The Link is Olin's campus-wide e-bulletin. In this issue: A Busy Semester for Olin's Initiative for Innovation in Engineering Education Support Olin Students Enrolled in Real Products, Real Markets Communicating Science Symposium at Wellesley Juliana Nazare '14 Accepted into Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals Alumni Business DrawTop Makes a Splash at Stanford

The Link is Olin's campus-wide e-bulletin. In this issue: Reunion Weekend is HERE! Decade One: Celebrating Olin September I2E2 Visits A Message of Thanks from the Olin Jimmy Fund Walkers Olin Moves Up Two Spots in U.S. News Ranking

The Link is Olin's campus-wide e-bulletin. In this issue: 2013 Spring Career Fairs Technology and Culture Seminar Series Presents Charles Stross 2013 Carpenter Lecture at Babson

The Link is Olin's campus-wide e-bulletin. In this issue: "The Toaster Project" for Summer Reading Olin Communication Survey Help an Olin Student Raise Money to End Childhood Malnutrition You Asked, We Can Make It Happen: Giving through Online Banking and Multiple Gift Options to Fulfill Pledge 2012 Countdown Has Begun!

Topics for this course include combinatorics, number theory, graph theory, an emphasis on creative problem solving, and the ability to read and write rigorous proofs.

The STUFF of History is an integrated course activity that combines the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of materials science and history of technology. The term ÔÇ£integratedÔÇØ applies to every aspect of this course: both instructors are present at (nearly) all times; both instructors assess every major assignment jointly; every major assignment contains elements from both portions of this course; and you receive one grade for all eight credits. We think that that this integration comes very naturally: the subjects complement one another and the use of two perspectives produces a deep, provocative understanding.

This course introduces students to the fundamental aspects of biological science including biochemistry, molecular biology, human molecular genetics, and cellular communication. Students gain experience with contemporary research methods and scientific reasoning through laboratory experiments. The relevance of biology to the environment and health is emphasized.

This interdisciplinary exploration of identity draws on a diverse range of genres in the Humanities, Social Sciences, Arts and Sciences. Prior offerings have drawn from Anthropology, Artificial Intelligence, Biology, Film, History, Literature, Memoir, Neuroscience, Philosophy, Psychology, Political Science, Science Fiction, Sociology, and Visual Arts. Our goal is to understand how individual perspective (or the illusion of same) comes into being and how our own unique perspectives shape the way that we see the world. Emphasis is placed on communication and context.

A hands-on exploration of the design and development of user interfaces, taking into account the realities of human perception and behavior, the needs of users, and the pragmatics of computational infrastructure and application. Focuses on understanding and applying the lessons of human interaction to the design of usable computer applications; will also look at lessons to be learned from less usable systems. This course will mix studio (open project working time) and seminar (readings and discussion) formats.

The AHS Capstone is an advanced, self-designed AHS project that builds upon a studentÔÇÖs prior experience in one or more AHS disciplines. All students must complete either an AHS Capstone or an Entrepreneurship Capstone in order to graduate. AHS Capstones must be proposed to the AHS Committee and approved by the end of the academic year prior to the Capstone except in extenuating circumstances. Additional information on the AHS Capstone is available at http://projects.olin.edu/ahs. AHS Capstone students will complete a proposal, a journal, a disciplinary deliverable, an analysis of their deliverable, and a presentation. Class sessions will vary between meetings of the entire class, small group workshops, and individual meetings. Olin strongly recommends that all AHS Capstone students first complete the AHS Capstone Preparatory Seminar. Please contact the AHS Committee at ahs@olin.edu with any questions.

This course introduces students to the fundamental aspects of biological science including biochemistry, molecular biology, human molecular genetics, and cellular communication. Students gain experience with contemporary research methods and scientific reasoning through laboratory experiments. The relevance of biology to the environment and health is emphasized.

This course uses applications as vehicles for exploring the formal analytic toolkit of the computer scientist as well as aspects of algorithmic computing and intelligent software design. The course combines elements of automata theory, data structures and algorithms, programming languages, artificial intelligence, information management, and internet programming. A 6 credit version of this course is available on request as an independent study.

With an emphasis on understanding fundamental concepts, students will learn to create and analyze mathematical models for mechanical and electromechanical systems that are changing in time. Equations of motion for 3D rigid bodies and systems will be derived using conservation of momentum and energy methods. Concepts involving equilibrium, linearization, and stability will be applied to study dynamic response in both the time and frequency domains through time-integration, transfer function, and state-space analysis. The idea of feedback control is introduced. Coursework and projects will involve examples such as robots, mechanisms, vehicles, and aircraft/spacecraft.

A student team will work in the manner of a small engineering research and development company to develop a mechanical or aerospace system to address a current market need. A comprehensive system design will be developed based upon quantitative analysis using commercial simulation software. Prototypes systems will be fabricated, evaluated and refined to meet performance objectives. This semester will focus on the design and fabrication of a 'perching' landing gear system for a small autonomous or remotely controlled air vehicle. The landing gear will enable the air vehicle to grab a hold of and land upon tree branches. Mechanical aspects dominate but there is a need for hardware and software development of sensors and instrumentation.

Perhaps the most fundamental question any developing individual asks himself/herself is: who am I? The ways we answer this question have evolved over the course of history as the dominant ways of knowing (epistemologies) have shifted. Indeed, the question of how we come to know ourselves has captivated Western scholars since the days of Descartes, but a look at the last fifty to sixty years has also seen enormous changes. Many people invoke psychological and philosophical perspectives in describing their identity, focusing on their personality, their developmental history, and their place in society. But the explosion of neurobiological research has introduced a new and viable outlook: explaining identity at the chemical and electrical level of the brain. There is good reason to think that these different perspectives on identity are mutually exclusive and this tension will underlie everything we discuss in this interdisciplinary course. Indeed, when it comes to a topic as fundamental to human existence as identity, it is absolutely essential to wonder not only ÔÇ£who am I?ÔÇØ but to also ask ÔÇ£how do I know?ÔÇØ In this course, we will approach the question of identity from multiple perspectives, including psychology, postmodern philosophy, and neuroscience. In the process, we will critically examine not only the conception of identity that each perspective supports, but also the assumptions and limitations of each epistemology. This course focuses more on the science of psychology and neuroscience, while AHSE 1150: What Is ÔÇ£IÔÇØ? is more focused on philosophy and artificial intelligence.

Topics for this course include combinatorics, number theory, graph theory, an emphasis on creative problem solving, and the ability to read and write rigorous proofs.

Perhaps the most fundamental question any developing individual asks himself/herself is: who am I? The ways we answer this question have evolved over the course of history as the dominant ways of knowing (epistemologies) have shifted. Indeed, the question of how we come to know ourselves has captivated Western scholars since the days of Descartes, but a look at the last fifty to sixty years has also seen enormous changes. Many people invoke psychological and philosophical perspectives in describing their identity, focusing on their personality, their developmental history, and their place in society. But the explosion of neurobiological research has introduced a new and viable outlook: explaining identity at the chemical and electrical level of the brain. There is good reason to think that these different perspectives on identity are mutually exclusive and this tension will underlie everything we discuss in this interdisciplinary course. Indeed, when it comes to a topic as fundamental to human existence as identity, it is absolutely essential to wonder not only ÔÇ£who am I?ÔÇØ but to also ask ÔÇ£how do I know?ÔÇØ In this course, we will approach the question of identity from multiple perspectives, including psychology, postmodern philosophy, and neuroscience. In the process, we will critically examine not only the conception of identity that each perspective supports, but also the assumptions and limitations of each epistemology. This course focuses more on the science of psychology and neuroscience, while AHSE 1150: What Is ÔÇ£IÔÇØ? is more focused on philosophy and artificial intelligence.

This course introduces students to the fundamental aspects of biological science including biochemistry, molecular biology, human molecular genetics, and cellular communication. Students gain experience with contemporary research methods and scientific reasoning through laboratory experiments. The relevance of biology to the environment and health is emphasized.

This course covers the principles of statics of structures and mechanics of materials. The focus is on the concepts of stress and strain as related to applied loads (axial, shear, torsion, bending) and to resulting deformation. Students will learn how the principles of mechanics can be applied to mechanical design through modeling, quantitative analysis, strain gauge measurements, and computational simulation. The use of a commercial finite element package is introduced.

An introduction to the fundamental mathematical techniques and concepts used in solving linear systems of equations. Topics include matrices and vectors, Gaussian elimination, matrix inverses, transposes and factorizations, column, row, and nullspace of a matrix, rank of a matrix, determinants, and eigenvalues and eigenvectors.

This course uses applications as vehicles for exploring the formal analytic toolkit of the computer scientist as well as aspects of algorithmic computing and intelligent software design. The course combines elements of automata theory, data structures and algorithms, programming languages, artificial intelligence, information management, and internet programming. A 6 credit version of this course is available on request as an independent study.

This course is an introduction to software design. It focuses on a model of computation as a set of simultaneous ongoing entities embedded in and interacting with a dynamic environment, for example: computation as it occurs in spreadsheets, video games, web applications, and robots. A major component of the class is a weekly three-hour, in-class laboratory. Much of this laboratory is spent in collaborative work on program development, with an emphasis on student-student interaction and student-student teaching, facilitated and enriched by the course staff. In addition, design and implementation work is supplemented with observational laboratory assignments, inviting students to consider not only how to build a program, but how to anticipate its behavior and how to modify that behavior. Both students with no prior background and students with background comparable to the CS AP should both find this course interesting and worthwhile.

Techniques for the design and analysis of mechanical and aerospace systems are studied through case projects that involve both computational analysis and experimental measurements. Topics will be selected from a range of possible topics such as vibration analysis, flexible body dynamics, aerodynamics, and aeroelasticity. Projects may include the design and construction of vibration absorbers or ambient vibration energy harvesting systems, the dynamics and stability of aerospace vehicles, lift and drag of airfoils, the control of flutter instabilities of elastic structures, the design and flight testing of a lighter-than-air-vehicle, or mission planning of aeronautical or aerospace systems.

An introduction to the fundamental mathematical techniques and concepts used in solving linear systems of equations. Topics include matrices and vectors, Gaussian elimination, matrix inverses, transposes and factorizations, column, row, and nullspace of a matrix, rank of a matrix, determinants, and eigenvalues and eigenvectors.

An introduction to the solution techniques of differential equations. Topics include mathematical modeling, solution techniques to linear and nonlinear first-order differential equations, characteristic solutions to linear constant coefficient second-order differential equations, solutions to homogeneous (unforced) and inhomogeneous (forced) second-order linear systems. Applications include modeling of physical systems.