2026 Summer Session Course Offerings

HMC Summer Session Begins May 26, 2026

Courses and course schedules are subject to change. Students should consult with their home college registrar to determine transferability.

Harvey Mudd reserves the right to cancel a class at any time. In the event a class is canceled, students have the option of selecting an alternate class or receiving a full refund.

Summer courses require a much larger time commitment due to their compressed nature. Students should expect the daily workload for a three credit, 3-week course to be the equivalent of a 15 credit course load during a traditional semester. Students enrolled in a three credit, 3-week course may not be enrolled in any other course concurrently. Students may take up to two (2) three credit, 6-week courses at the same time and a maximum of three (3) total HMC Summer Session courses.

Registration begins Monday March 2, 2026

Session I: Begins May 26, 2026

✱ Satisfies HMC HSA writing-intensive requirement

† Instructor approval required for high school students

†† Course not open to high school students

Session II: Begins June 15, 2026

✱ Satisfies HMC HSA writing-intensive requirement

† Instructor approval required for high school students

Session III: Begins July 6, 2026

Course Descriptions

ASAM125 AA – Introduction to Asian American History, 1850-Present

Instructor: Alfred Flores – 3 credits

This survey course examines the history of Asian immigrant groups and their American-born descendants as they have settled and adjusted to life in the United States since 1850. We will explore issues such as the experience of immigration, daily life in urban ethnic enclaves, and racist campaigns against Asian immigrants. In addition, this course utilizes an ethnic studies framework that requires students to critically explore other themes such as class, community, empire, gender, labor, race, sexuality, settler colonialism, and war from the perspective of Asian Americans.

Prerequisite: Course not open to high school students.

Runs May 26, 2026 through June 12, 2026 (3-week course). Class meets online Monday through Thursday from 8:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Note: HMC students can register on the portal by searching for session SU H1 2026

CLES049B HM – Introduction to the Science of Global Climate Change

Instructor: Lelia Hawkins – 3 credits

An introductory course on the principles of the chemical and physical basis of human-caused global climate change, including direct evidence from paleoclimate archives and model projections for future climate conditions. The course begins with a review of fundamental chemistry and physics necessary to understand the greenhouse effect and explores impacts of climate change on human and earth systems, including ocean acidification. Includes discussion of written works addressing climate policy and climate change skepticism and recent findings from behavioral science on climate change engagement.

Prerequisite: None.

Runs June 15 – July 24, 2026 (6-week course). Class meets online Tuesday and Thursday from 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Note: HMC students can register on the portal by searching for session SU H4 2026

CSCI005 HM – Introduction to Computer Science

Instructor: Zach Dodds – 3 credits

Introduction to elements of computer science. Students learn computational problem-solving techniques and gain experience with the design, implementation, testing, and documentation of programs in a high-level language. In addition, students learn to design digital devices, understand how computers operate, and learn to program in a small machine language. Students are also exposed to ideas in computability theory. The course also integrates societal and ethical issues related to computer science.

Prerequisite: None

Note to 5C and HS students: Students hoping to take additional CS courses or pursue a CS at Mudd are encouraged to review the relevant information on the computer science webpage for off-campus students.

Runs June 15 – July 2, 2026 (3-week course). Class meets online Monday through Friday from 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Note: HMC students can register on the portal by searching for session SU H3 2026

CSCI035 HM – Computer Science for Insight

Instructor: Zach Dodds – 3 credits

This course extends CSCI005 HM in developing software-composition skills. Pairing lectures and lab sessions, the experience will deepen foundations in algorithms and data structures, introduce machine learning and its mindset, weigh tradeoffs between human- and machine-efficiency, and build sophistication in software, both assembling existing software packages and from-scratch design. Students will deploy and assess computing projects of their own design – with substantive application beyond CS itself – as the course’s final capstone. The course continues in the language of CSCI005 HM and especially encourages computing efforts which contribute to fields of interest beyond CS, whether academic or extracurricular.

Prerequisite: CSCI005 HM or CSCI005GR HM or equivalent background

Runs July 6 – July 24, 2026 (3-week course). Class meets online Class meets online Monday through Friday from 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Note: HMC students can register on the portal by searching for session SU H5 2026

CSCI158 HM – Machine Learning

Instructor: David Bachman – 3 credits

Machine learning is concerned with the study and development of systems that learn patterns in data. This course introduces the most common problems in the field and the techniques used to tackle these problems, with a focus on supervised and unsupervised learning. Concepts include mathematical foundations and algorithmic approaches.

Prerequisite:  CSCI005 HM and MATH073 HM

Runs June 15 – July 2, 2026 (3-week course). Class meets online Monday through Thursday from 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Note: HMC students can register on the portal by searching for session SU H3 2026

ENGR004 HM – Introduction to Engineering Design and Manufacturing

Instructor: Steve Trank – 4 credits

Design problems are, typically, open-ended and ill-structured. Students work in small teams applying techniques for solving design problems that are, normally, posed by not-for-profit clients. The project work is enhanced with lectures and reading on design theory and methods, and introduction to manufacturing techniques, project management techniques and engineering ethics.

Prerequisite: WRIT001 HM or equivalent

Corequisite: PHYS024 HM or equivalent

Runs May 26 – July 2, 2026 (6-week course). Class meets in-person Monday through Friday from 10:00 – 11:15 a.m., and from 1:00 – 2:15 p.m. on all days except Wednesday afternoons.

Please see Summer E4 for important information, deadlines and registration information.

Note: HMC students can register on the portal by searching for session SU H2 2026.

ENGR086 HM – Materials Engineering

Instructor: Albert Dato – 3 credits

Introduction to the structure, properties, and processing of materials used in engineering applications. Topics include: material structure (bonding, crystalline and non-crystalline structures, imperfections); equilibrium microstructures; diffusion, nucleation, growth, kinetics, non-equilibrium processing; microstructure, properties and processing of: steel, ceramics, polymers and composites; creep and yield; fracture mechanics; and the selec­tion of materials and appropriate performance indices.

Prerequisites: CHEM042 HM, MATH019 HM, MATH073 HM, and PHYS024 HM, or equivalents (one year of general chemistry and one semester each of calculus, linear algebra, and mechanics, respectively.) High school students interested in taking the course should have completed AP-level coursework in chemistry, calculus, and physics (mechanics).

Runs May 26 – July 2, 2026 (6-week course). Class meets online Tuesday and Thursday from 5:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

Note: HMC students can register on the portal by searching for session SU H2 2026

GEOG105 HM – Place, Power, and Difference

Instructor: David Seitz – 3 credits

This course introduces students to social and cultural approaches to space and spatiality. It explores how cultural geography can open up understandings of race, class, gender, sexuality, and other modes of social difference and power. The course critically engages a number of key concepts – space, place, scale, intersectionality, performativity, and orientalism – in leading intellectual debates about place, power, and difference. It will help students develop an awareness of how processes of identity and community formation are inherently spatial, and the significance of the work of social and cultural cultural geographers to political and intellectual struggles around difference.

Does not satisfy HMC HSA writing-intensive requirement.

Prerequisite: None.

Runs June 15 – July 2, 2026 (3-week course). Class meets online Monday through Thursday from 6:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. in addition to 2 hours per week asynchronous instruction.

Note: HMC students can register on the portal by searching for session SU H3 2026

HIST150 HM – Technology and Medicine

Instructor: Vivien Hamilton – 3 credits

This course explores the increasingly technological nature of medicine in the 19th and 20th centuries, investigating the impact of new technologies on diagnostic practices, categories of disease, doctors’ professional identities, and patients’ understanding of their own bodies. Technologies studied include the stethoscope, electrotherapy devices, X-rays, ultrasound, and MRI.

Satisfies HMC HSA writing-intensive requirement.

Prerequisite: HSA010 or equivalent.

Runs June 15 – July 24, 2026 (6-week course). Class meets online Tuesday and Thursday from 6:00 p.m. – 8:15 p.m. in addition to 2 hours per week asynchronous instruction.

Note: HMC students can register on the portal by searching for session SU H4 2026

LIT035 – Fiction Workshop

Instructor: Salvador Plascencia – 3 credits

This course is designed as an introductory workshop focusing on the writing of fiction and the discourse of craft. Through the examination of a variety of literary traditions, stylistic and compositional approaches, and the careful reading and editing of peer stories, students will strengthen their prose and develop a clearer understanding of their own literary values and the dynamics of fiction.

Satisfies HMC HSA writing-intensive requirement.

Prerequisite: None.

Runs May 26 – July 2, 2026 (6-week course). Class meets in-person Monday and Wednesday from 5:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Note: HMC students can register on the portal by searching for session SU H2 2026

MATH055 HM – Discrete Mathematics

Instructor: Dagan Karp – 3 credits

Topics include combinatorics (clever ways of counting things), number theory, and graph theory with an emphasis on creative problem solving and learning to read and write rigorous proofs. Possible applications include probability, analysis of algorithms, and cryptography.

Corequisites: MATH073 HM or equivalent.

Runs from May 26 – July 2, 2026 (6-week course). Class meets online Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

Note: HMC students can register on the portal by searching for session SU H2 2026

MATH062 HM – Introduction to Probability and Statistics

Instructor: Susan Martonosi – 3 credits

Sample spaces, events, axioms for probabilities; conditional probabilities and Bayes’ theorem; random variables and their distributions, discrete and continuous; expected values, means and variances; covariance and correlation; law of large numbers and central limit theorem; point and interval estima­tion; hypothesis testing; simple linear regression; applications to analyzing real data sets. Possible additional topics include ANOVA, multiple regression, and logistic regression.

Prerequisites: MATH019 HM or equivalent.

Corequisites: MATH073 HM or equivalent.

Runs from May 26 – July 2, 2025 (6-week course). Class meets in-person (online option available) Tuesday and Thursday from 8:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Note: HMC students can register on the portal by searching for session SU H2 2026

MUS118 HM – Music in the United States

Instructor: Charles Kamm – 3 credits

A survey of the history and development of music in the United States, this course examines the diverse musical cultures and traditions, including Native American, European, African, Latin American, Asian, and other musics that have come to this country and have influenced the work of musicians and composers in the United States. Musical examples from American popular culture (including jazz, rock, country, and pop), from religious practices of various denominations and sects, from ethnic groups and folk cultures within the United States, from musical theater, and from concert art music in the United States are studied as artistic expressions, as reflections of important concerns and values in our society, and as influences on music in other countries.

Prerequisite: None.

Runs May 26, 2026 through June 12, 2026 (3-week course). Class meets online Monday through Thursday from 5:30 p.m – 9:00 p.m.

Note: HMC students can register on the portal by searching for session SU H1 2026

PHIL179F HM – AI and Ethics

Instructor: Kyle Thompson – 3 credits

AI creates unprecedented opportunities and challenges for human beings seeking to live good lives. If used wisely, AI can benefit many domains of human social life, including science, business, medicine, art, transportation, government, and more. However, if used naively or maliciously, AI can amplify social injustice through algorithmic bias, it can be weaponized by people with harmful political purposes, and it can contribute to a technological culture that undermines human values and self-determination. And when AI is in the driver’s seat—both figuratively and literally in the case of autonomous vehicles—who shoulders the responsibility when things go wrong? Increasingly, humans must grapple with whether to view AI systems as moral agents and patients that deserve rights, moral consideration, or compassion. In this course, students will learn about multiple ethical frameworks before applying them to a variety of case studies and important questions relating to AI. Through reading, writing, and discussion, students will emerge from this course with a deeper appreciation of the landscape of possibilities presented by integrating AI systems into the beautiful messiness of the human world. 

Prerequisite: None

Runs June 15 – July 24, 2026 (6-week course). Class meets online Monday and Wednesday from 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Note: HMC students can register on the portal by searching for session SU H4 2026

POST188 HM – Political Innovation

Instructor: Paul Steinberg – 3 credits

Under what conditions do novel political ideas become realities? This course explores the origins and impacts of political innovations large and small—from the framing of the Constitution to the development of major social policies, the creation and reform of government agencies and non-profit organizations, and experimentation with new forms of social protest and political mobilization.

Satisfies HMC HSA writing-intensive requirement.

Prerequisite: None. Course not open to high school students.

Runs May 26 – July 2, 2026 (6-week course). Class meets online Monday and Wednesday from 6:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.

Note: HMC students can register on the portal by searching for session SU H2 2026

PSYC108 HM – Introduction to Social Psychology

Instructor: Anup Gampa – 3 credits

Social psychology is the scientific study of how people’s thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and behaviors are influenced by other people, imagined or real, and the world around them. We will begin the course by covering the basics of scientific methodology and proceed to topics such as the self-concept, stereotyping and prejudice, close relationships, aggression, persuasion, conformity and liberation psychology. In general, this course will introduce you to the theories and research methodologies of social psychology and how these are used to understand, predict, and even control social behavior, with special attention paid to connecting social psychology to liberation.

Prerequisite: None.

Runs May 26 – July 2, 2026 (6-week course). Class meets online Tuesday and Thursday from 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Note: HMC students can register on the portal by searching for session SU H2 2026

RLST113 HM – God, Darwin, Design in America: A Historical Survey of Religion and Science

Instructor: Erika Dyson – 3 credits

Course examines the relationships between science and religion in the United States from the early 19th century to the present. Starting with the Natural Theologians, who made science the “handmaid of theology” in the early Republic, we will move forward in time through the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species and Andrew Dickson White’s subsequent declaration of a war between science and religion, into the 20th century with the Scopes trial and the rise of Creationism, the evolutionary synthesis, and finally the recent debates over the teaching of Intelligent Design in public schools.

Satisfies HMC HSA writing-intensive requirement.

Prerequisite: Course not open to high school students.

Runs May 26 – July 2, 2026 (6-week course). Class meets online Tuesday and Thursday from 5:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Note: HMC students can register on the portal by searching for session SU H2 2026

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