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.

This course develops the fundamentals of feedback control using linear transfer function system models. Topics covered include analysis in time and frequency domains; design in the s-plane (root locus) and in the frequency domain (loop shaping); describing functions for stability of certain non-linear systems; extension to state variable systems and multivariable control with observers; discrete and digital hybrid systems and use of z-plane design. Students will complete an extended design case study. Students taking the graduate version (2.140) will attend the recitation sessions and complete additional assignments.

This class analyzes complex biological processes from the molecular, cellular, extracellular, and organ levels of hierarchy. Emphasis is placed on the basic biochemical and biophysical principles that govern these processes. Examples of processes to be studied include chemotaxis, the fixation of nitrogen into organic biological molecules, growth factor and hormone mediated signaling cascades, and signaling cascades leading to cell death in response to DNA damage. In each case, the availability of a resource, or the presence of a stimulus, results in some biochemical pathways being turned on while others are turned off. The course examines the dynamic aspects of these processes and details how biochemical mechanistic themes impinge on molecular/cellular/tissue/organ-level functions. Chemical and quantitative views of the interplay of multiple pathways as biological networks are emphasized. Student work culminates in the preparation of a unique grant application in an area of biological networks.

This course focuses on computational and experimental analysis of biological systems across a hierarchy of scales, including genetic, molecular, cellular, and cell population levels. The two central themes of the course are modeling of complex dynamic systems and protein design and engineering. Topics include gene sequence analysis, molecular modeling, metabolic and gene regulation networks, signal transduction pathways and cell populations in tissues. Emphasis is placed on experimental methods, quantitative analysis, and computational modeling.

The goal of this course is to investigate with students backgrounds on some of the pivotal events that have shaped our understanding and approach to architecture. Emphasis of discussion will be primarily on buildings and works of individual architects. Canonical architects, buildings and movements that have exerted significant influences on the development of architecture will be studied in detail. We will visit some of these buildings for a first-hand look and to evaluate for ourselves their significance or lack thereof. As a final project, each student will analyze a building through drawings, text, bibliography and a physical model in a format ready for documentation and exhibition.

An analysis of historical structures is presented themed sections based around construction materials. Structures from all periods of history are analyzed. The goal of the class is to provide an understanding of the preservation of historic structures for all students.

This subject is designed to inform students on the analytical foundations of inviscid subsonic aerodynamics. A primary goal of this subject is to equip students with the scientific rigor, applied mathematical complexity, and physical understanding that form the foundation of classical subsonic aerodynamics. Perturbation methods that both simplify mathematical complexity and expand physical understanding of critical phenomenon in fluid flow provides a framework for the subject. The subject offers lectures in classical subsonic aerodynamics at the graduate level on inviscid, subsonic, steady flow over slender aerodynamic bodies. Topics will be selected from: fundamentals of fluid mechanics [review]; singular-perturbation methods [introduction, JIT]; similitude; subsonic flows with axial symmetry; linearized subsonic flow; slender body theory; similarity rules for subsonic flows; two-dimensional flow past a wave-shaped wall; thin wing theory; Kaplan’s higher approximations.

This is a laboratory course supplemented by lectures that focus on selected analytical facilities that are commonly used to determine the mineralogy, elemental abundance and isotopic ratios of Sr and Pb in rocks, soils, sediments and water.

This course presents real-world examples in which quantitative methods provide a significant competitive edge that has led to a first order impact on some of today’s most important companies. We outline the competitive landscape and present the key quantitative methods that created the edge (data-mining, dynamic optimization, simulation), and discuss their impact.

This course covers the key quantitative methods of finance: financial econometrics and statistical inference for financial applications; dynamic optimization; Monte Carlo simulation; stochastic (Itô) calculus. These techniques, along with their computer implementation, are covered in depth. Application areas include portfolio management, risk management, derivatives, and proprietary trading.

This course teaches students how to understand the rationality behind how organizations and their programs behave, and to be comfortable and analytical with a live organization. It thereby builds analytic skills for evaluating programs and projects, organizations, and environments. It draws on the literature of the sociology of organizations, political science, public administration, and historical experience-and is based on both developing-country and developed-country experience.

This course focuses on alternative ways in which the issues of growth, restructuring, innovation, knowledge, learning, and accounting and measurements can be examined, covering both industrialized and emerging countries. We give special emphasis to recent transformations in regional economies throughout the world and to the implications these changes have for the theories and research methods used in spatial economic analyses. Readings will relate mainly to the United States, but we cover pertinent material on foreign countries in lectures.

This course focuses on the archaeology of the Greek and Roman city. It investigates the relationship between urban architecture and the political, social, and economic role of cities in the Greek and Roman world, by analyzing a range of archaeological and literary evidence relevant to the use of space in Greek and Roman cities (e.g. Athens, Paestum, Rome, Pompeii) and a range of theoretical frameworks for the study of ancient urbanism.

This course explores the relationship between ancient Greek philosophy and mathematics. We investigate how ideas of definition, reason, argument and proof, rationality / irrationality, number, quality and quantity, truth, and even the idea of an idea were shaped by the interplay of philosophic and mathematical inquiry. The course examines how discovery of the incommensurability of magnitudes challenged the Greek presumption that the cosmos is fully understandable. Students explore the influence of mathematics on ancient Greek ethical theories. We read such authors as: Euclid, Plato, Aristotle, Nicomachus, Theon of Smyrna, Bacon, Descartes, Dedekind, and Newton.

This course will acquaint the student with some of the ancient Greek contributions to the Western philosophical and scientific tradition. We will examine a broad range of central philosophical themes concerning: nature, law, justice, knowledge, virtue, happiness, and death. There will be a strong emphasis on analyses of arguments found in the texts.

This course elaborates the history of Ancient Greece from the Bronze Age to the death of Alexander. It covers major social, economic, political, and religious trends. It also includes discussions on Homer, heroism, and the Greek identity; the hoplite revolution and the rise of the city-state; Herodotus, Persia, and the (re)birth of history; Empire, Thucydidean rationalism, and the Peloponnesian War; Platonic constructs; Aristotle, Macedonia, and Hellenism. Emphasis is on use of primary sources in translation.

This course covers the history of Rome from its humble beginnings to the 5th century A.D. The first half covers Kingship to Republican form; the conquest of Italy; Roman expansion: Pyrrhus, Punic Wars and provinces; classes, courts, and the Roman revolution; Augustus and the formation of empire. The second half covers Virgil to the Vandals; major social, economic, political and religious trends at Rome and in the provinces. There is an emphasis on the use of primary sources in translation.

Angles is an annual online magazine of exemplary writing by MIT students. All of the works published in Angles since its first edition in 2008 were written by students in the introductory writing courses. These courses, designated as CI-HW (Communications-Intensive Humanities Writing) subjects, bring together students who love to write, students who struggle with writing, students who thrive in seminar-style classes, and students who just want a chance to develop their English skills. These students prosper together and produce some remarkable work. Angles has provided them with a public outlet for that work. It also provides the CI-HW instructors with material that inspires and guides their current students.
In these classes, students learn to read more critically, to address specific audiences for particular purposes, to construct effective arguments and narratives, and to use and cite source material properly. Students in these courses write a great deal; they prewrite, write, revise, and edit their work for content, clarity, tone, and grammar and receive detailed feedback from instructors and classmates. Assigned readings are related to the thematic focus of each course, and are used as demonstrations of writing techniques. The pieces in Angles may be used as teaching tools and practical examples for other students and self-learners to emulate.
You can find Angles Online.

The introductory topics will cover various approaches to the study of animals and their behavior. Key concepts in studies of animal behavior, emphasizing ethology, are covered in class and in the assigned readings from Scott (2005), supplemented by selections from other books, especially from classics in the field as well as selected videos. Next, key concepts in sociobiology are covered using readings from Alcock (2001), supplemented by selections from additional books and some video presentations.

This course introduces students to some of the major social theories and debates that inspire and inform anthropological analysis. Over the course of the semester, we will investigate a range of theoretical propositions concerning such topics as agency, structure, subjectivity, history, social change, power, culture, and the politics of representation. Ultimately, all theories can be read as statements about human beings and the worlds they create and inhabit. We will approach each theoretical perspective or proposition on three levels: (1) in terms of its analytical or explanatory power for understanding human behavior and the social world; (2) in the context of the social and historical circumstances in which they were produced; and (3) as contributions to ongoing dialogues and debate.