8/24/23: New class meeting time and room: R 10-12 in room 10-485. Units changed to 2-0-6.

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.

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. 

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.

Studies theoretical and historiographical works pertaining to the fields of art and architectural history. Members of seminar pursue work designed to examine their own presuppositions and methods.

4.661 Syllabus (MIT Certificate Protected)

9/8/23 Note: Final schedule for class is R 11-2 in room 3-133

This course examines the contemporary challenges and history of city planning on three continents - Africa, Asia, and South America. Students study a number of city plans, from the ‘informal’ settlements of Delhi and Nairobi, the modernist master plans of Brasilia and Baghdad, to climate action plans in various cities. The objective of the course is to understand the relationship between dwelling and building in the design of cities, in conjunction with the environmental, social, political, and intellectual environments at the time of their planning. Open to both undergraduate and graduate students. MArch students can register for 9 credits.

4.624 Syllabus (MIT Certificate Protected)

Seminar on the politics of representation with special focus on Orientalist traditions in architecture, art, literature, and scholarship. Critically analyzes pivotal texts, projects, and artworks that reflected the encounters between the West and the Orient from Antiquity to the present. Discusses how political, ideological, and religious attitudes informed the construction and reproduction of Western knowledge about the Islamic world as well as revisionist Eastern self-representations. Research paper required.

4.621 Syllabus (MIT Certificate Protected)