that covers medical ethics, responsible conduct of research, written and oral technical communication, and translational issues. Material and activities include guest lectures, case studies, interactive small group discussions, and role-playing simulations.

This course discusses the Linearized theory of wave phenomena in applied mechanics. Examples are chosen from elasticity, acoustics, geophysics, hydrodynamics and other subjects. The topics include: basic concepts, one dimensional examples, characteristics, dispersion and group velocity, scattering, transmission and reflection, two dimensional reflection and refraction across an interface, mode conversion in elastic waves, diffraction and parabolic approximation, radiation from a line source, surface Rayleigh waves and Love waves in elastic media, waves on the sea surface and internal waves in a stratified fluid, waves in moving media, ship wave pattern, atmospheric lee waves behind an obstacle, and waves through a laminated media.

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.

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.

This course discusses management methods of relevance to public transportation systems. Topics include strategic planning management, labor relations, maintenance planning and administration, financing, marketing and fare policy, and management information and decision support systems. The course shows how these general management tasks are dealt with in the transit industry and presents alternative strategies. It also identifies alternative arrangements for service provision, including different ways of involving the private sector in public transportation.

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 introduces theoretical and practical principles of design of oceanographic sensor systems. Topics include: transducer characteristics for acoustic, current, temperature, pressure, electric, magnetic, gravity, salinity, velocity, heat flow, and optical devices; limitations on these devices imposed by ocean environments; signal conditioning and recording; noise, sensitivity, and sampling limitations; and standards. Lectures by experts cover the principles of state-of-the-art systems being used in physical oceanography, geophysics, submersibles, acoustics. For lab work, day cruises in local waters allow students to prepare, deploy and analyze observations from standard oceanographic instruments.

The subject introduces the principles of ocean surface waves and their interactions with ships, offshore platforms and advanced marine vehicles. Surface wave theory is developed for linear and nonlinear deterministic and random waves excited by the environment, ships, or floating structures.

Following the development of the physics and mathematics of surface waves, several applications from the field of naval architecture and offshore engineering are addressed. They include the ship Kelvin wave pattern and wave resistance, the interaction of surface waves with floating bodies, the seakeeping of ships high-speed vessels and offshore platforms, the evaluation of the drift forces and other nonlinear wave effects responsible for the slow-drift responses of compliant offshore platforms and their mooring systems designed for hydrocarbon recovery from large water depths.

This course was originally offered in Course 13 (Department of Ocean Engineering) as 13.022. In 2005, ocean engineering subjects became part of Course 2 (Department of Mechanical Engineering), and this course was renumbered 2.24.