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Lasers have had an enormous impact on communications, medicine, remote sensing, and material processing. This course reviews the properties of light that are essential to understanding the underlying principles of lasers and these photonic technologies. There also is a strong, hands-on laboratory component in which the students build and operate a nitrogen laser and participate in several demonstration experiments such as holography, laser processing of materials, optical tweezers, and fiber optics.

Introduction to the problems and methods of operations research and information engineering focusing on problem areas (including inventory, network design, and resource allocation), the situations in which these problems arise, and several standard solution techniques. In the computational laboratory, students encounter problem simulations and use some standard commercial software packages.

Chemical and biomolecular engineering (ChemE) is central to how we produce, store, and consume food. Learn the principles and practices of chemical engineering through a tasty, hands-on approach to process and product design. This course introduces key concepts and tools in ChemE including process flow diagrams, unit operations, materials and energy balances, phase equilibria, and scale-up. These concepts will be applied in design projects that leverage the use of quantitative methods to support design decisions and balance considerations of product quality, economics, safety, and environmental issues in food products. The course will also explore career pathways in ChemE to understand the wide range of what chemical engineers do in practice.

Course introduces concepts and tools required for the sustainable management of energy, water, soil, and air resources in our modern society. Semester is organized into four modules, each concentrating on one resource area and including a case study of local or regional significance. Students work in teams to address sustainability problems that arise in the case studies. Each module also includes presentations of technical approaches used in environmental engineering analyses. Project teams will be expected to apply those methods in their case study evaluations and management proposals. Technical approaches include life cycle analysis, mass balance computations, and mathematical modeling of pollutant dynamics in the environment.

New technologies are urgently needed to fulfill projected global energy requirements. Materials properties typically limit the performance that can be achieved in generation, transport, and utilization of energy. This course will explore how new materials can increase our energy supply, facilitate transportation of energy, and decrease consumption. Materials issues in photovoltaic, fuel cell, battery, transportation, lighting, and building technologies will be studied.

A hands-on introduction to structural engineering, combining classroom demonstrations and presentations with laboratory experience. Students predict hurricane wind forces and design key elements in a high-rise building to resist those forces. Students design a residential wood-deck based on laboratory tests to stretch, compress, shear, split, and bend wooden specimens. Students build brick walls and fail them under simulated hurricane and tornado wind pressures, weld steel bars and pull them apart, and forensically examine the failures. Students use software to analyze and design steel truss bridges, and become proficient at using spreadsheets to perform routine structural calculations and graph the results. Students become familiar with structural concrete by designing, building and testing small-scale reinforced-concrete frames to resist large dynamic forces.

Our current students are the first generation that will feel the impacts of climate change, and the last generation that can do anything about it. The dual objectives of this course are to inform young pre-professional engineers of the factual science in the nexus of climate change/fossil fuels/renewable energy, and to inspire them to dive into that nexus now, and to begin to do something about untangling it as engineers in practice. In this nexus are key issues for civil engineers: water quality/quantity, emissions, renewable energy supply and structures, civil infrastructure systems engineering, energy economics, sustainability in megacities.

Introduction to fundamentals of mechanical and aerospace engineering. Students learn and understand topics such as stress and strain, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, automotive engineering, and engineering design and product development. Emphasis is placed on critically examining problem solutions to begin developing engineering intuition. Key components of the class include in-class discussions, homework, laboratory experiments, and a group design project.

Our first human ancestors appeared only six million years ago--4.55 billion years into Earth's history. How did our planet develop the critical ingredients for human life-what are the characteristics that make our Pale Blue Dot suited to host complex life? Should we expect to find life elsewhere on other planets? How has human activity altered the story of the Earth, and what global challenges will Homo sapiens encounter in the coming years to decades? Can we devise and implement solutions to present and future environmental crises? In this course, we will investigate these questions through study of the formation and evolution of our universe, investigate the mechanisms that have led to intelligent life on Earth and quantify the impact of both natural and anthropogenic processes on Earth's changing surface. Students in this course will learn how to analyze and interpret scientific data and apply concepts like mass balance and convection to evaluate Earth as series of complex chemical and physical systems interacting over a breadth of scales.

Biomaterials exist at the intersection of biology and engineering. This course explores natural structural materials in the human body, their properties and microstructure, and their synthetic and semi-synthetic replacements. Bones, joints, teeth, tendons, and ligaments are used as examples, with their metal, plastic, and ceramic replacements. Topics covered include mechanical properties, corrosion, toxicity, and biocompatibility. Case studies of design lead to consideration of regulatory approval requirements and legal liability issues.

Lecture/laboratory course designed to introduce first-year students to some of the ideas and concepts of nanoscience and nanotechnology with stronger emphasis on nanobiotechnology in the spring semester. Topics include nanoscience and nanotechnology-what they are and why they are of interest; atoms and molecules; the solid state; surfaces; behavior of light and material particles when confined to nanoscale dimensions; scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM); microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) design; basic micromachining and chemical synthesis methods, i.e., top-down and bottom-up approaches to nanofabrication; how to manipulate structures on the nanoscale; physical laws and limits they place on the nanoworld; some far-out ideas. In the laboratory, students construct a simple STM to record atomic resolution images; learn through hands on experience the basic workings of an SEM; use a MEMS computer-aided design software package to model the entire manufacturing sequence of a simple MEMS device, examine the simulated behavior of the device and compare it with real behavior; investigate the optical properties of quantum dots and the unexpected properties of fluids that flow through narrow channels.

The organization of the computer system found within devices used in everyday living, such as smartphones and tablets. Computer systems are presented in a bottom up fashion, from bits to digital logic, computer organization, instruction sets, assembly language, and the connection to high-level languages. Discussion of the computing engines found in smart phones, tablets, and wearables.

Explores the science of natural hazards, their societal impacts, and means of mitigation. The focus is on earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunami, but hurricanes, severe weather, climate change, landslides, wildfires, and the threat of extinction from a future impact by an extraterrestrial body are also considered.

This course is intended for first-year students. A solid introduction to the entrepreneurial process to students in engineering. The main objective is to identify and to begin to develop skills in the engineering work that occurs in high-growth, high-tech ventures. Basic engineering management issues, including the entrepreneurial perspective, opportunity recognition and evaluation, and gathering and managing resources are covered. The fundamentals of supply and demand and other basic microeconomic terms are covered. Technical topics such as the engineering design process, product realization, and technology forecasting are discussed.

An introduction to the field of biomedical engineering with emphasis on application. Specific applications include biomechanics, bioimaging, bioinstrumentation, biotechnology/nanofabrication, artificial organs, cancer therapy and vaccines.

This course introduces the discipline that integrates biology with engineering. Students will explore how biological principles can be mimicked, harnessed, and interfaced to solve important societal problems at various scales. Topics include bioprocessing, wastewater, food production and processing, renewable energy, novel tools for improved health, and general biotechnology. Examples from bioprocessing applications, genetic engineering, and synthetic biology will be discussed, highlighting how biology can address societal and technological challenges.

Over the centuries, artists in a wide variety of media have employed many approaches to the creative process, ranging from the philosophical to the mechanical to the virtual. This course unravels some of the mysteries going on inside software used for art and music. It looks at ways of breaking things apart and sampling and ways of putting things together and resynthesizing, and explores ideas for creation. This course does not teach software packages for creating art and music. The course complements ART 2701 and MUSIC 1421.

Interdisciplinary survey course designed to introduce students in the creative arts, science, and engineering to the concepts of 2D and 3D digital pictorial representation and display. It is a concept course that concentrates on why rather than how. Topics include perspective representations, display technology, how television works, bandwidth concepts, digital photography, computer graphics modeling and rendering, color perception, 3D data acquisition, volumetric imaging, and historical precedents, primarily from the art world.