Classes - Spring 2005

I've settled on my classes for the term. Overall, I'm very interested in all of the classes I'm taking (with one exception). Here is the list along with their official description. I'll provide my thoughts on each in a separate post.

* ESD.30J Engineering Apollo: The Moon Project as a Complex System
A detailed technical and historical exploration of the Apollo project to fly humans to the moon and return them safely to earth as an example of a complex engineering system. Emphasis is on how the systems worked, the technical and social processes that produced them, mission operations, and historical significance. Guest lectures by MIT-affiliated engineers who contributed to and participated in the Apollo missions. Students work in teams on a final project analyzing an aspect of the historical project to articulate and synthesize ideas in engineering systems.
D. Mindell, L. R. Young

* 15.390b New Enterprises
Covers the process of identifying and quantifying market opportunities, then conceptualizing, planning, and starting a new, technology-based enterprise. Topics include: opportunity assessment, the value proposition, the entrepreneur, legal issues, entrepreneurial ethics, the business plan, the founding team, seeking customers and raising funds. Students develop detailed business plans for a startup. Intended for students who want to start their own business, further develop an existing business, be a member of a management team in a new enterprise, or better understand the entrepreneur and the entrepreneurial process.
N. Afeyan

* ESD.721 Engineering Risk Benefit Analysis
Emphasis on three methodologies pertaining to decision making in the presence of uncertainty: reliability and probabilistic risk assessment (RPRA), decision analysis (DA), and cost-benefit analysis (CBA). Risks of particular interest are those associated with large engineering projects such as the development of new products; the building, maintenance and operation of nuclear reactors and space systems. Presents and interprets some of the frameworks helpful for balancing risks and benefits in the situations that typically involve human safety, potential environmental effects, and large financial and technological uncertainties. Review of elementary probability theory and statistics included.
G. E. Apostolakis

* ESD.341J Web System Architecting: Building Web Services
Software architecting and design of web systems in the context of a start-up company. Targeted at future CTO's who must understand both the business and technical issues involved in architecting enterprise scale web systems. Student teams confront technically challenging problems. Lectures and readings cover core database, XML, web server components and browser issues in a Web Service environment. Limited enrollment.
J. R. Williams

* ESD.32J Product Design and Development
Covers modern tools and methods for product design and development. The cornerstone is a project in which teams of management, engineering, and industrial design students conceive, design, and prototype a physical product. Class sessions employ cases and hands-on exercises to reinforce the key ideas. Topics include: product planning, identifying customer needs, concept generation, product architecture, industrial design, concept design, and design-for-manufacturing.
T. Roemer

* 15.398 Entrepreneurs in Innovation: Information Technology, Energy, Biotechnology and Communications
Introduction to leaders in the fields of information technology, energy, biotechnology, and communications. Guest lectures by CEOs of some of the world's most well-known and respected high technology companies. Each speaker has tremendous experience in their respective industry, learning from both successes and failures. Students can benefit from this experience by interacting with the speakers both in a class setting and through dinners each week before class. Each visiting CEO will dine with a different subset of the students enrolled.
H. Anderson, P. Bell

* ESD.922 Thesis Seminar
Covers thesis topic selection, methods for research, and planning.