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First year discovery subjects

Fall 2020

  • 1.008 Engineering Solutions to Societal Challenges. (3 units)
    • Introduces societal-scale problems that span our built infrastructure and natural environment. Faculty members discuss case studies that highlight challenges and opportunities in the areas of smart cities, cyber-physical systems (transportation, electricity, and societal networks), sustainable resource management (land, water, and energy), and resilient design under the changing environment. Students study the use of data and computation in generating insights, and engage in practical laboratory sessions designed to promote critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
    • Taught by Professor Saurabh Amin.
  • 1.009 Climate Change. (3 units)
    • Provides an introduction to global climate change processes, drivers, and impacts. Offers exposure to exciting MIT research on climate change. Students explore why and how the world should solve this global problem and how they can contribute to the solutions. Students produce a mini-project on the topic.
    • Taught by Professor Elfatih Eltahir.
  • 4.001 Where and What is Architecture and Design? (3 units)
    • Introduces Architecture and Design through conversations and presentations with MIT architecture and design faculty and MIT alumni. Discusses the two undergraduate majors, two undergraduate minors, and two HASS concentrations offered through Course 4 along with careers in architecture and design.
    • Taught by Professor Paul Pettigrew.
  • 7.00 COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, and the Pandemic. (2 units)
    • Lectures by leading experts on the fundamentals of COVID-19 epidemiology, coronavirus and host cell biology, immunity, vaccine development, clinical disease and therapy.
    • Taught by Professor Richard Young.
  • 8.10 Exploring and Communicating Physics (and other) Frontiers. (2 units)
    • Features a series of 12 interactive sessions that span a wide variety of topics at the frontiers of science - e.g., quantum computing, dark matter, the nature of time - and encourage independent thinking. Discussions draw from the professor's published pieces in periodicals as well as short excerpts from his books. Also discusses, through case studies, the process of writing and re-writing.
    • Taught by Professor Frank Wilczek.