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6.C571[J] | Optimization Methods | Introduction to the methods and applications of optimization. Topics include linear optimization, duality, non-linear optimization, integer optimization, and optimization under uncertainty. Instruction provided in modeling techniques to address problems arising in practice, mathematical theory to understand the structure of optimization problems, computational algorithms to solve complex optimization problems, and practical applications. Covers several examples and in-depth case studies based on real-world data to showcase impactful applications of optimization across management and engineering. Computational exercises based on the Julia-based programming language JuMP. Includes a term project. Basic competency in computational programming and linear algebra recommended. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. This subject was previously listed as 6.7201. One section primarily reserved for Sloan students; check syllabus for details. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 4-0-8 | 18.C06 or permission of instructor | 15.C571[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
7.C01 | Machine Learning in Molecular and Cellular Biology | Introduces machine learning as a tool to understand natural biological systems, with an evolving emphasis on problems in molecular and cellular biology that are being actively advanced using machine learning. Students design, implement, and interpret machine learning approaches to aid in predicting protein structure, probing protein structure/function relationships, and imaging biological systems at scales ranging from the atomic to cellular. Students taking graduate version complete an additional project-based assignment. Students cannot receive credit without completion of the core subject 6.C01. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 2-0-4 | Biology (GIR), 6.100A, 6.C01, and 7.05 | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
7.C51 | Machine Learning in Molecular and Cellular Biology | Introduces machine learning as a tool to understand natural biological systems, with an evolving emphasis on problems in molecular and cellular biology that are being actively advanced using machine learning. Students design, implement, and interpret machine learning approaches to aid in predicting protein structure, probing protein structure/function relationships, and imaging biological systems at scales ranging from the atomic to cellular. Students taking graduate version complete an additional project-based assignment. Students cannot receive credit without completion of the core subject 6.C51. | true | Spring | Graduate | 2-0-4 | Biology (GIR), 6.100A, 6.C51, and 7.05 | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
10.C01[J] | Machine Learning for Molecular Engineering | Building on core material in 6.C01, provides an introduction to the use of machine learning to solve problems arising in the science and engineering of biology, chemistry, and materials. Equips students to design and implement machine learning approaches to challenges such as analysis of omics (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, etc.), microscopy, spectroscopy, or crystallography data and design of new molecules and materials such as drugs, catalysts, polymer, alloys, ceramics, and proteins. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Students cannot receive credit without completion of the core subject 6.C01. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 2-0-4 | Calculus II (GIR), 6.100A, and 6.C01 | 3.C01[J], 20.C01[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
10.C51[J] | Machine Learning for Molecular Engineering | Building on core material in 6.C51, provides an introduction to the use of machine learning to solve problems arising in the science and engineering of biology, chemistry, and materials. Equips students to design and implement machine learning approaches to challenges such as analysis of omics (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, etc.), microscopy, spectroscopy, or crystallography data and design of new molecules and materials such as drugs, catalysts, polymer, alloys, ceramics, and proteins. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Students cannot receive credit without completion of the core subject 6.C51. | true | Spring | Graduate | 2-0-4 | Calculus II (GIR), 6.100A, and 6.C51 | 3.C51[J], 20.C51[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
15.C08[J] | Causal Inference | Provides an accessible overview of modern quantitative methods for causal inference: testing whether an action causes an outcome to occur. Makes heavy use of applied, real-data examples using Python or R and drawn from the participating domains (economics, political science, business, public policy, etc.). Covers topics including potential outcomes, causal graphs, randomized controlled trials, observational studies, instrumental variable estimation, and a contrast with machine learning techniques. Seeks to provide an intuitive understanding of the core concepts and techniques to help students produce and consume evidence of causal claims. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 4-0-8 | 6.3800, 6.3900, 6.C01, 14.32, 17.803, 18.05, 18.650, or permission of instructor | 17.C08[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
15.C57[J] | Optimization Methods | Introduction to the methods and applications of optimization. Topics include linear optimization, duality, non-linear optimization, integer optimization, and optimization under uncertainty. Instruction provided in modeling techniques to address problems arising in practice, mathematical theory to understand the structure of optimization problems, computational algorithms to solve complex optimization problems, and practical applications. Covers several examples and in-depth case studies based on real-world data to showcase impactful applications of optimization across management and engineering. Computational exercises based on the Julia-based programming language JuMP. Includes a term project. Basic competency in computational programming and linear algebra recommended. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. This subject was previously listed as 15.093/6.7200/IDS.200. | true | Fall | Graduate | 4-0-8 | 18.C06 or permission of instructor | 6.C57[J], IDS.C57[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
15.C571[J] | Optimization Methods | Introduction to the methods and applications of optimization. Topics include linear optimization, duality, non-linear optimization, integer optimization, and optimization under uncertainty. Instruction provided in modeling techniques to address problems arising in practice, mathematical theory to understand the structure of optimization problems, computational algorithms to solve complex optimization problems, and practical applications. Covers several examples and in-depth case studies based on real-world data to showcase impactful applications of optimization across management and engineering. Computational exercises based on the Julia-based programming language JuMP. Includes a term project. Basic competency in computational programming and linear algebra recommended. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. This subject was previously listed as 6.7201. One section primarily reserved for Sloan students; check syllabus for details. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 4-0-8 | 18.C06 or permission of instructor | 6.C571[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
17.C08[J] | Causal Inference | Provides an accessible overview of modern quantitative methods for causal inference: testing whether an action causes an outcome to occur. Makes heavy use of applied, real-data examples using Python or R and drawn from the participating domains (economics, political science, business, public policy, etc.). Covers topics including potential outcomes, causal graphs, randomized controlled trials, observational studies, instrumental variable estimation, and a contrast with machine learning techniques. Seeks to provide an intuitive understanding of the core concepts and techniques to help students produce and consume evidence of causal claims. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 4-0-8 | 6.3800, 6.3900, 6.C01, 14.32, 17.803, 18.05, 18.650, or permission of instructor | 15.C08[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
18.C06[J] | Linear Algebra and Optimization | Introductory course in linear algebra and optimization, assuming no prior exposure to linear algebra and starting from the basics, including vectors, matrices, eigenvalues, singular values, and least squares. Covers the basics in optimization including convex optimization, linear/quadratic programming, gradient descent, and regularization, building on insights from linear algebra. Explores a variety of applications in science and engineering, where the tools developed give powerful ways to understand complex systems and also extract structure from data. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 5-0-7 | Calculus II (GIR) | 6.C06[J] | false | false | true | False | False | False |
20.C01[J] | Machine Learning for Molecular Engineering | Building on core material in 6.C01, provides an introduction to the use of machine learning to solve problems arising in the science and engineering of biology, chemistry, and materials. Equips students to design and implement machine learning approaches to challenges such as analysis of omics (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, etc.), microscopy, spectroscopy, or crystallography data and design of new molecules and materials such as drugs, catalysts, polymer, alloys, ceramics, and proteins. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Students cannot receive credit without completion of the core subject 6.C01. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 2-0-4 | Calculus II (GIR), 6.100A, and 6.C01 | 3.C01[J], 10.C01[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
20.C51[J] | Machine Learning for Molecular Engineering | Building on core material in 6.C51, provides an introduction to the use of machine learning to solve problems arising in the science and engineering of biology, chemistry, and materials. Equips students to design and implement machine learning approaches to challenges such as analysis of omics (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, etc.), microscopy, spectroscopy, or crystallography data and design of new molecules and materials such as drugs, catalysts, polymer, alloys, ceramics, and proteins. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Students cannot receive credit without completion of the core subject 6.C51. | true | Spring | Graduate | 2-0-4 | Calculus II (GIR), 6.100A, and 6.C51 | 3.C51[J], 10.C51[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
22.C01 | Modeling with Machine Learning: Nuclear Science and Engineering Applications | Building on core material in 6.C01, focuses on applying various machine learning techniques to a broad range of topics which are of core value in modern nuclear science and engineering. Relevant topics include machine learning on fusion and plasma diagnosis, reactor physics and nuclear fission, nuclear materials properties, quantum engineering and nuclear materials, and nuclear security. Special components center on the additional machine learning architectures that are most relevant to a certain field, the implementation, and picking up the right problems to solve using a machine learning approach. Final project dedicated to the field-specific applications. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Students cannot receive credit without completion of the core subject 6.C01. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 2-0-4 | Calculus II (GIR), 6.100A, and 6.C01 | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
22.C51 | Modeling with Machine Learning: Nuclear Science and Engineering Applications | Building on core material in 6.C51, focuses on applying various machine learning techniques to a broad range of topics which are of core value in modern nuclear science and engineering. Relevant topics include machine learning on fusion and plasma diagnosis, reactor physics and nuclear fission, nuclear materials properties, quantum engineering and nuclear materials, and nuclear security. Special components center on the additional machine learning architectures that are most relevant to a certain field, the implementation, and picking up the right problems to solve using a machine learning approach. Final project dedicated to the field-specific applications. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Students cannot receive credit without completion of the core subject 6.C51. | true | Spring | Graduate | 2-0-4 | Calculus II (GIR), 6.100A, and 6.C51 | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
IDS.C57[J] | Optimization Methods | Introduction to the methods and applications of optimization. Topics include linear optimization, duality, non-linear optimization, integer optimization, and optimization under uncertainty. Instruction provided in modeling techniques to address problems arising in practice, mathematical theory to understand the structure of optimization problems, computational algorithms to solve complex optimization problems, and practical applications. Covers several examples and in-depth case studies based on real-world data to showcase impactful applications of optimization across management and engineering. Computational exercises based on the Julia-based programming language JuMP. Includes a term project. Basic competency in computational programming and linear algebra recommended. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. This subject was previously listed as 15.093/6.7200/IDS.200. | true | Fall | Graduate | 4-0-8 | 18.C06 or permission of instructor | 6.C57[J], 15.C57[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
SCM.C51 | Machine Learning Applications for Supply Chain Management | Building on core material in 6.C51, applies selected machine learning models to build practical, data-driven implementations addressing key business problems in supply chain management. Discusses challenges that typically arise in these practical implementations. Addresses relevant elements for large scale productionalization and monitoring of machine learning models in practice. Students cannot receive credit without completion of the core subject 6.C51. | true | Spring | Graduate | 2-0-4 | 6.C51 and (SCM.254 or permission of instructor) | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
1.C25[J] | Real World Computation with Julia | Focuses on algorithms and techniques for writing and using modern technical software in a job, lab, or research group environment that may consist of interdisciplinary teams, where performance may be critical, and where the software needs to be flexible and adaptable. Topics include automatic differentiation, matrix calculus, scientific machine learning, parallel and GPU computing, and performance optimization with introductory applications to climate science, economics, agent-based modeling, and other areas. Labs and projects focus on performant, readable, composable algorithms, and software. Programming will be in Julia. Expects students to have some familiarity with Python, Matlab, or R. No Julia experience necessary. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | 6.100A, 18.03, and 18.06 | 6.C25[J], 12.C25[J], 16.C25[J], 18.C25[J], 22.C25[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
2.C27[J] | Computational Imaging: Physics and Algorithms | Explores the contemporary computational understanding of imaging: encoding information about a physical object onto a form of radiation, transferring the radiation through an imaging system, converting it to a digital signal, and computationally decoding and presenting the information to the user. Introduces a unified formulation of computational imaging systems as a three-round "learning spiral": the first two rounds describe the physical and algorithmic parts in two exemplary imaging systems. The third round involves a class project on an imaging system chosen by students. Undergraduate and graduate versions share lectures but have different recitations. Involves optional "clinics" to even out background knowledge of linear algebra, optimization, and computational imaging-related programming best practices for students of diverse disciplinary backgrounds. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | 18.C06 and (1.00, 1.000, 2.086, 3.019, or 6.100A) | 3.C27[J], 6.C27[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
2.C67[J] | Computational Imaging: Physics and Algorithms | Contemporary understanding of imaging is computational: encoding onto a form of radiation the information about a physical object, transferring the radiation through the imaging system, converting it to a digital signal, and computationally decoding and presenting the information to the user. This class introduces a unified formulation of computational imaging systems as a three-round "learning spiral": the first two rounds, instructors describe the physical and algorithmic parts in two exemplary imaging systems. The third round, students conduct themselves as the class project on an imaging system of their choice. The undergraduate and graduate versions share lectures but have different recitations. Throughout the term, we also conduct optional "clinics" to even out background knowledge of linear algebra, optimization, and computational imaging-related programming best practices for students of diverse disciplinary backgrounds. | true | Fall | Graduate | 3-0-9 | 18.C06 and (1.00, 1.000, 2.086, 3.019, or 6.100A) | 3.C67[J], 6.C67[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
3.C27[J] | Computational Imaging: Physics and Algorithms | Explores the contemporary computational understanding of imaging: encoding information about a physical object onto a form of radiation, transferring the radiation through an imaging system, converting it to a digital signal, and computationally decoding and presenting the information to the user. Introduces a unified formulation of computational imaging systems as a three-round "learning spiral": the first two rounds describe the physical and algorithmic parts in two exemplary imaging systems. The third round involves a class project on an imaging system chosen by students. Undergraduate and graduate versions share lectures but have different recitations. Involves optional "clinics" to even out background knowledge of linear algebra, optimization, and computational imaging-related programming best practices for students of diverse disciplinary backgrounds. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | 18.C06 and (1.00, 1.000, 2.086, 3.019, or 6.100A) | 2.C27[J], 6.C27[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
3.C67[J] | Computational Imaging: Physics and Algorithms | Contemporary understanding of imaging is computational: encoding onto a form of radiation the information about a physical object, transferring the radiation through the imaging system, converting it to a digital signal, and computationally decoding and presenting the information to the user. This class introduces a unified formulation of computational imaging systems as a three-round "learning spiral": the first two rounds, instructors describe the physical and algorithmic parts in two exemplary imaging systems. The third round, students conduct themselves as the class project on an imaging system of their choice. The undergraduate and graduate versions share lectures but have different recitations. Throughout the term, we also conduct optional "clinics" to even out background knowledge of linear algebra, optimization, and computational imaging-related programming best practices for students of diverse disciplinary backgrounds. | true | Fall | Graduate | 3-0-9 | 18.C06 and (1.00, 1.000, 2.086, 3.019, or 6.100A) | 2.C67[J], 6.C67[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
6.C25[J] | Real World Computation with Julia | Focuses on algorithms and techniques for writing and using modern technical software in a job, lab, or research group environment that may consist of interdisciplinary teams, where performance may be critical, and where the software needs to be flexible and adaptable. Topics include automatic differentiation, matrix calculus, scientific machine learning, parallel and GPU computing, and performance optimization with introductory applications to climate science, economics, agent-based modeling, and other areas. Labs and projects focus on performant, readable, composable algorithms, and software. Programming will be in Julia. Expects students to have some familiarity with Python, Matlab, or R. No Julia experience necessary. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | 6.100A, 18.03, and 18.06 | 1.C25[J], 12.C25[J], 16.C25[J], 18.C25[J], 22.C25[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
6.C27[J] | Computational Imaging: Physics and Algorithms | Explores the contemporary computational understanding of imaging: encoding information about a physical object onto a form of radiation, transferring the radiation through an imaging system, converting it to a digital signal, and computationally decoding and presenting the information to the user. Introduces a unified formulation of computational imaging systems as a three-round "learning spiral": the first two rounds describe the physical and algorithmic parts in two exemplary imaging systems. The third round involves a class project on an imaging system chosen by students. Undergraduate and graduate versions share lectures but have different recitations. Involves optional "clinics" to even out background knowledge of linear algebra, optimization, and computational imaging-related programming best practices for students of diverse disciplinary backgrounds. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | 18.C06 and (1.00, 1.000, 2.086, 3.019, or 6.100A) | 2.C27[J], 3.C27[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
6.C67[J] | Computational Imaging: Physics and Algorithms | Contemporary understanding of imaging is computational: encoding onto a form of radiation the information about a physical object, transferring the radiation through the imaging system, converting it to a digital signal, and computationally decoding and presenting the information to the user. This class introduces a unified formulation of computational imaging systems as a three-round "learning spiral": the first two rounds, instructors describe the physical and algorithmic parts in two exemplary imaging systems. The third round, students conduct themselves as the class project on an imaging system of their choice. The undergraduate and graduate versions share lectures but have different recitations. Throughout the term, we also conduct optional "clinics" to even out background knowledge of linear algebra, optimization, and computational imaging-related programming best practices for students of diverse disciplinary backgrounds. | true | Fall | Graduate | 3-0-9 | 18.C06 and (1.00, 1.000, 2.086, 3.019, or 6.100A) | 2.C67[J], 3.C67[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
12.C25[J] | Real World Computation with Julia | Focuses on algorithms and techniques for writing and using modern technical software in a job, lab, or research group environment that may consist of interdisciplinary teams, where performance may be critical, and where the software needs to be flexible and adaptable. Topics include automatic differentiation, matrix calculus, scientific machine learning, parallel and GPU computing, and performance optimization with introductory applications to climate science, economics, agent-based modeling, and other areas. Labs and projects focus on performant, readable, composable algorithms, and software. Programming will be in Julia. Expects students to have some familiarity with Python, Matlab, or R. No Julia experience necessary. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | 6.100A, 18.03, and 18.06 | 1.C25[J], 6.C25[J], 16.C25[J], 18.C25[J], 22.C25[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
16.C25[J] | Real World Computation with Julia | Focuses on algorithms and techniques for writing and using modern technical software in a job, lab, or research group environment that may consist of interdisciplinary teams, where performance may be critical, and where the software needs to be flexible and adaptable. Topics include automatic differentiation, matrix calculus, scientific machine learning, parallel and GPU computing, and performance optimization with introductory applications to climate science, economics, agent-based modeling, and other areas. Labs and projects focus on performant, readable, composable algorithms, and software. Programming will be in Julia. Expects students to have some familiarity with Python, Matlab, or R. No Julia experience necessary. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | 6.100A, 18.03, and 18.06 | 1.C25[J], 6.C25[J], 12.C25[J], 18.C25[J], 22.C25[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
18.C25[J] | Real World Computation with Julia | Focuses on algorithms and techniques for writing and using modern technical software in a job, lab, or research group environment that may consist of interdisciplinary teams, where performance may be critical, and where the software needs to be flexible and adaptable. Topics include automatic differentiation, matrix calculus, scientific machine learning, parallel and GPU computing, and performance optimization with introductory applications to climate science, economics, agent-based modeling, and other areas. Labs and projects focus on performant, readable, composable algorithms, and software. Programming will be in Julia. Expects students to have some familiarity with Python, Matlab, or R. No Julia experience necessary. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | 6.100A, 18.03, and 18.06 | 1.C25[J], 6.C25[J], 12.C25[J], 16.C25[J], 22.C25[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
22.C25[J] | Real World Computation with Julia | Focuses on algorithms and techniques for writing and using modern technical software in a job, lab, or research group environment that may consist of interdisciplinary teams, where performance may be critical, and where the software needs to be flexible and adaptable. Topics include automatic differentiation, matrix calculus, scientific machine learning, parallel and GPU computing, and performance optimization with introductory applications to climate science, economics, agent-based modeling, and other areas. Labs and projects focus on performant, readable, composable algorithms, and software. Programming will be in Julia. Expects students to have some familiarity with Python, Matlab, or R. No Julia experience necessary. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | 6.100A, 18.03, and 18.06 | 1.C25[J], 6.C25[J], 12.C25[J], 16.C25[J], 18.C25[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
9.C20[J] | Introduction to Computational Science and Engineering | Provides an introduction to computational algorithms used throughout engineering and science (natural and social) to simulate time-dependent phenomena; optimize and control systems; and quantify uncertainty in problems involving randomness, including an introduction to probability and statistics. Combination of 6.100A and 16.C20J counts as REST subject. | true | Fall, Spring | Undergraduate | 2-0-4 | 6.100A; Coreq: 8.01 and 18.01 | 16.C20[J], 18.C20[J], CSE.C20[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
16.C20[J] | Introduction to Computational Science and Engineering | Provides an introduction to computational algorithms used throughout engineering and science (natural and social) to simulate time-dependent phenomena; optimize and control systems; and quantify uncertainty in problems involving randomness, including an introduction to probability and statistics. Combination of 6.100A and 16.C20J counts as REST subject. | true | Fall, Spring | Undergraduate | 2-0-4 | 6.100A; Coreq: 8.01 and 18.01 | 9.C20[J], 18.C20[J], CSE.C20[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
18.C20[J] | Introduction to Computational Science and Engineering | Provides an introduction to computational algorithms used throughout engineering and science (natural and social) to simulate time-dependent phenomena; optimize and control systems; and quantify uncertainty in problems involving randomness, including an introduction to probability and statistics. Combination of 6.100A and 16.C20J counts as REST subject. | true | Fall, Spring | Undergraduate | 2-0-4 | 6.100A; Coreq: 8.01 and 18.01 | 9.C20[J], 16.C20[J], CSE.C20[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CSE.C20[J] | Introduction to Computational Science and Engineering | Provides an introduction to computational algorithms used throughout engineering and science (natural and social) to simulate time-dependent phenomena; optimize and control systems; and quantify uncertainty in problems involving randomness, including an introduction to probability and statistics. Combination of 6.100A and 16.C20J counts as REST subject. | true | Fall, Spring | Undergraduate | 2-0-4 | 6.100A; Coreq: 8.01 and 18.01 | 9.C20[J], 16.C20[J], 18.C20[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
6.C35[J] | Interactive Data Visualization and Society | Covers the design, ethical, and technical skills for creating effective visualizations. Short assignments build familiarity with the data analysis and visualization design process. Weekly lab sessions present coding and technical skills. A final project provides experience working with real-world big data, provided by external partners, in order to expose and communicate insights about societal issues. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Enrollment limited. Enrollment limited. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-4-8 | null | 11.C35[J], CMS.C35[J], IDS.C35[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
6.C40[J] | Ethics of Computing | Explores ethical questions raised by the potentially transformative power of computing technologies. Topics include: lessons from the history of transformative technologies; the status of property and privacy rights in the digital realm; effective accelerationism, AI alignment, and existential risk; algorithmic bias and algorithmic fairness; and free speech, disinformation, and polarization on online platforms. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 24.C40[J] | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
6.C85[J] | Interactive Data Visualization and Society | Covers the design, ethical, and technical skills for creating effective visualizations. Short assignments build familiarity with the data analysis and visualization design process. Students participate in hour-long studio reading sessions. A final project provides experience working with real-world big data, provided by external partners, in order to expose and communicate insights about societal issues. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-1-8 | null | 11.C85[J], IDS.C85[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
11.C35[J] | Interactive Data Visualization and Society | Covers the design, ethical, and technical skills for creating effective visualizations. Short assignments build familiarity with the data analysis and visualization design process. Weekly lab sessions present coding and technical skills. A final project provides experience working with real-world big data, provided by external partners, in order to expose and communicate insights about societal issues. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Enrollment limited. Enrollment limited. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-4-8 | null | 6.C35[J], CMS.C35[J], IDS.C35[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
11.C85[J] | Interactive Data Visualization and Society | Covers the design, ethical, and technical skills for creating effective visualizations. Short assignments build familiarity with the data analysis and visualization design process. Students participate in hour-long studio reading sessions. A final project provides experience working with real-world big data, provided by external partners, in order to expose and communicate insights about societal issues. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-1-8 | null | 6.C85[J], IDS.C85[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
21H.C30 | Encoding Culture: Computation Methods in the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences | Applies computational methods for manipulating and analyzing encoded media, and draws from a wide range of practices including computational linguistics, audio processing, computer vision, and machine learning. Explores what it means to digitally encode and analyze culture. Studies the history and current practice of digitally encoding text, images, audio, and tabular datasets, along with the cultural and social issues implicit in these systems. Confronts the underlying issues of what is lost and gained when we encode culture. Limited to 25. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | 6.100A, 6.100B, or 6.100L | null | false | false | false | False | Elective | False |
24.C40[J] | Ethics of Computing | Explores ethical questions raised by the potentially transformative power of computing technologies. Topics include: lessons from the history of transformative technologies; the status of property and privacy rights in the digital realm; effective accelerationism, AI alignment, and existential risk; algorithmic bias and algorithmic fairness; and free speech, disinformation, and polarization on online platforms. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 6.C40[J] | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
CMS.100 | Introduction to Media Studies | Offers an overview of the social, cultural, political, and economic impact of mediated communication on modern culture. Combines critical discussions with experiments working with different media. Media covered include radio, television, film, the printed word, and digital technologies. Topics include the nature and function of media, core media institutions, and media in transition. Enrollment limited. | true | Fall, Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | CI-H |
CMS.125[J] | Liberalism, Toleration, and Freedom of Speech (New) | Examines theories and principles that underlie the concept of free speech in the United States, the historical context in which the values of free speech and toleration emerged, and the philosophical arguments that were and are made for and against them. Students analyze a variety of contexts and communicative practices, including new media technologies, to debate how "speech" can be described and when it should be appropriately regulated. Considers current disputes over free speech on college campuses. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 17.043[J], 24.150[J] | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
CMS.150[J] | Black Matters: Introduction to Black Studies | Interdisciplinary survey of people of African descent that draws on the overlapping approaches of history, literature, anthropology, legal studies, media studies, performance, linguistics, and creative writing. Connects the experiences of African-Americans and of other American minorities, focusing on social, political, and cultural histories, and on linguistic patterns. Includes lectures, discussions, workshops, and required field trips that involve minimal cost to students. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 24.912[J], 21H.106[J], 21L.008[J], 21W.741[J], WGS.190[J] | false | false | false | False | False | CI-H |
CMS.300 | Game Studies | Introduction to the interdisciplinary study of videogames as texts through an examination of their cultural, educational, and social functions in contemporary settings. Students play and analyze videogames while reading current research and theory from a variety of sources in the sciences, social sciences, humanities, and industry. Assignments focus on game analysis in the context of the theories discussed in class. Includes regular reading, writing, and presentation exercises. No prior programming experience required. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 20. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-3-6 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
CMS.301 | Game Design Methods | Provides an introduction to the process of designing games and playful experiences. Familiarizes students with concepts, methods, techniques and tools used in the design of a wide variety of games. Focuses on aspects of the process such as rapid prototyping, play testing, and design iteration using a player-centered approach. Students work in project groups where they engage with a series of confined exercises, practice communicating design ideas, and discuss their own and others work in a constructive manner. No prior programming experience required. Limited to 15. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Arts | False |
CMS.303[J] | DJ History, Technique, and Technology | Students explore a chosen contemporary or historical dance scene from around the world. Lectures examine the evolution of the craft and technologies of the DJ. Presents foundational practices of live DJ mixing; practice equipment is accessible to teams of students. Assignments include writing a report analyzing a book on DJ history or technique, producing a complete mix, and participation in an end-of-term performance. No prior experience is necessary, but students must sustain interest in some form of popular dance music, broadly defined. Graduate students complete additional assignments. Limited to 24. | true | Fall, Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 21M.365[J] | false | false | false | False | Arts | False |
CMS.306 | Making Comics and Sequential Art | Applied introduction to comics and sequential art production. Builds skills in how to develop storylines; develop and draw characters, panels, and backgrounds; prepare for print production; and comprehend the basics of sequential language, composition, and layout. Students engage with crucial personal and political issues at stake across a range of comics genres: superhero, biographical, and countercultural. Addresses not just how we create comics, but why we create comics. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 16. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Arts | False |
CMS.307 | Critical Worldbuilding | Studies the design and analysis of invented (or constructed) worlds for narrative media, such as television, films, comics, and literary texts. Provides the practical, historical and critical tools with which to understand the function and structure of imagined worlds. Examines world-building strategies in the various media and genres in order to develop a critical and creative repertoire. Participants create their own invented worlds. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 13. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-3-6 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Arts | False |
CMS.309[J] | Transmedia Storytelling: Modern Science Fiction | Explores transmedia storytelling by investigating how science fiction stories are told across different media, such as the short story, the novel, the screenplay, moving image, and games. Students consider issues of aesthetics, authorship, and genre, while also contextualizing discussion within the broader framework of the political issues raised by film, TV, and other kinds of science fiction texts. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-2-7 | null | 21W.763[J] | false | false | false | False | Arts | False |
CMS.311[J] | Media in Weimar and Nazi Germany | Debates over national and media identity in Weimar and Nazi Germany. Production and use of media under extreme political and social conditions with a focus on films (such as Nosferatu, Berlin, M, and Triumph des Willens) and other media. Media approached as both texts and systems. Considers the legacy of the period, in terms of stylistic influence (e.g. film noir), techniques of persuasion, and media's relationship to social and economic conditions. Taught in English. Enrollment limited. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 2-2-8 | null | 21G.055[J] | false | false | false | False | Humanities | CI-H |
CMS.313 | Silent Film | Examines how the key elements of today's films - composition, continuity editing, lighting, narrative structure - were originally created. Studies the history of cinema, from its origins in the late 19th century to the transition to sound in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Students view a range of films (both mainstream and experimental) from all over the world, with a particular focus on US productions. Emphasis on how color, sound, and other developments paved the way for today's technological innovations. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-3-6 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
CMS.314[J] | Phantasmal Media: Computer-Based Art Theory and Practice | Engages students in theory and practice of using computational techniques for developing expressive digital media works. Surveys approaches to understanding human imaginative processes, such as constructing concepts, metaphors, and narratives, and applies them to producing and understanding socially, culturally, and critically meaningful works in digital media. Readings engage a variety of theoretical perspectives from cognitive linguistics, literary and cultural theory, semiotics, digital media arts, and computer science. Students produce interactive narratives, games, and related forms of software art. Some programming and/or interactive web scripting experience (e.g., Flash, Javascript) is desirable. Students taking the graduate version complete a project requiring more in-depth theoretical engagement. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 21W.753[J] | false | false | false | False | Arts | False |
CMS.315[J] | Understanding Television | A cultural approach to television's evolution as a technology and system of representation. Considers television as a system of storytelling and mythmaking, and as a cultural practice studied from anthropological, literary, and cinematic perspectives. Focuses on prime-time commercial broadcasting, the medium's technological and economic history, and theoretical perspectives. Considerable television viewing and readings in media theory and cultural interpretation are required. Previously taught topics include American Television: A Cultural History. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | One subject in Literature or Comparative Media Studies | 21L.432[J] | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
CMS.334[J] | South Asian America: Transnational Media, Culture, and History | Examines the history of South Asian immigration, sojourning, and settlement from the 1880s to the present. Focuses on the US as one node in the global circulation, not only of people, but of media, culture and ideas, through a broader South Asian diaspora. Considers the concept of "global media" historically; emphasis on how ideas about, and self-representations of, South Asians have circulated via books, political pamphlets, performance, film, video/cassette tapes, and the internet. Students analyze and discuss scholarly writings, archival documents, memoirs, fiction, blogs and films, and write papers drawing on course materials, lectures, and discussions. Limited to 18. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 21W.788[J] | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
CMS.335[J] | Short Attention Span Documentary | Focuses on the production of short (1- to 5-minute) digital video documentaries: a form of non-fiction filmmaking that has proliferated in recent years due to the ubiquity of palm-sized and mobile phone cameras and the rise of web-based platforms, such as YouTube. Students shoot, edit, workshop and revise a series of short videos meant to engage audiences in a topic, introduce them to new ideas, and/or persuade them. Screenings and discussions cover key principles of documentary film - narrative, style, pace, point of view, argument, character development - examining how they function and change in short format. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 16. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 21W.790[J] | false | false | false | False | Arts | False |
CMS.336[J] | Social Justice and The Documentary Film | Explores the history and current state of social-issue documentary. Examines how cultural and political upheaval and technological change have converged at different moments to bring about new waves of activist documentary film production. Particular focus on films and other non-fiction media of the present and recent past. Students screen and analyze a series of key films and work in groups to produce their own short documentary using digital video and computer-based editing. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 18. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 21W.786[J], WGS.287[J] | false | false | false | False | Arts | False |
CMS.337[J] | Intersectionality, Neurodiversity, and Disability (New) | Examines key theoretical concepts, texts, and other media forms by disabled and neurodivergent writers, theorists, activists, and artists. Investigates medical and social models of disability and their interconnections with race, gender, class, sexuality, age, ethnicity, etc. Uses an intersectional lens to address emerging connections between disability and the environment, investigating issues of accessibility in natural and built environments. Explores themes of visibility/invisibility, community, vulnerability, power, access, and creativity. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | WGS.137[J] | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | False |
CMS.338 | Innovation in Documentary: Technologies and Techniques | Discusses emerging technologies and techniques available to media-makers (e.g., location-based technologies, transmedia storytelling, crowdsourcing, and interactivity) and their implications on the film and television documentary. Studies the development of these tools and considers the many new directions in which they may take the genre. Includes screenings, meetings with documentary makers, and an experimental component in which students can explore new approaches to documentary production. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | CMS.100 or permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | Arts | False |
CMS.339 | Virtual Reality and Immersive Media Production | Provides an overview of historical developments and current innovations in virtual reality (e.g., gear, software, and storytelling techniques) and looks into new trends in augmented, mixed and holographic reality. Includes practical instruction and a step-by-step exploration of the fundamentals of virtual reality creation - from new visual languages and grammars, to storyboarding, scripting, sound design and editing, to new and innovative ways to capture, scan and reproduce 360-degree images. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 18. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | Arts | False |
CMS.340 | Immersive Media Studies | Critical examination of the history, aesthetics, and politics of virtual reality and related media. Focuses on virtual space and embodiment; cultural reception and industry hype; accessibility, surveillance, and data privacy; and debates surrounding the use of immersive media in social, work, art, and entertainment contexts. Projects include experimentation with VR development tools and critical analysis of existing immersive works. Graduate version includes additional research. Enrollment limited to 15. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
CMS.341 | Immersive Social Worlds | Focuses on critical media sociology of immersive social worlds, from digital environments and avatar-based worlds to live action role-play (LARP) and theme parks. Draws on both historical and contemporary cases. Investigates key issues including communication and community; authorship and co-creativity; embodiment and identity; and ownership, governance, and management. Attention given to cultural and socio-technical nature of these environments and their ongoing construction within a broader media system. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Enrollment limited to 15. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | False |
CMS.342[J] | Designing Virtual Worlds | Three primary areas of focus are: creating new Virtual Reality experiences; mapping the state of emerging tools; and hosting guests - leaders in the VR/XR community, who serve as coaches for projects. Students have significant leeway to customize their own learning environment. As the field is rapidly evolving, each semester focuses on a new aspect of virtual worlds, based on the current state of innovations. Students work in teams of interdisciplinary peers from Berklee College of Music and Harvard University. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 4-2-6 [P/D/F] | null | 2.177[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.343[J] | The Art and Science of Time Travel | Explores time travel and other physical paradoxes—black holes, wormholes, and the multiverse—in the contexts of human narrative and contemporary scientific understanding. Instruction provided in the fundamental science of time travel in relativity and quantum mechanics. Students read and view classic time travel narratives in visual art and in film, and construct their own original time travel narratives. Limited to 20. | true | Fall | Graduate | 3-0-9 | 8.02 and 18.02 | 2.984[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.351[J] | Digital Media in Japan and Korea | Examines the social, cultural, and political stakes of digital culture in Japan and Korea. Focuses on digital media use (and abuse), including the internet, streaming and mobile media, gaming, robots, and augmented realities; the digital remediation of older media; and methods for the study of online life. By considering how digital media use has developed in each country and reshaped identity, politics, public space, and creative practice, students build a conceptual and critical vocabulary for the comparative study of algorithmic cultures. Taught in English. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 21G.067[J] | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
CMS.352[J] | Cinema in Japan and Korea | Focuses on landmark art cinema from both countries while providing a thorough introduction to film style. Each week examines a different component of film form, using the close analysis of specific films in their cultural and historical context. Explores the use of video essays as a form of critical analysis. Taught in English. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 21G.094[J] | false | false | false | False | Arts | False |
CMS.353[J] | The New Latin American Novel | Students read newly translated, recent fiction from Latin America and consider contemporary issues in, and approaches to, reading and writing literature in the 21st century. Debates the concept of contemporary in these texts and whether we can still talk about a Latin American novel. Reflects on issues of interpretation, authorship, gender, genre, media, ideology and theories of the novel, Latin American literary history, and translation. Authors may include César Aira, Mario Levrero, Samanta Schweblin, Yuri Herrera, Ena Lucía Portela, Valeria Luiselli, Roberto Bolaño, Marlon James, and J. P. Cuenca. Enrollment limited. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 21G.072[J] | false | false | false | False | Humanities | CI-H |
CMS.354[J] | Japanese Media Cultures | Examines storytelling media in twentieth and twenty-first century Japan, situating emerging media aesthetics and practices alongside broader shifts in cultural and social life. Engages with pivotal works in a wide range of media including film, literature, anime, manga, and video games, as well as critical concepts in Japanese media studies. Taught in English. 21G.593 includes additional work in Japanese. Enrollment limited. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 21G.065[J] | false | false | false | False | Humanities | CI-H |
CMS.355[J] | Latin America and the Global Sixties: Counterculture and Revolution | Close reading of political issues, cultural artifacts, and social actors of Latin America during and in the wake of the revolutionary 1960s. Examines how culture and politics addressed the need to conceptually organize a series of events that were equally momentous and confusing. Questions the established stereotypes and assumptions about Latin America and the sixties that are portrayed in its contemporary, often nostalgic, revivals. Focuses on the ideas that defined Latin America's participation in a global trend of political upheavals, emerging youth cultures, and demands for social justice. Taught in English. Enrollment limited. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 21G.070[J] | false | false | false | False | Humanities | CI-H |
CMS.356[J] | Advertising and Media: Comparative Perspectives | Compares modern and contemporary advertising culture in China, the US, and other emerging markets. First half focuses on branding in the old media environment; second half introduces the changing practice of advertising in the new media environment. Topics include branding and positioning, media planning, social media campaigns, cause marketing 2.0, social TV, and mobility marketing. Required lab work includes interactive sessions in branding a team product for the US (or a European country) and China markets. Taught in English and requires no knowledge of Chinese. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 21G.036[J] | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
CMS.357[J] | Creation of a Continent: Media Representations of Hispanic America, 1492 to present | Traces the creation of a new literature in Spanish to record and interpret New World experiences. Begins with excerpts from Columbus's diary and ends with writings on the late 19th-century Cuban and Puerto Rican independence movements. Pairs some of these pre-20th-century texts with more recent literary and film interpretations of the first 400 years of Hispanic American history. Conducted in Spanish. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | One intermediate Spanish subject or permission of instructor | 21G.731[J], 21H.274[J] | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
CMS.358[J] | The Short Form: Literature and New Media Cultures in the Hispanic World | Examines the aesthetics of the brief form across a variety of media and genres in Latin America and Spain, from short stories and snapshots to newspapers and Twitter. Explores the history and social significance of four short genres in the Hispanic world: the short story, the crónica, the poem, and the song. Discusses the rich literary and critical tradition that relates narrative length and temporality to the prose and the lyric in Spanish speaking cultures. With an emphasis on the 20th- and 21st-century epistemologies of acceleration and the remediation of literary theories of brevity, analyzes the relationship between temporality, aesthetic form, and media technologies, and the way these topics have taken shape in the imagination of writers, artists, and audiences in historically specific and politically significant contexts. Taught in Spanish. Limited to 18. | false | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | One intermediate subject in Spanish or permission of instructor | 21G.736[J] | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
CMS.359[J] | Three Kingdoms: From History to Fiction, Comic, Film, and Game | Analyzing core chapters of the great Chinese epic novel, Three Kingdoms, and its adaptations across diverse media, considers what underlies the appeal of this classic narrative over the centuries. Through focus on historical events in the period 206 BC to AD 280, examines the representation of power, diplomacy, war, and strategy, and explores the tension among competing models of political authority and legitimacy. Covers basic elements of classical Chinese political and philosophical thought, and literary and cultural history. Final group project involves digital humanities tools. Readings in translation. Films and video in Chinese with English subtitles. | false | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 21G.042[J], 21H.352[J], 21L.492[J] | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
CMS.360 | Introduction to Civic Media | Examines civic media in comparative, transnational and historical perspectives. Introduces various theoretical tools, research approaches, and project design methods. Students engage with multimedia texts on concepts such as citizen journalism, transmedia activism, media justice, and civic, public, radical, and tactical media. Case studies explore civic media across platforms (print, radio, broadcast, internet), contexts (from local to global, present-day to historical), and use (dialogic, contentious, hacktivist). As a final project, students develop a case study or project proposal. Students taking the graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 20. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
CMS.361 | Networked Social Movements: Media and Mobilization | Provides an overview of social movement studies as a body of theoretical and empirical work, with an emphasis on understanding the relationship between social movements and the media. Explores multiple methods of social movement investigation, including textual and media analysis, surveys, interviews, focus groups, participant observation, and co-research. Covers recent innovations in social movement theory, as well as new data sources and tools for research and analysis. Includes short papers, a literature review, and a final research project. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 16. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | False |
CMS.362 | Civic Media Collaborative Design Studio | Project-based studio focusing on collaborative design of civic media provides a service-learning opportunity for students interested in working with community organizations. Multidisciplinary teams create civic media projects based on real-world community needs. Covers co-design methods and best practices to include the user community in iterative stages of project ideation, design, implementation, testing, and evaluation. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 16. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | One subject in CMS or MAS | null | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | False |
CMS.374[J] | Transmedia Art, Extraction, and Environmental Justice | Exploration of today's extractive economies and the role that artists, media-makers, and transmedia producers play in shaping public perception, individual choices, and movement-building towards sustainability. Traces the contingent geological, material, community, and toxic histories of extracted materials used throughout our built environment, as well as civic resistance and reform that could alter extraction practices. Scaffolded workshops with artists and media producers support students' production of creative documentary and other media projects. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 2-3-7 | null | 4.376[J] | false | false | false | False | Arts | False |
CMS.375 | Reading Climate Through Media | Explores how climate is construed in the contemporary media in order to gain a better understanding of how views of climate change are shaped and received in the public sphere. Studies the pathways that take us from climate science to media content, from the big data of global scale to the particulars and narratives of the human experience. Surveys a variety of media forms--reports, articles, comics, videos, films, photography, poetry and fiction--that reflect on the contemporary human challenges of dealing with a changing natural environment of our own making. Emphasizes the role of media in shaping public opinion, both in the US and globally, and its influence on public (and voter) perceptions on which a vast body of regulation and funding for environmental management is based. Students work individually and in teams to produce a selection of the media forms studied. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 20. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
CMS.376 | History of Media and Technology | Surveys the interrelated histories of communications media and technological development, from the emergence of 19th-century forms of mass print media and telegraphy, to sound capture and image-based forms (e.g., film, radio, and television), to the shift from analog to digital cultures. Examines how new forms of communication exert social, political, and cultural influences in the global context. Explores how technological innovation and accelerating media affect social values and behaviors in the popular and global adoption of a media device. Includes two papers and a research project on aspects of media history. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Enrollment limited. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | CI-H |
CMS.400 | Media Systems and Texts | Explores theoretical, historical and critical approaches to the comparative study of media. Examines media from three perspectives: the historical evolution of particular media forms (media in transition); the migration of particular narratives across different media forms (trans-media texts); and the ways in which media texts and systems cross cultural and national boundaries (global crossings). Instruction and practice in written and oral communication provided. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | One subject in Comparative Media Studies or permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
CMS.405 | Visual Design | Examines the process of making and sharing visual artifacts using a trans-cultural, trans-historical, constructionist approach. Explores the relationship between perceived reality and the narrative imagination, how an author's choice of medium and method constrains the work, how desire is integrated into the structure of a work, and how the cultural/economic opportunity for exhibition/distribution affects the realization of a work. Instruction and practice in written and oral communication provided. Limited to 20. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | 21L.011 or CMS.100 | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
CMS.406[J] | The Anthropology of Sound (New) | Examines the ways humans experience sound and how perceptions and technologies of sound emerge from cultural, economic, and historical worlds. Consider how the sound/noise/music boundaries have been imagined, created, and modeled across sociocultural and historical contexts. Learn how environmental, linguistic, and musical sounds are construed cross-culturally as well as the rise of telephony, architectural acoustics, sound recording, multi-channel and spatial mix performance, and the globalized travel of these technologies. Questions of sound ownership, property, authorship, remix, and copyright in the digital age are also addressed. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 21A.505[J], STS.065[J] | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | False |
CMS.407 | Sound Studies | Explores the ways in which humans experience the realm of sound and how perceptions and technologies of sound emerge from cultural, economic, and historical worlds. Examines how environmental, linguistic, and musical sounds are construed cross-culturally. Describes the rise of telephony, architectural acoustics, and sound recording, and the globalized travel of these technologies. Addresses questions of ownership, property, authorship, and copyright in the age of digital file sharing. Particular focus on how the sound/noise boundary is imagined, created and modeled across diverse sociocultural and scientific contexts. Auditory examples--sound art, environmental recordings, music--will be provided and invited. Instruction and practice in written and oral communication provided. Limited to 20. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
CMS.418[J] | Gender in the Visual Arts (New) | Explores gender and race through interdisciplinary perspectives from film and visual studies, art history, and performance studies. Provides an overview of methodologies and practices, with an emphasis on contemporary artists working across mediums. Contextualizes artistic output within broader systems of power and cultural institutions. Reflects on the politics of visibility, hypervisibility, and invisibility through an intersectional feminist approach that draws on perspectives from trans*, queer, feminist, dis/ability, and critical race theory. Lectures are supplemented by screenings, discussions, workshops, guest lectures, and optional field trips. Culminates in a final creative project that includes a presentation. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | WGS.118[J] | false | false | false | False | Arts | False |
CMS.481[J] | Queer Cinema and Visual Culture (New) | Analyzes mainstream, popular films produced in the post-WWII 20th century US as cultural texts that shed light on ongoing historical struggles over gender identity and appropriate sexual behaviors. Traces the history of LGBTQ/queer film through the 20th and into the 21st century. Examines the effect of the Hollywood Production Code and censorship of sexual themes and content, and the subsequent subversion of queer cultural production in embedded codes and metaphors. Also considers the significance of these films as artifacts and examples of various aspects of queer theory. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | WGS.181[J] | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
CMS.524[J] | Thinking on Your Feet: Dance as a Learning Science (New) | Explores the past, present, and future of dance as a learning science. Combines readings and discussion with experiential learning. Readings span the science of movement and learning, studies of educational dance, and research on school reform. Lab exercises led by guest artists introduce the rich possibilities of dance for teaching subjects across the curriculum. For their final project, students choreograph a lesson on a topic of their choosing. This is an introductory class; no dance background is required. Limited to 20 students. | false | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | STS.024[J] | false | false | false | False | Arts | False |
CMS.586[J] | Introduction to Education: Looking Forward and Looking Back on Education | One of two introductory subjects on teaching and learning science and mathematics in a variety of K-12 settings. Topics include education and media, education reform, the history of education, simulations, games, and the digital divide. Students gain practical experience through weekly visits to schools, classroom discussions, selected readings, and activities to develop a critical and broad understanding of past and current forces that shape the goals and processes of education, and explores the challenges and opportunities of teaching. Students work collaboratively and individually on papers, projects, and in-class presentations. Limited to 25. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-6-3 | null | 11.124[J] | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | CI-H |
CMS.587[J] | Introduction to Education: Understanding and Evaluating Education | One of two introductory subjects on teaching and learning science and mathematics in a variety of K-12 settings. Topics include student misconceptions, formative assessment, standards and standardized testing, multiple intelligences, and educational technology. Students gain practical experience through weekly visits to schools, classroom discussions, selected readings, and activities to develop a critical and broad understanding of past and current forces that shape the goals and processes of education, and explores the challenges and opportunities of teaching. Students work collaboratively and individually on papers, projects, and in-class presentations. Limited to 25. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-6-3 | null | 11.125[J] | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | CI-H |
CMS.590[J] | Design and Development of Games for Learning | Immerses students in the process of building and testing their own digital and board games in order to better understand how we learn from games. Explores the design and use of games in the classroom in addition to research and development issues associated with computer-based (desktop and handheld) and non-computer-based media. In developing their own games, students examine what and how people learn from them (including field testing of products), as well as how games can be implemented in educational settings. All levels of computer experience welcome. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-6-3 | null | 11.127[J] | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
CMS.591[J] | Educational Theory and Practice I | Concentrates on core set of skills and knowledge necessary for teaching in secondary schools. Topics include classroom management, student behavior and motivation, curriculum design, educational reform, and the teaching profession. Classroom observation is a key component. Assignments include readings from educational literature, written reflections on classroom observations, practice teaching and constructing curriculum. The first of the three-course sequence necessary to complete the Teacher Education Program. Limited to 15; preference to juniors and seniors. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | None. Coreq: CMS.586 | 11.129[J] | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | False |
CMS.592[J] | Educational Theory and Practice II | Concentrates on the theory and psychology associated with student learning. Topics include educational theory, educational psychology, and theories of learning. Students assume responsibility for full-time teaching of two or more classes at their designated school. Class sessions focus on debriefing and problem-solving. Second of a three-course sequence necessary to complete the Teacher Education Program. | true | IAP | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | CMS.591 | 11.130[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.593[J] | Educational Theory and Practice III | Students continue their IAP student teaching through mid March. Topics include educational psychology, theories of learning, and using technology and evaluating its effectiveness to enhance student learning. Assignments include readings from educational literature, written reflections on student teaching, presentations on class topics and creating a project that supports student learning at the school where the MIT student is teaching. This is the third of the three-course sequence necessary to complete the Teacher Education Program. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | CMS.592 | 11.131[J] | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | False |
CMS.594 | Education Technology Studio | Uses media and technology to develop new forms of learning experiences for schools, workplace, and informal settings. Students participate in a range of projects that hone understanding and skills in learning science, instructional design, development, and evaluation. Topics vary but include developing new media and activities for massive open online courses, creating practice spaces for practitioners in the professions and humanities, and developing new approaches to assessment in complex learning environments. May be repeated for credit with permission of instructor if project content differs. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | False |
CMS.595 | Learning, Media, and Technology | Addresses new digital technologies that are transforming learning across the lifespan - from reading apps for toddlers, intelligent tutors for school children, and blended learning for college students, to MOOCs for adults and interest-based learning communities for hobbyists. Focuses on how these technologies shape people's lives and learning. Students explore how education technologies operate in complex social-technical systems, and acquire analytic tools and strategies that can be applied to other complex systems. They also refine their thinking about the opportunities, limits, and tradeoffs of educational technology. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | False |
CMS.603 | Independent Study | Opportunity for individual research in comparative media studies. Registration subject to prior arrangement for subject matter and supervision by a faculty member. | true | Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer | Undergraduate | rranged | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.604 | Independent Study | Opportunity for individual research in comparative media studies. Registration subject to prior arrangement for subject matter and supervision by a faculty member. | true | Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer, Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer | Undergraduate | rranged [P/D/F] | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.605 | Media Internship | Part-time internships arranged in Boston and the wider Northeast for students wishing to develop professional experience in a media production organization or industry. Students work with a CMS faculty advisor to produce a white paper on a research topic of interest based on their intern experience. Students planning to take this subject must contact the instructor before the end of the preceding term. | true | Fall, IAP, Spring | Undergraduate | rranged | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.606 | Media Internship | Part-time internships arranged in Boston and the wider Northeast for students wishing to develop professional experience in a media production organization or industry. Students work with a CMS/W faculty advisor to produce a white paper on a research topic of interest based on their intern experience. Students planning to take this subject must contact the instructor before the end of the preceding term. | true | Fall, IAP, Spring | Graduate | rranged | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.609[J] | Computational and Experimental Writing Workshop | Students study and use innovative compositional techniques, focusing on new writing methods. Using approaches ranging from poetics to computer science, students undertake critical and creative writing, with writing experiments culminating in print or digital projects. Students read, listen to, and create different types of work, including sound poetry, cut-ups, constrained and Oulipian writing, uncreative writing, false translations, artists' books, and digital projects ranging from video games to computer-generated books. Digital art and literature, analyzed and discussed in the contexts of history, culture, and computing platforms, are covered, as well as avant-garde writing methods, situated in their historical contexts. Topics vary by year; may be repeated for credit with permission of the instructor. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 18. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 21W.764[J] | false | false | false | False | Arts | False |
CMS.611[J] | Creating Video Games | Introduces students to the complexities of working in small, multidisciplinary teams to develop video games. Covers creative design and production methods, stressing design iteration and regular testing across all aspects of game development (design, visual arts, music, fiction, and programming). Assumes a familiarity with current video games, and the ability to discuss games critically. Previous experience in audio design, visual arts, or project management recommended. Limited to 36. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-3-6 | 6.100A or CMS.301 | 6.4570[J] | false | false | false | False | Arts | False |
CMS.614[J] | Critical Internet Studies | Focuses on the power dynamics in internet-related technologies (including social networking platforms, surveillance technology, entertainment technologies, and emerging media forms). Theories and readings focus on the cultural, social, economic, and political aspects of internet use and design, with a special attention to gender and race. Topics include: online communication and communities, algorithms and search engines, activism and online resistance, surveillance and privacy, content moderation and platform governance, and the spread of dis- and misinformation. Instruction and practice in written and oral communication provided. Students taking the graduate version complete additional readings and assignments. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 21W.791[J], WGS.280[J] | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | False |
CMS.615 | Games for Social Change | Examines how various movements have tried over time to create games that enable players to enact social change. Students collaborate in teams to design and prototype games for social change and civic engagement. In a workshop setting, teams develop games and showcase them at an end-of-term open house. Features guest speakers from academia and industry as well as the nonprofit sector and the gaming community. Readings explore principals of game design and the social history of games. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
Subsets and Splits