2025 Summer Session Course Offerings

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.

Registration begins Monday March 24, 2025

Session I: Begins May 27, 2025

✱ Satisfies HMC HSA writing-intensive requirement

† instructor approval required for high school students

†† not open to high school students

Session II: Begins June 16, 2025

Session III: Begins July 7, 2025

3-Week Courses

July 7–July 25

(HMC Students can register on the portal by searching for session SU H5 2025)

Remote Course

• CSCI035 HM: Computer Science for Insight

Course Descriptions

AMST179A – Race, Gender, and Class (through Star Trek)

Instructor: David Seitz – 3 credits

This course will use a historical survey of the Star Trek science fiction franchise as a point of departure and return for understanding influential, challenging texts in Marxist, critical-race, postcolonial, feminist, queer, affect, and other domains of social and cultural theory, and for examining the contradictions of post-World War II U.S. cultures and politics. Whether we read Star Trek as a queer-feminist post-scarcity utopia, a patriarchal colonial fantasy, or both, it offers ample allegorical resources for social critique and for imagining alternative futures. Familiarity with the Star Trek franchise is not a prerequisite.

Prerequisite: None.

Runs June 16 – July 3, 2025 (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 2025

ART179R HM – Outdoor Watercolor and Mixed Media

Instructor: Suzanne Fontaine – 3 credits

This is a hands-on studio course that will introduce you to basic watercolor materials and techniques useful for painting any subject matter. It will also provide a sampling of other media you can mix into your watercolor compositions. Geared to students with limited to no painting/watercolor experience, the course will develop your skill in observation, drawing, and watercolor painting, using a range of processes. Assignments will develop students’ technical and conceptual skills in visual media. You will paint from observation. The course will emphasize exploring the conversation between media and paper. You will be encouraged to experiment, play, creatively problem solve, push your thinking, and challenge your understanding of art. By the end of the course you will have produced many compositions and learned some basic design vocabulary, applicable to all art making. We will have a classroom home base but will do much of our actual painting outside. The course will include demos, critiques, reading and visual materials, and sketchbook practice

Prerequisite: None.

Materials Fee: $125

Runs May 27 – July 3, 2025 (6-week course). Class meets in-person Mondays and Wednesdays from 10:30 a.m. – 4:45 p.m. with a break between 12:00 – 1:15 p.m. plus an additional 4 asynchronous hours weekly.

Note: HMC students can register on the portal by searching for session SU H2 2025

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 27 – June 13, 2025 (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 2025

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.

• Section 01 runs May 27 – June 13, 2025 (3-week course). Class meets online Monday through Friday from 1:15 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
  • Note: HMC students can register for section 01 on the portal by searching for session SU H1 2025
• Section 02 runs from June 16 – July 3, 2025 (3-week course). Class meets online Monday through Friday from 1:15 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
  • Note: HMC students can register for section 02 on the portal by searching for session SU H3 2025

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 7 – July 25, 2025 (3-week course). Class meets online Monday through Friday from 1:15 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Note: HMC students can register on the portal by searching for session SU H5 2025

ENGR015 HM – Introduction to Aviation

Instructor: David Harris – 1 credit

Team project to build an experimental aircraft. The current project is a Vans RV12is two-seat light sport aircraft fabricated primarily from sheet metal and pop rivets, with a 100 horsepower Rotax engine and Garmin VFR avionics.

Prerequisites: None.

Runs May 27 – June 13, 2025 (3-week course). Class meets in-person Monday through Thursday from 6:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.

Note: HMC students can register on the portal by searching for session SU H1 2025

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: CHEM42 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 27 – July 3, 2025 (6-week course). Class meets online Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 5:30 p.m. – 8:25 p.m. and Thursdays from 5:30 p.m. – 6:45 p.m.

Note: HMC students can register on the portal by searching for session SU H2 2025

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. Course not open to high school students.

Runs May 27 – July 3, 2025 (6-week course). Class meets online Mondays and Wednesdays from 5:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

Note: HMC students can register on the portal by searching for session SU H2 2025

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 27 – July 3, 2025 (6-week course). Class meets online Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. plus one additional Friday (TBD)

Note: HMC students can register on the portal by searching for session SU H2 2025

MATH049G HM – Late Transcendental Calculus of a Single Variable

Instructor: Dagan Karp – 1.5 credits

Topics include Differential and Integral Calculus and Taylor series, including Epsilon-delta limits, limit laws, continuity, the Intermediate Value Theorem, the derivative, rules of differentiation including the chain rule, the Mean Value Theorem, Riemann sums, Riemann integration, the Mean Value Theorem of Integrals, the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, Taylor Series, Radius of Convergence, the Complex Plane, Complex Derivatives and Integrals.

Prerequisites: One year course in calculus.

Runs from May 27 – June 13, 2025 (3-week course). Class meets online Monday through Friday from 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Note: HMC students can register on the portal by searching for session SU H3 2025

MATH055 HM – Discrete Mathematics (3 week)

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 27 – June 13, 2025 (3-week course). Class meets online Monday through Friday from 1:15 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Note: HMC students can register on the portal by searching for session SU H1 2025

MATH055 HM – Discrete Mathematics (6 week)

Instructor: Francis Su – 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 27 – July 3, 2025 (6-week course). Class meets online Monday, Wednesday & Friday from 8:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.

Note: HMC students can register on the portal by searching for session SU H2 2025

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 27 – July 3, 2025 (6-week course). Class meets in-person* Tuesday and Thursday from 8:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

*online option available

Note: HMC students can register on the portal by searching for session SU H2 2025

MATH082 HM – Differential Equations

Instructors: Darryl Yong and Jon Jacobsen – 3 credits

Modeling physical systems, first-order ordinary differential equations, existence, uniqueness, and long-term behavior of solutions; bifurcations; approximate solutions; second-order ordinary differential equations and their properties, applications; first-order systems of ordinary differential equations. Applications to linear systems of ordinary differential equations, matrix exponential; nonlinear systems of differential equations; equilibrium points and their stability. Additional topics.

Prerequisites: (MATH019 HM and MATH073 HM) or equivalent. Course not open to high school students unless approved by the instructor.

Runs May 27 – July 3, 2025 (6-week course). Class meets online Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday (and some Wednesdays*) from 10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.

*The course will meet 4 days per week, typically on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Due to holidays, the course will also meet the following Wednesdays: 5/28, 6/18 and 7/2.

Note: HMC students can register on the portal by searching for session SU H2 2025

PHIL179E HM – Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence

Instructor: Kyle Thompson – 3 credits

Artificial intelligence is a hot topic. It is depicted in sci-fi films and fiction, in worries and excitement about self-driving cars and chatbots, and in discussion about rights for future robotic systems. In this course, students explore the philosophical ideas that give life to AI debates. First, the course examines the nature of AI itself. What is the difference between learning and programming, or between genuine understanding and its counterfeits? Can consciousness arise in human-made machines? Second, the course interrogates the looming ethical concerns: what do we owe to AI systems? Do AI systems undermine or enhance human social life?

Prerequisite: None

Runs June 16 – July 25, 2025 (6-week course). Class meets online Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Note: HMC students can register on the portal by searching for session SU H4 2025

PHYS084 HM – Quantum Information

Instructor: Theresa Lynn – 3 credits

Quantum computation and communication. Fundamentals of discrete-state quantum mechanics as appropriate for quantum information science. Possible topics include universal logic gates for quantum computing, quantum computing algorithms, quantum error correction, quantum cryptography and communication, adiabatic quantum computing, and hardware platforms for quantum computation and communication.

Prerequisite: PHYS024 HM, (CSCI005 HM or CSCI005GR HM or CSCI042 HM), and MATH073 HM or equivalent.

Runs May 27 – July 3, 2025 (6-week course). Class meets online Mondays and Wednesdays from 2:45 p.m. – 4:45 p.m. plus an asynchronous 75 minute lecture

Note: HMC students can register on the portal by searching for session SU H2 2025

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 27 – June 13, 2025 (3-week course). Class meets online Monday through Friday from 9:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.

Note: HMC students can register on the portal by searching for session SU H1 2025

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: None.

Runs May 27 – July 3, 2025 (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 2025

SOSC150 HM – Public Speaking For Science and Citizenship

Instructor: Paul Steinberg – 3 credits

This course builds student speaking skills in three areas: communicating advanced topics in science and technology to non-specialists; speaking out on questions of politics and values; and engaging the intersection of the two through presentations on technically intensive social controversies.

Prerequisite: None.

Runs May 27 – July 3, 2025 (6-week course). Class meets in-person Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 1:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Note: HMC students can register on the portal by searching for session SU H2 2025

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