Course List

Harvard University 

Fabrication

How to Make (Almost) Anything (MIT Media Lab)

Neil Gershenfeld

personal class page

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This course provides a hands-on introduction to the resources for designing and fabricating smart systems, including CAD/CAM/CAE; NC machining, 3-D printing, injection molding, laser cutting; PCB layout and fabrication; sensors and actuators; analog instrumentation; embedded digital processing; wired and wireless communications. This course also puts emphasis on learning how to use the tools as well as understand how they work.

Informal Robotics / New Paradigms for Design & Construction (GSD)

Chuck Hoberman

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This course teaches how to create original robotic devices made of light, compliant – informal – materials. Informal Robotics draws on cutting-edge research from leading labs, in particular, Harvard’s Micro Robotics Laboratory which has created unique designs for ambulatory and flying robots, end-effectors, medical instruments and other applications.

Tangible Interfaces (MIT Media Lab)

Hiroshi Ishii

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This HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) course will explore the design space of  Tangible User Interfaces (Tangible Bits and Radical Atoms) that give dynamic physical form to digital information and computation. Our goal is to broaden the bandwidth of interaction between people and digital information, making bits directly manipulable with our hands and perceptible at the periphery of human awareness. We will pursue tangible interfaces that are not only practical but also aesthetically pleasing and inspiring.

Material Systems: Digital Design and Fabrication (GSD/SEAS)

Nathan King & Zach Seibold

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During the first phase of the course, students will construct modular, digitally controlled machines at home from a kit, provided in part by the instructors. A second phase will focus on the development of a novel material process and will leverage the machines fabricated in the first phase to construct a machine designed to generate a specific material effect. 

Nano Micro Macro: Adaptive Material Laboratory (GSD/SEAS)

Joanna Aizenberg & Jonathan Grinham

my featured project

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This course is an interdisciplinary platform for designers, engineers, and scientists to interact and develop innovative new products. The course introduces ideas-to-innovation processes in a hands-on, project/product-focused manner that balances design and engineering concepts with promising, real-world opportunities. Switching back and forth between guided discovery and focused development, between bottom-up and top-down thinking, and market analyses, the course helps students establish generalizable frameworks as researchers and innovators with a focus on new and emerging technologies.

Ed Tech Advanced Design Studio (Harvard Graduate School of Education)

Louisa Rosenheck

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In the first half of the semester we'll explore different topics each week through readings, discussions, and collaborative activities. After spring break, we'll focus our time on team projects that will design and develop a working digital prototype of a new ed tech.

Analytical

Quantum Chaos and Localization (Dep. of Physics)

Eric Heller

course syllabus

During the first phase of the course, students will construct modular, digitally controlled machines at home from a kit, provided in part by the instructors. A second phase will focus on the development of a novel material process and will leverage the machines fabricated in the first phase to construct a machine designed to generate a specific material effect. 

Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology (CFA)

Charlie Conroy

course syllabus 

This course provides an integrated introduction to extragalactic astrophysics and cosmology.  Notable topics include: fundamentals of cosmology, growth of cosmic structure, gravitational dynamics of halos and galaxies, and astrophysics of galaxy evolution. 

Introduction to Data Science (SEAS)

Pavlos Protopapas

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We will focus on the analysis of data to perform predictions using statistical and machine learning methods. Topics include data scraping, data management, data visualization, regression and classification methods, and deep neural networks.

Core Courses

Integrative Frameworks: Technology, Environment and Society I/II

Jock Herron & Luba Greenwood

This required, two-semester course involves a combination of lectures, workshops, case studies, and classroom exercises, covering a range of topics that include: design thinking, system thinking, manufacturing operations, business strategy, industry architecture, government policy regulation, intellectual property and patents, ethics, and leadership.

Collaborative Design Engineering Studio I/II

Joanna Aizenberg, Julia C. Lee, Andrew Witt, Elizabeth Christoforetti, Cesar Hidalgo, Alan Sayegh

This two-semester sequence involves the entire student cohort collaborating on a real-world, multidisciplinary, complex domain. Students learn how to understand the architecture of a complex problem domain, acquire compelling data visualization skills, get exposure to techniques for numerical modeling both on the system as well as the small object scale, and understand how to synthesize work on multiple scales. The goal is to teach methods for developing and prototyping innovative solutions, and present them in practical settings among peers and visiting professionals. Skill workshops throughout the first semester create a common toolbox from which students can work.

Independent Design Engineering Project I/II

Mary Tolikas & Martin Bechthold 

Students pursue an independent project that is similar in scope to a master’s thesis. This project leverages the skills and insight acquired in the first-year studio and Integrative Frameworks, and applies them to a context of particular interest to individual students. The goal for the projects is to prepare students for the transition from the academy to practice by developing and prototyping solutions that can be tested and evaluated. Advised by faculty mentors from both SEAS and the GSD, regular group meetings serve as a platform for collective discussion with reviews as well as one-on-one critiques.