Spring 2023 Supplement and Course Offerings

CIE2223M: Curricular Innovation Prototype

Instructor(s): Sarah Spence Adams, Rob Martello, Mark Somerville

Credits: 4   Hours: 4-2-6

Registration Notes:

• To elect Design Depth credit: students must have taken Collaborative Design in a previous semester or register for this course AND Collaborative Design (co-requisites) this spring.
• Students must also enroll in one of two labs: CIE_MEE: Lab A: M 3:31pm-5:30pm or Lab B: W 3:31pm – 5:30pm

Course Description:  Would you thrive in an impact-centered course that allows you to dedicate your time to making a difference in the lives of adolescent learners? Are you concerned about inequities within educational systems and the lingering negative impacts of online/hybrid schooling? Could you light a fire of interest and increase confidence in students who aren’t yet excited about the power of mathematical thinking or engineering design? If you answered yes to any of these classes, please consider joining us in "K12 Outreach: Mathematics and Engineering for Everyone," a new impact-centered course wherein Olin students will design, develop, and deliver math/engineering workshops/activities in partnership with adolescent learners, primarily elementary school students. Our nearby partner schools and after-school organizations are still being finalized, and they are being chosen to ensure that our efforts will reach students from backgrounds that have been historically excluded from higher education and/or employment in STEM-related fields. Theories of educational design and human-centered design concepts will guide our work throughout the class.

Students enrolling in this course may elect 4 credits in any combination of MTH, ENGR, and/or AHS. The 4 credit ENGR option can count as a Design Depth for students who have taken or are taking (UO)CD. Credit allocations will be finalized mid-semester based on students' work. Students must enroll in a "lab" section Monday or Wednesdays 3:31-5:30pm, which is when students will often be traveling off campus to engage with younger learners. Due to traffic and other complications, students may get back to Olin slightly after 5:30pm but in time for 6pm classes. If you have a problem with a lab time, please contact sarah.adams@olin.edu.

CIE2223E: Curriculum Innovation Prototype

Instructor(s): Carrie Nugent, Claire Rodgers

Credits: 4   Hours: 4-0-8

Registration Notes:

• Open to all students. To elect Design Depth credit: students must have taken Collaborative Design in a previous semester or register for ECO AND Collaborative Design (co-requisites) this spring. Previous students can enroll again- this is a class that can be taken multiple times. First years cannot enroll for E:Sust Adv credit.

Course Description:  Did you know Olin is a major greenhouse gas polluter? Per capita, Olin emits more CO2 than other colleges. Let’s fix that! In ECO, you’ll learn how to calculate greenhouse gas emissions, where Olin’s emissions come from, and you’ll help reduce our emissions via a semester-long project. We welcome your questions! Email instructors Claire (Claire.Rodgers@olin.edu) and Carrie (cnugent@olin.edu).

CIE2223P: Curriculum Innovation Prototype

Instructor(s): Alessandra Ferzoco, Paul Ruvolo

Credits: 12   

Registration Notes:

• Students must also enroll in one of two labs: CIE_STEP: Lab A: MR 1:00pm-2:40pm or Lab B: TF 2:50pm-4:30pm; Experimental Grading

Course Description:  In STEP you’ll work alongside the teaching team (Paul Ruvolo and Alessandra Ferzoco, with special appearances by Sam Michalka) and community partners to create a wearable computing technology that is designed with purpose, privacy, aesthetics, and accessibility in mind. STEP is a part of Olin’s new impact centered educational model. We’ll be building on ideas and technology platforms developed in STEP 2022 and continuing to learn together how to design impact-centered courses. We hope you’ll consider joining us for the next phase of STEP technology development and this next phase of Olin’s educational model.

• STEP fulfills a flexible set of graduation requirements

• STEP is a part of Olin's new strategic plan

• We will explore tech, accessibility (engineering 4 everyone), and financial models

• Our project area of creating an augmented reality device for folks who are blind leverages smartphone hardware

  and existing apps (e.g., for navigation, object recognition, document reading) to reduce barriers and increase

  equity. We will also be creating our own apps and custom hardware.

• We are partnering with the Perkins School for the Blind's Innovation Center

• Folks who are blind will be involved in running the course and co-designing the technology

AHSE2199: Special Topics in Arts, Humanities and Social Science

Instructor(s): Gillian Epstein

Credits: 2   Hours: 4-0-8

Registration Notes:

• Session I

Course Description:  Wonder how to write an email to someone you don’t know on LinkedIn that will get a response?Cover letters making you run for cover? Wish your online bio did you justice? Want to write a business plan, application essay, or scholarship essay that makes your reader pay attention? Then come join an exciting new 6-week adventure focused on upping your game in day-to-day professional writing that can open doors and create connections. Each week will feature a fundamental and concrete professional writing challenge (emails, cover letters, bios...); specific writing skills and habits of mind that will make your writing stand out; a fun and focused writing assignment embedded in your real-world practice; and specific expertise and examples from one or more additional teaching partners, including Olin Alum and Trustee Lee Edwards, Vice President and Chief of Staff Lauren Taaffe, Library Director Callan Bignoli, and more! Come do the writing you know you need with the support you want!

AHSE2199A: Special Topics in Arts, Humanities and Social Science

Instructor(s): Rob Martello

Credits: 2 or 4   

Course Description:  “We shape our buildings; thereafter, they shape us.” - Winston Churchill, 1943. Engineering, science, technology, and math are fundamentally human endeavors, socially constructed and society-shaping. The mechanisms of this dialogue between humans, humanity, and the technical world are endlessly complex and eternally fascinating.

Each student in this course will select a technical course that you are concurrently taking, and you will explore that course (and the larger STEM discipline) through lenses such as its historical, ethical, environmental, and societal (political, economic...) contexts and implications. We will engage in common readings and projects intended to build a critical thinking toolkit for historical and contextual study, and students will also explore their chosen technical course individually or in small groups.

This is a first-time course offering and in taking it you will help to design and improve how it will operate in the future. This course represents a novel approach towards interdisciplinary integration: you get to choose the course we’ll connect with, and all of us will deepen the connection. Join the fun and let’s build something exciting!

AHSE2199B: Special Topics in Arts, Humanities and Social Science

Instructor(s): Gilda Barabino, Gillian Epstein, Leif Jentoft, Lawrence Neeley

Credits: 2   Hours: 3-0-3

Course Description:  In this 2-credit course, students will explore the stories of different approaches to marshaling the resources required to create impact, from startups to philanthropic endeavors to political activism. The course will be structured as a seminar, involving guest speakers and interactive case studies.

The faculty and the guest speakers will bring their personal experiences as well as their intellectual understanding of the issues to this discussion. Ultimately your learning from the course will draw on your ability to understand the principles that you can infer from the readings and speakers and on your ability to reflect on what those principles mean for you, your personal and professional development, and your career.

This course is about you, as much as it is about the concepts we discuss. Course activities will include reading, guest lectures from entrepreneurs, philanthropists, business leaders, group discussion and debate, and writing.

ENGR3499: Special Topics in Electrical & Computer Engineering

Instructor(s): Beat Arnet

Credits: 4   Hours: 4-4-4

Pre-requisites: ISIM   Co-requisites: Circuits

Course Description:  In this course, the student will learn the fundamentals of power electronics with a focus on different types of DC-DC converters. The theory is taught in a hands-on fashion through simulation-based analysis and lab work. Topics covered include power converter topologies, selection of power semiconductors, loss modeling, gate driver design, magnetics design, cycle-cycle current control, as well as debugging and testing techniques. Each student will design and realize a power converter, which entails schematic capture, board layout and the manufacture of a custom inductor or transformer.

ENGR3499A: Special Topics in Electrical & Computer Engineering

Instructor(s): Whitney Lohmeyer

Credits: 4   Hours: 3-0-9

Course Description:  This course provides students with the opportunity to learn about the multifaceted engineering discipline of satellite systems including both technical theory and policy surrounding most satellite systems. The primary technical areas covered are orbital mechanics and satellite communications design (link budgets, availability, propagation impacts). To gain insight into the policy and regulatory hurdles the satellite industry faces, students will also dive into orbital debris mitigation (understanding the legalities, or lack thereof, of launching and deorbiting spacecraft) and spectrum management (licensing spacecraft through the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU)). Additionally, students will gain insights into industry tools like STK and NASA’s Orbital Debris Assessment software and build upon each of the lessons learned throughout the course. Throughout the semester, students will also work on a semester-long, course-based research project combining material in the class to investigate current policy related issues that the industry is facing. These projects will be presented multiple times so that students also have the opportunity to develop technical writing and presentation skills.

ENGR3599: Special Topics in Computing

Instructor(s): Carrie Nugent

Credits: 4ENGR or 4SCI   Hours: 4-0-8

Pre-requisite(s): Software Design, or instructor permission  

Course Description:  Computer models give scientists insight into physical phenomena at all imaginable scales- from subatomic to the size of the universe. They teach us how glass molecules interact, how fireflies and ants organize, how Neptune’s core rotates, and how to predict the weather. In this class, you will learn more advanced modeling techniques. You will write more complex code that takes longer to run and will learn to make smart choices when it comes to making things simple, but not too simple. Take this course if you want to know how code works on a fundamental level. If you love installing Python libraries and don’t particularly care how they work, this will probably not be a satisfying course for you.

ENGR3599A: Special Topics in Computing

Student Instructor(s): Gati Aher, Sam Coleman, Zoe McGinnis

Faculty Advisor(s): Rob Martello (pedagogy), Paul Ruvolo (content)

Credits: 4   Hours: 4-0-8

Registration Notes: This is a student-led course

Pre-requisite(s): Discrete Math recommended but not required

Course Description: Advanced Algorithms will provide an in-depth look into certain advanced algorithms that are beyond the scope of a traditional data structures and algorithms course. The topics this course would cover are: network flow, linear programming, NP-completeness, heuristic algorithms, integer programming, SAT, and approximation algorithms. Throughout this course students will: develop and iterate on an approach to solving software engineering problems, learn to communicate and collaborate on advanced algorithm application and implementation, understand why specific advanced algorithms are used, and effectively and efficiently solve problems by using advanced algorithms.

SCI1199: Special Topics in Physics

Instructor(s): Andy Neely

Credits: 4   Hours: 4-0-8

Course Description:  Electricity and magnetism, including electric charges, forces, and fields, Gauss's Law, potential, electrostatic energy and capacitors, magnetic fields and energy, mutual and self-induction, Ampere's Law, Maxwell's Equations and electromagnetic waves.

Advisor: Chris Lee (contact if any questions)

 

Registration Notes: 

• Can be taken P/NC or graded 
• Could be used to satisfy the advanced ME elective requirement with permission of instructor; or potentially count as a Design Depth (if taken as 4cr) – this is tentative.

Description:  Olin College is partnering with the Center for Space Physics at Boston University to field a team for the NASA- funded Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project (https://eclipse.montana.edu/). Teams will launch scientific instrumentation via weather balloons into the stratosphere during two solar eclipses: an annular eclipse on Oct. 14, 2023, and a total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. Students will begin with a background study of past eclipse balloon flights and learn about common platforms and payloads. We’ll work with our collaborators to identify specific scientific experiments, then begin to design the mission including selection and integration of sensors, data acquisition and processing systems, and ground station communication hardware with a high-altitude balloon system. This will require integrating mechanical design, electronics, and software/firmware programming. Students will be able to continue with the project in the summer of 2023 as paid interns and travel to the eclipse sites to carry out the missions.