Most visitors to the National Gallery come to look at the paintings. But in this behind-the-scenes look at the work of the Gallery’s Framing Department, the richness and importance of the collection’s frames is revealed. A fascinating insight into recent conservation work and historic frame purchases with the National Gallery’s Head of Framing, Peter Schade, and Vivmar Curatorial Assistant, Harriet O’Neill.

The course is concerned with the concept of structural stability. This concept is applied to discrete and continuous basic structural elements (beams, frames, plates and shells). The fundamental concepts are introduced on the basis of the governing differential equations. The course includes the following topics:

*Equations of motion, nonlinear equilibrium equations, stationary potential energy criterion.
*Stability analysis for the basic structural elements.
*Design methods for stability of basic structural elements.

Though we might not notice it, frames affect how we see a painting.

The course focuses on the problem of supervised learning within the framework of Statistical Learning Theory. It starts with a review of classical statistical techniques, including Regularization Theory in RKHS for multivariate function approximation from sparse data. Next, VC theory is discussed in detail and used to justify classification and regression techniques such as Regularization Networks and Support Vector Machines. Selected topics such as boosting, feature selection and multiclass classification will complete the theory part of the course. During the course we will examine applications of several learning techniques in areas such as computer vision, computer graphics, database search and time-series analysis and prediction. We will briefly discuss implications of learning theories for how the brain may learn from experience, focusing on the neurobiology of object recognition. We plan to emphasize hands-on applications and exercises, paralleling the rapidly increasing practical uses of the techniques described in the subject.

1.050 is a sophomore-level engineering mechanics course, commonly labelled “Statics and Strength of Materials” or “Solid Mechanics I.” This course introduces students to the fundamental principles and methods of structural mechanics. Topics covered include: static equilibrium, force resultants, support conditions, analysis of determinate planar structures (beams, trusses, frames), stresses and strains in structural elements, states of stress (shear, bending, torsion), statically indeterminate systems, displacements and deformations, introduction to matrix methods, elastic stability, and approximate methods. Design exercises are used to encourage creative student initiative and systems thinking.

Jacob Simon and Stuart Ager consider the portrait's extraordinary frame, explaining its significance and challenges for conservation. Find out more about Van Dyck's final self-portrait and its national tour here: http://ow.ly/HfLOy.