SPRING 2008

Biology

BIOL167 HM 01 Plant Developmental Genetics
Mary Williams TR 1:15 - 2:30pm TG 208
How do genes control development? How do genes interact with environmental factors to specify developmental patterns? Why do plants need more genes than animals? What genetic mechanisms controlling cell fate are conserved between plants and animals? How do classical genetic approaches complement modern genomic approaches in assigning gene function? The course will consist primarily of discussions of the primary literature and a formal research grant proposal writing assignment. Prerequisites- a course in molecular biology (comparable to HMC BIOL113).

BIOL186 HM 01 Computational Biology
Eliot Bush TR 2:45 - 4:00 pm TG 105
Computational methods are an increasingly central part of biological research. Training in biology should include not only the ability to use such methods, but also a more fundamental understanding of how they work. This course focuses on computational algorithms and methods used in the study of the genome including alignment, genome assembly, gene finding, and the analysis of gene expression. The format is a combination of lecture, laboratory exercises, and discussion. Assignments will include a mixture of practical problems (often with an evolutionary emphasis), and problems involving the design and implementation of algorithms. There will also be a multi-week research project at the end of the class. Prerequisites are Bio 113, CS 5, or permission of instructor.

Chemistry
None

Computer Science

CSCI182 HM 01 File Systems
Kuenning    MW 2:45 – 4:00pm    TG 203
Seminar on current topics in file system design and research. Overview of characteristics of disk drives and popular file system designs. Readings in current research. Topics may include RAID, journaling file systems, parallel storage, distributed systems, MEMS, flash storage, file systems performance, backup, reliability, and measurement. Students will participate in the selection of papers, based on their own interests.

CSCI182 HM 02 Pen Based Computer
Alvarado    MW 1:15 – 2:30pm    LAC Riggs
This course presents an introduction to the field of pen-based computing from both the recognition and the human-computer interface perspective. Students will analyze and implement a number of state-of-the-art sketch recognition algorithms including feature-based, vision-based, and spatiotemporal approaches. Students will work on Tablet PCs to implement these algorithms and to design and test pen-based interfaces that use them.

Engineering

ENGR079L HM 01 Introduction to Energy & Environmental Issues*
Tanenbaum    TR 2:45-4:00pm    VN 100 (Scripps)
Lab arranged
This course is intended for students who wish to learn about the use of energy and its impact on the environment both in the US and globally. The course covers past and current practices and policies as well as technologies that are now available that could have a major impact on energy use in the near future. The course includes a focus on three major policy issues for the US:

Ways to reduce our dependence on imported oil and natural gas
The options to meet future demand for electricity
The effects of energy use on global warming and on air and water quality.

* This course does not fulfill HMC Engineering major technical elective

ENGR168A HM 01 Optical Communications
Yang TR 2:45 – 4:00pm PA 1285

ENGR168B HM 01 Analysis of Coplex Dynamical Systems
DiMaggio TR 1:15 – 2:30pm TG 101

Humanities and Social Sciences

ANTH110 HM 01 Life: Knowledge, Belief and Cultural Practices
De Laet    TR 1:15 – 2:30pm    TG 206
An exploration of cultural attitudes toward life and the human body: from Melanesian origin myths to the human genome project; from the first autopsies to cloning and genetic manipulation; from early body snatchings to the trade in bodies and body parts in the global economy. The question of what constitutes life is subject to controversy, and reveals cultural differences in practices, knowledges and beliefs. This course aims to help students develop a sophisticated and informed attitude toward cultural difference.

ART179 HM 01 Workshop in Hand Press Printing
Groves    Arranged    CU-HD H109
Students learn the basic vocabulary and practices of typesetting and typography, how to print on an iron hand press, and basic techniques for designing a printed pamphlet. Because of equipment limitations, this 1.5 unit course is restricted to four students. Permission of instructor required.

ECON103 HM 01 Great Economists
Evans    MWF 10:00 – 10:50am    PA 1264
A detailed survey course of the thinking and writing of a selection of individual economists who have contributed to modern economic theory. They might include Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Alfred Marshall, John M. Keynes, Karl Marx, Thorstein Veblen, and other economists of equivalent stature. Books written by these authors were very influential – they all had a profound impact upon popular opinion and politics – and if it can be argued that ideas influence history, they probably had a considerable impact upon the course taken by history over the last two centuries. I want to give you some exposure to these ideas in their original form and to trace the relationship between these old ideas to their modern counterparts. Short essays will be assigned about the individual texts and you will be asked to write a research paper based upon economic writing from the classical period.

HIST179 HM 01 Food and the American Culture
Barron    T 2:45 – 5:15pm    PA 1264
An interdisciplinary exploration of the importance of food in American society and culture. We will consider the causes and consequences of different forms of agriculture and food production as well as the changing dimensions and significance of its consumption. We will focus on the dynamics of ethnic food and regional cuisine in both minority and majority communities and look at how foodways are important components of cultural preservation as well as acculturation and integration into the mainstream. The course will feature a variety of sources and approaches ranging from traditional scholarly analyses to more hands-on experiences doing field research, cooking, and eating.

MS 127 HM 01 Harmony of Sound and Light
Alves    F 1:15 – 4:15pm    JA B132
Speculation about connections between the visual and aural senses goes back to antiquity, but technology has provided tools to explore these connections as a new art form in ways unimagined by early speculators such as Newton and Goethe. This course will introduce the striking arts of abstract light and color, sometimes known as “visual music”, from early “color organs”, to musical theories of abstract artists, masters of the non-objective film animation such as Oskar Fischinger, early computer animators such as John Whitney, to 21st-century VJs. However, the emphasis in this class will be on the aesthetic background to this history and its application in students’ own creative projects.
Prerequisite: CSCI005 or equivalent experience coding on computers.
http://www2.hmc.edu/~alves/ms127.html

MS 170 HM 01 Digital Cinema
Mayeri    T 2:45 – 4:00pm    TG 208;   R 2:45 – 4:00pm    PA B144
Digital Cinema is a intermediate/advanced video course, exploring the creative potential of digital video techniques, such as compositing, animation, and motion graphics. Students develop digital projects and participate in critiques. Lectures, discussions, and screenings enhance students’ exposure to art and cinema.

MS 179 HM 01 Science and Visual Culture
Mayeri    T 6:00 – 9:00pm    JA B132;   W 1:15 – 2:30pm    PA 1264
The visualization of science can be imaginative and artful, conducive to thinking through an idea, or stimulating curiosity. Scientific instruments can make the invisible visible: diagnosing illness and surveying subterranean oil fields. Visual representations of science can communicate ideas to the public, in the form of documentaries and museum exhibits, animation, and advertising. Visual displays of scientific knowledge can be spectacular and persuasive, but should we always believe what we see? In this course we will employ cultural theory to explore the various functions of scientific imagery in society.

POST179 HM 01 Political Arabic Language and the Middle East
Daoud    MW 11:00am – 12:15pm    LAC Riggs
This course will enable students to gain the necessary tools to comprehend the fundamental elements of modern Arabic, especially the political, cultural terms in Arabic that is used in broadcast and print media. It will also enable students to understand and express themselves in with Arabic political terminology. While this course is an intermediate class, beginners are welcomed since the first meetings will be focused in establishing the basic language foundations.

POST179 HM 02 The Israeli-Arab Conflict
Daoud    W 2:45 – 5:30pm    LAC Riggs
This course will provide a historical and political background that created the ongoing Israeli-Arab conflict. While giving a comprehensive historical overview of the conflict, the course will concentrate on recent developments and on the main obstacles for resolving the conflict. The main topics will include: the Palestinian–Israeli conflict; the Israeli occupation; the peace process; the intifadas of 1987 and 2000; the Arab minority in Israel; gender politics; and the six Arab-Israeli wars, with a focus on the war of 2006. The course will present different perspectives of the conflict and expose the students to one of the most important conflicts in the 20th and 21st centuries. An important aspect of the course will be to situate the conflict in the context of the wider Middle East, regional, and global politics.

SOSC179 HM 01 Social Control and Surveillance
Marx    TR 9:35 – 10:50am    PA 1264

STS185 HM 01 Science and Engineering from an “Other” Perspective
Olson    F 1:15 – 4:00pm    PA 1264
An exploration of how science and technology have been and are viewed by representatives of groups which have felt excluded from and/or exploited through scientific and technological practices, especially women, people of color, and underclasses both within the U.S. and globally. Part of this exploration will focus on why relatively few women, members of some ethnic groups, and persons in the developing world have participated in STEM disciplines and on questions of whether there are features of scientific and engineering institutions, practices, and attitudes that have encouraged and continue to encourage or amplify sexist, racist, and imperialist behaviors.

Integrative Experience (IE)

IE 162 HM 01 Beyond Calculation
Erlinger    MW 4:15 – 5:30pm    JA B134
The course will look at the use of computers in the developing world. Various technical issues will be investigated, e.g., how to set up a wireless network in the plains of Africa and how to distribute materials to areas without Internet connectivity. Also, societal issues will be investigated, e.g., what use can an indigenous community make of computers. Recently a $100 laptop has been created and made available. This machine will be investigated in usability and in technical performance.

IE 179 HM 01 Topics in Sustainability
Steinberg    T 12:10 – 1:00pm    PA 1264    (1.5 units)
This course provides an opportunity for students to design and pursue independent projects on the social dimensions of environmental problems. Projects will foster an understanding of the interdependence of social, environmental, and technical issues in an area of the student’s choosing. Students have the option of including an experiential component in their project, and all projects will include substantial engagement with scholarly literatures in the social sciences. This course will run throughout the year, with 1.5 units assigned each semester. Completion of both semesters will fulfill the HMC integrative experience requirement. Class sessions will be devoted to discussions of key readings identified by students, student presentations, and guest speakers. This course will include a significant amount of one-on-one meetings with the professor to facilitate independent student research.

IE 179 HM 02 Gender and Computer Games
Sweedyk    TR 2:45 – 4:00pm    LAC CLab
The course provides elementary instruction and practice in computer game design, paired with training and exercise in the methods of cultural analysis of gender. In the first part of the course, you will play games, observe others playing games, then analyze if and how gameplay varies by gender. In the second part of the course, you will plan and execute an experiment on the gendered nature of player experience. To do this you must develop a simple computer game designed to expose such gender differences. You will build the game using a framework we provide. In the remainder of the course you will use your new insights on gender and gameplay to conceive and design computer game that acts as social critique with respect to gender.

IE 179 HM 03 Approaches to Leadership
Prag    TR 2:45 - 4:00pm    BK B126

IE 179 HM 04 Mathematical Models for Education
Castro/Martonosi    TR 1:15 - 2:30pm    TG 201
In this course, students will explore the question: “What is the value of an education?” The students will examine existing mathematical models of education and critically examine the influence political and societal forces have on the types of models pursued. Various types of models will be discussed, touching on potential impacts of education on health, democracy, economic growth, future earnings, and on the costs, both individual and societal. Articles will also be selected to debate the extendibility of such models to other cultures, including developing nations and subcultures of the US, and time periods. Throughout the course, the modeling process will be more heavily emphasized than the mathematical components of the models studied. By process, we are referring to the stages of formulating a policy question based on societal undercurrents, designing an appropriate experiment, creating the mathematical model to explain the results of the experiment, qualitatively assessing the model’s explanatory power and critically examining the fundamental assumptions made by the model. Students will learn how models can be used to illuminate difficult issues, such as evaluating alternative forms of education or assessing the costs of education, as well as gain an appreciation for the limitations of models in describing complex systems.

STS185 HM 01 Science and Engineering from an “Other” Perspective
Olson    F 1:15 – 4:00pm    PA 1264
An exploration of how science and technology have been and are viewed by representatives of groups which have felt excluded from and/or exploited through scientific and technological practices, especially women, people of color, and underclasses both within the U.S. and globally. Part of this exploration will focus on why relatively few women, members of some ethnic groups, and persons in the developing world have participated in STEM disciplines and on questions of whether there are features of scientific and engineering institutions, practices, and attitudes that have encouraged and continue to encourage or amplify sexist, racist, and imperialist behaviors.

Mathematics

MATH189 HM 01 Morse Theory
Castro/Jacobsen    MWF 9:00 – 9:50am    ON B143
Using topological methods based on homology and cohomology theories, the solvability of non-linear boundary value problems is given. The boundary value problems under consideration have variational structure that allows for finding solutions in terms of critical points.

MATH189 HM 02 Topics in Discrete Mathematics
Pippenger    MW 2:45 – 4:00pm    BK B134
Discrete mathematics enjoyed tremendous growth during the second half of the twentieth century. This growth was fueled by opportunities for applications in the fields of communication and computation, which were themselves expanding enormously during this period. But it was also aided by increasing interplay between discrete mathematics and other areas of mathematics, such as algebra, geometry, probability theory and harmonic analysis. This course will tour some of these developments in discrete mathematics, including detailed examination of some of the more accessible topics (such as error-correcting codes), and at least a remote view of some of the pinnacles of discrete mathematics (such as the work of Robertson and Seymour on graph minors). Mathematics 55 (Discrete Mathematics) is the only prerequisite; the bits of algebra, probability theory, etc. that we need will be developed from scratch. The topics covered in this course will be disjoint from those in Mathematics 106 (Combinatorics; both courses can be taken simultaneously if desired.

MATH189 HM 03 Delay Differential Equations
Milton    TR 12:00-1:15pm    BK B134

MATH189 HM 04 Continuum Mechanics and Fluid Dynamics
Bernoff/Lyzenga    MW 2:45-4:00pm    TG 101
This course is an introduction to Tensors, Continuum Mechanics and Fluid Dynamics. The course will begin with an introduction to tensors, their properties and analysis and their uses in describing continuous media including the ideas of stress and strain. We will then derive equations describing conservation of mass, momentum and energy in elastic media. These equations will be used to analyze linear waves in elastic media (which find application in seismology). We will specialize to the particular case of fluid mechanics, and in particular the Navier-Stokes equation. Finally we will talk about some classical fluid dynamical applications such as waves on the surface of a fluid. Prerequisites: MATH115 or MATH180 or permission of the instructor. (Cross-listed as PHYS178 HM 04)

Physics

PHYS178 HM 01 Continuum Mechanics and Fluid Dynamics
Lyzenga/Bernoff    MW 2:45-4:00pm    TG 101
This course is an introduction to Tensors, Continuum Mechanics and Fluid Dynamics. The course will begin with an introduction to tensors, their properties and analysis and their uses in describing continuous media including the ideas of stress and strain. We will then derive equations describing conservation of mass, momentum and energy in elastic media. These equations will be used to analyze linear waves in elastic media (which find application in seismology). We will specialize to the particular case of fluid mechanics, and in particular the Navier-Stokes equation. Finally we will talk about some classical fluid dynamical applications such as waves on the surface of a fluid. Prerequisites: MATH115 or MATH180 or permission of the instructor