Drones are providing us with new ways to map, monitor, and measure our changing landscape. Advances in digital image processing enable one to go from flying a drone to working with accurate maps and 3D models in a matter of hours. This course examines the applications of drones in which the aerial perspective can be integrated into architecture, engineering and construction practice. In this course, students will gain hands-on experience with drone vehicles, sensors, image processing software and applications. Students will learn how to use drones to help them better understand our changing environment. With the proliferation of drones there are increasing opportunities to use drones for scientific remote sensing data acquisition and applications. 

This course focuses on understanding the fundamentals behind acquiring imagery data with drone-based cameras (e.g. multi-spectral and thermal) and processing the data for various applications. Students will also get to know the fundamentals of open source and proprietary software packages as they relate to UAV technology, drone operations, flight planning and data collection and management as well as how to integrate resulting data into other software tools such as GIS, BEM and Python libraries. Recognizing the critical role that AI will play in defining the future international competition, many countries now regard AI as a national priority. The United States launched the American Artificial Intelligence Initiative in 2019 with the mission to promote its leadership in AI research, development, and application. One of the eight national strategies identified in this initiative is to “provide education and training opportunities to prepare the American workforce for the new era of AI”.  

In this course, students will go through aerial data processing, mainly data collected from drones, including working with Orthomosaic, Digital Terrain models (DTMs), Digital Surface Models (DSMs), Point Cloud, and 3D mesh modeling. This course will also provide technical and applied knowledge on using drones for building assessment through aerial thermography and the use of UAVs in various applications. The course will also cover the technical foundation of enhanced data processing using AI, including image segmentation and object identification, and feature extraction basics using computer vision techniques in Python. Upon completion of this course, students will have theoretical and applied and technical knowledge that will aid them to use UAVs in various applications. This course is the extended version of Eyes in The Sky Workshop that was offered during IAP 2022, which resulted in 2D mapping of Briggs field and 3D modelling of Simmons Hall at MIT campus. 

Note: this is an H1 (half-term) subject.

In an AI-enhanced future, humans will become better at everything. The machine targets real-world artificial intelligence challenges designed to help address issues related to climate change, and urbanization in cities.

X Machine is an accelerator workshop designed to bring computer science and architecture together to create the most innovative and impactful technology solutions. The program's aim is to provide mentorship and technical support, with a focus on the problem statement and early-stage technology design ideation.

4.344 U / 4.345 G

Advanced Photography and Related Media is a studio seminar course that addresses Historical Memory and the Politics of Representation. 

The course is designed for students who wish to explore photography and related media as tools for artistic practice. Students are encouraged to explore analog, digital and new technologies while researching and studying the history of photography, film, art and visual culture at large.

Through lectures, readings, film screenings, student-driven projects, guest lecturers’ presentations and critique sessions, students experiment with a range of artistic strategies. Throughout the semester, they engage in cross-disciplinary research and work on a project individually or collaboratively. 

On a weekly basis, students discuss theoretical texts related to various artistic practices, cutting across a range of media and various historical contexts. Students are encouraged to work with a diversity of media and formats, including film, video, sculpture, multimedia installations etc., providing images/photography remain central to their projects. 

Additional work required of students taking the graduate version. Equipment available for checkout.

4.344/4.345 Syllabus (MIT Certificate Required)

Water comprises the majority of the earth's surface, and has shaped the creation of art, architecture, and objects as the means of travel and transport as well as a powerful cultural metaphor. This course offers students the opportunity to study the environmental conditions, imagery, and mechanisms used by artists and craftsmen as well as the everyday experiences of water. Each week will offer a particular case study and point of view through which to study the connections between liquid contexts and art objects. Themes will include flows, surfaces and depths, water edges, and technologies. Students may work on projects in their choice of geographical and historical moments.

4.s62 Syllabus (MIT Certificate protected)

Seminar connecting the arts and sciences by exploring methodological similarities and differences across disciplines: arts/architecture, humanities/social sciences, engineering, natural and material sciences et al. Aimed at fostering student collaborations across research interests: students develop their ideas for projects through targeted analysis of their disciplinary and interdisciplinary  interests. Each student will either enter with a project in mind, or develop their project ideas within the class. Students can choose to work individually or in groups.

This seminar’s goal to provide blueprints for developing interdisciplinary projects: final is a paper/ plan with goals/outcomes forming the basis for collaborative interdisciplinary projects.  Examples of such projects: artwork that makes use of cross-species communication, (Tomás Saraceno); project engaging the natural sciences, composed of material that endlessly transform, simultaneously functioning as an artwork, (Neri Oxman).

First half semester is targeted reading (articles) across disciplines – based in student interests – alongside discussion of case studies of successful collaborations in these disciplines. Analyzing case studies plus reading will enable an understanding of methodological specificities in different disciplines in relation to aesthetics and fabrication issues, and directly in context of the particular disciplines under consideration. Together this fosters reciprocal knowledge of the strengths and differences across disciplines. Case studies drawn from MIT’s history: CAST and CAVS, and from across the global ‘artworld’. Second half semester will be geared toward aiding students in better connecting across disciplines at MIT (and possibly beyond). This is trial and error, of course. However, final project, as a working plan for interdisciplinary collaboration, will provide the knowledge base and research skills applicable to future projects.
 

Welcome to MIT! If you are coming because you love building, let this seminar be your red carpet. You will be meeting once a week with two faculty, Profs. Steve Leeb (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science) and Les Norford (Architecture), who love building cool systems. We will learn about MIT together while we are understanding and building exciting systems that use and convert energy. We will drive an electric go-cart and compare it to a gasoline-powered vehicle. You will design and build your own set of stereo speakers and a power amplifier to audio system you can keep. We'll look at motors and circuits to control these devices. We will be working in an amazing new prototyping laboratory, and you will get to develop an energy experiment of your own design. Join us!

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Les Norford will be the advisor to this section 4.A22. Les is a mechanical engineer who teaches in the Department of Architecture and has a special interest in environmental issues. He's studied buildings and how people live and work in them around the world. Les earned his BS in engineering science from Cornell University and his PhD in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Princeton University.

All Advising Seminars receive six units of credit and are graded P/D/F.

Required for doctoral students in HTC as a prerequisite for work on the doctoral dissertation. Prior to candidacy, doctoral students are required to write and orally defend a proposal laying out the scope of their thesis, its significance, a survey of existing research and literature, the methods of research to be adopted, a bibliography and plan of work. Work is done in consultation with HTC Faculty, in accordance with the HTC PhD Degree Program guidelines.

Required of doctoral students in HTC as a prerequisite for work on the doctoral dissertation. The Minor Exam focuses on a specific area of specialization through which the student might develop their particular zone of expertise. Work is done in consultation with HTC faculty, in accordance with the HTC PhD Degree Program Guidelines.

Required of doctoral students in HTC as a prerequisite for work on the doctoral dissertation. The Major Exam covers a historically broad area of interest and includes components of history, historiography, and theory. Preparation for the exam will focus on four or five themes agreed upon in advance by the student and the examiner, and are defined by their area of teaching interest. Work is done in consultation with HTC faculty, in accordance with the HTC PhD Degree Program Guidelines.