This is the first of a two-semester subject sequence that provides the foundations for contemporary research in selected areas of atomic and optical physics. Topics covered include the interaction of radiation with atoms: resonance; absorption, stimulated and spontaneous emission; methods of resonance, dressed atom formalism, masers and lasers, cavity quantum electrodynamics; structure of simple atoms, behavior in very strong fields; fundamental tests: time reversal, parity violations, Bell’s inequalities; and experimental methods.

This is the second of a two-semester subject sequence beginning with Atomic and Optical Physics I (8.421) that provides the foundations for contemporary research in selected areas of atomic and optical physics. Topics covered include non-classical states of light–squeezed states; multi-photon processes, Raman scattering; coherence–level crossings, quantum beats, double resonance, superradiance; trapping and cooling-light forces, laser cooling, atom optics, spectroscopy of trapped atoms and ions; atomic interactions–classical collisions, quantum scattering theory, ultracold collisions; and experimental methods.

This course uses the theory and application of atomistic computer simulations to model, understand, and predict the properties of real materials. Specific topics include: energy models from classical potentials to first-principles approaches; density functional theory and the total-energy pseudopotential method; errors and accuracy of quantitative predictions: thermodynamic ensembles, Monte Carlo sampling and molecular dynamics simulations; free energy and phase transitions; fluctuations and transport properties; and coarse-graining approaches and mesoscale models. The course employs case studies from industrial applications of advanced materials to nanotechnology. Several laboratories will give students direct experience with simulations of classical force fields, electronic-structure approaches, molecular dynamics, and Monte Carlo.
This course was also taught as part of the Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA) programme as course number SMA 5107 (Atomistic Computer Modeling of Materials).
Acknowledgements
Support for this course has come from the National Science Foundation’s Division of Materials Research (grant DMR-0304019) and from the Singapore-MIT Alliance.

In this activity, students will explore how the Law of Conservation of Energy (the First Law of Thermodynamics) applies to atoms, as well as the implications of heating or cooling a system. This activity focuses on potential energy and kinetic energy as well as energy conservation. The goal is to apply what is learned to both our human scale world and the world of atoms and molecules.

This course focuses on novels and films from the last twenty-five years (nominally 1985–2010) marked by their relationship to extreme violence and transgression. Our texts will focus on serial killers, torture, rape, and brutality, but they also explore notions of American history, gender and sexuality, and reality television—sometimes, they delve into love or time or the redemptive role of art in late modernity. Our works are a motley assortment, with origins in the U.S., France, Spain, Belgium, Austria, Japan and South Korea. The broad global era marked by this period is one of acceleration, fragmentation, and late capitalism; however, we will also consider national specificities of violent representation, including particulars like the history of racism in the United States, the role of politeness in bourgeois Austrian culture, and the effect of Japanese manga on vividly graphic contemporary Asian cinema.
We will explore the politics and aesthetics of the extreme; affective questions about sensation, fear, disgust, and shock; and problems of torture, pain, and the unrepresentable. We will ask whether these texts help us understand violence, or whether they frame violence as something that resists comprehension; we will consider whether form mitigates or colludes with violence. Finally, we will continually press on the central term in the title of this course: what, specifically, is violence? (Can we only speak of plural “violences”?) Is violence the same as force? Do we know violence when we see it? Is it something knowable or does it resist or even destroy knowledge? Is violence a matter for a text’s content—who does what, how, and to whom—or is it a problem of form: shock, boredom, repetition, indeterminacy, blankness? Can we speak of an aesthetic of violence? A politics or ethics of violence? Note the question that titles our last week: Is it the case that we are what we see? If so, what does our obsession with ultraviolence mean, and how does contemporary representation turn an accusing gaze back at us?

This Freshman Advising Seminar surveys the many applications of magnets and magnetism. To the Chinese and Greeks of ancient times, the attractive and repulsive forces between magnets must have seemed magical indeed. Through the ages, miraculous curative powers have been attributed to magnets, and magnets have been used by illusionists to produce “magical” effects. Magnets guided ships in the Age of Exploration and generated the electrical industry in the 19th century. Today they store information and entertainment on disks and tapes, and produce sound in speakers, images on TV screens, rotation in motors, and levitation in high-speed trains. Students visit various MIT projects related to magnets (including superconducting electromagnets) and read about and discuss the history, legends, pseudoscience, science, and technology of types of magnets, including applications in medicine. Several short written reports and at least one oral presentation will be required of each participant.

This course illuminates current theories about autism together with challenges faced by people on the autism spectrum. Theories in communicating, interacting socially, managing cognitive and affective overload, and achieving independent lifestyles are covered. In parallel, the course presents state-of-the-art technologies being developed for helping improve both theoretical understanding and practical outcomes. Participants are expected to meet and interact with people on the autism spectrum. Weekly reading, discussion, and a term project are required.

This course provides a challenging introduction to some of the central ideas of theoretical computer science. Beginning in antiquity, the course will progress through finite automata, circuits and decision trees, Turing machines and computability, efficient algorithms and reducibility, the P versus NP problem, NP-completeness, the power of randomness, cryptography and one-way functions, computational learning theory, and quantum computing. It examines the classes of problems that can and cannot be solved by various kinds of machines. It tries to explain the key differences between computational models that affect their power.

Software testing gets a bad rap for being difficult, time-consuming, redundant, and above all – boring. But in fact, it is a proven way to ensure that your software will work flawlessly and can meet release schedules.

In a two-course series, we will teach you automated software testing in an inspiring way. We will show you that testing is not as daunting a task as you might think, and how automated testing will make you a better developer who programs excellent software.

This second course builds upon the first course’s material. It covers more advanced tools and techniques and their applications, now utilizing more than just JUnit. Key topics include Test-Driven Development, state-based and web testing, combinatorial testing, mutation testing, static analysis tools, and property-based testing.

This is a highly practical course. Throughout the lessons, you will test various programs by means of different techniques. By the end, you will be able to choose the best testing strategies for different projects.

6.345 introduces students to the rapidly developing field of automatic speech recognition. Its content is divided into three parts. Part I deals with background material in the acoustic theory of speech production, acoustic-phonetics, and signal representation. Part II describes algorithmic aspects of speech recognition systems including pattern classification, search algorithms, stochastic modelling, and language modelling techniques. Part III compares and contrasts the various approaches to speech recognition, and describes advanced techniques used for acoustic-phonetic modelling, robust speech recognition, speaker adaptation, processing paralinguistic information, speech understanding, and multimodal processing.

6.270 is a hands-on, learn-by-doing class, in which participants design and build a robot that will play in a competition at the end of January. The goal for the students is to design a machine that will be able to navigate its way around the playing surface, recognize other opponents, and manipulate game objects. Unlike the machines in Design and Manufacturing I (2.007), 6.270 robots are totally autonomous, so once a round begins, there is no human intervention.
The goal of 6.270 is to teach students about robotic design by giving them the hardware, software, and information they need to design, build, and debug their own robot. The subject includes concepts and applications that are related to various MIT classes (e.g. 6.001, 6.002, 6.004, and 2.007), though there are no formal prerequisites for 6.270.

The Aviation Glossary and Vocabulary Builder is composed of 1900+ FAA terms primarily for Airframe & Powerplant. This is composed of simple non-technical, English definitions. The Vocabulary Builder was designed to use an inexpensive, proprietary online format known as WordWeb Pro. Instructions on how to load the vocabulary into WordWeb and a printable glossary are included.

Second course in a two-course sequence. Introduces and applies technical skills around beginning and managing a small business, including spreadsheets and the use of charts and graphs. Includes reflection and discussion of the application of concepts to a real-world example. Requires teamwork and collaboration to be exercised in completing a group project. Covers application of financial, legal, and administrative procedures in running a business.
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
Represent business models in spreadsheets including preparation of charts and graphs. Apply key business activities and the primary concepts and terms associated with these activities. Manage a business interacting with the external environment (through a simulation) and describe how this interaction impacts both business and the external environment. Implement the financial, legal, and administrative procedures involved in starting new business ventures. Identify ethical issues facing businesses. Effectively collaborate with team members and communicate professionally.

This course provides a general survey of the functional and interdependent areas of business management, marketing, accounting and finance, and management information systems. The course includes business trends, operation and management of a business, ethical challenges, environmental responsibility, change, global perspectives, and the dynamic roles of management and staff. Additionally, the course incorporates aspects of team interaction and continuous process improvement. You are provided with the opportunity to explore the Internet and information technology relating to business operations.

Course Outcomes:
1. Define commonly used business and economics terminology.
2. Describe the functional areas of any business organization.
3. Explain revenues, expenses, and how profit is derived. Differentiate between objectives, strategies, tactics, and operations.
4. Describe the components of a business plan.
5. Prepare a basic business plan.
6. Explain the importance of ethics in business.

This course covers the fundamental principles of double-entry accounting, use of the general journal and general ledger, simple financial statements, the accounting cycle, control of cash, and an introduction to payroll accounting, purchases and sales.

Course Outcomes:
1. Demonstrate a basic understanding of the double-entry accounting system.
2. Manually complete the entire accounting cycle for a service- based sole proprietorship on the accrual basis.
3. Prepare basic financial statements for a service-based sole proprietorship.
4. Demonstrate an understanding of control of cash processes and bank reconciliations.
5. Calculate basic payroll and payroll tax activity.
6. Prepare simple federal quarterly and annual payroll tax forms.

This course continues Practical Accounting I with more detailed explanations of the accounting cycle. Covers special journals, ledgers, business forms, including vouchers. Emphasizes accounting for partnerships.

Course Outcomes:
1. Complete the entire accounting cycle for a merchandising company.
2. Demonstrate an understanding of accounting for bad debts.
3. Demonstrate an understanding of accounting for notes receivable and notes payable.
4. Compute the cost of fixed and intangible assets and natural resources.
5. Prepare basic depreciation, depletion and amortization calculations.
6. Describe the characteristics of partnerships and basic partnership accounting.

This is the third course in the Practical Accounting series. This course covers entries requiring analysis and interpretation, unearned and accrued items, depreciation of assets, manufacturing accounting and other managerial accounting procedures.

Course Outcomes:
1. Describe the characteristics of a corporation.
2. Demonstrate an understanding of the accounting processes specific to stock, dividends, treasury stock and retained earnings.
3. Prepare the accounting for basic bond transactions.
4. Demonstrate an understanding the cash flows statement preparation process for both the indirect and the direct method.
5. Interpret and analyze financial statements.
6. Explain how to handle transactions in a voucher system.

This course is designed to teach, reinforce and supplement payroll skills in both manual and computerized formats.

Course Outcomes:
1. Compute the income tax withholding from employee wages.
2. Calculate employee's withholding allowances for IRS Form W-4.
3. Determine employer's quarterly estimated payments.
4. Describe how the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) is applied by employers.
5. Describe the federal deposit system and how the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System is used by employers.
6. Describe the difference between employees and independent contractors.

The key decision-making role of managers in modern organizations. Includes the study of organizations, management styles, and selected administrative problems. An overview of the processes involved in managing a business, including business planning, organizing, controlling, staffing and leading. Covers various theories of management with emphasis on managing a business in the local, national or international marketplace.

Presents financial accounting concepts and the use of accounting information in decision making. Includes an overview of the accounting cycle.

Course Outcomes:
1. Use the accounting cycle to develop financial statements from business transactions.
2. Analyze basic business economic events to determine their effect on accounts and financial statements.
3. Interpret and analyze financial statements to aid in decision making.
4. Demonstrate a basic understanding of the principles of internal control and apply them to relatively straight-forward situations to identify strengths and weaknesses.
5. Interpret and analyze accrual and cash flow information presented in accounts.
6. Analyze issues relating to inventory, receivables, long-lived assets, liabilities and stockholder’s equity and recommend appropriate accounting treatment.
7. Describe basic generally-accepted accounting principles.