Special Course Listings

Commercial aviation is extremely safe, in part due to knowledge gained from studying accidents. This course is led by Brian Nield, MIT XVI G ’78, Boeing Director of New Airplane Product Development (ret.). The aircraft accident investigation process and some of the most significant accidents are discussed. In addition, participants will have the opportunity to work with their peers in a small, self-directed, investigative team to solve a realistic (but fictional) aircraft accident mystery. New information on the crash will be given out each session as you piece together the facts to determine what caused the accident and build recommendations for improving flying safety.

Prerequisites: Spreadsheet skills (Excel); some familiarity with aviation.

Pre-registration is required to access virtual connection information.  Please contact: Brian Nield, bnield@mit.edu.

Class Sessions/Schedules  – VIRTUAL ONLY

• Tuesday, January 24, 2023   3-4PM
• Wednesday, January 25, 2023    3-4PM
• Thursday, January 26, 2023    3-4PM

Instructor: Dr. Shu T. Lai
Date: Wednesday, January 5, 2022
Time: 03:00PM-04:00PM EDT
Zoom Link: Access Zoom link for this talk.
Enrollment: Unlimited: No Advance sign-up
Prerequisites: None
Talk Description:
Spacecraft charging affects electronic measurements onboard and may be destructive for a spacecraft. This session explains what, where, and why spacecraft charging occurs. The incoming energetic electrons from space plasmas compete with the outgoing secondary electrons. The balance of currents determines the spacecraft potential. A critical temperature of ambient electrons controls the onset of spacecraft charging. Real satellite data are shown and explained.

Sponsor: Aeronautics and Astronautics
Contact: Dr. Shu T. Lai, shlaii11@mit.edu

Instructor: Dr. Shu T. Lai
Date: Friday, January 7, 2022
Time: 03:00PM-04:00PM EDT
Zoom Link: Access Zoom link for this talk.
Enrollment: Unlimited: No Advance sign-up
Prerequisites: None
Talk Description:
As we know, spacecraft charging is determined by current balance. However, the photoelectron current from a spacecraft exceeds that of the ambient electron. Can a spacecraft charge naturally to negative potentials in sunlight? Yes, it can! The reason is surprisingly interesting. The photoelectrons can be trapped on the sunlit side of a spacecraft. We will also discuss some novel mitigation methods.

Sponsor: Aeronautics and Astronautics
Contact: Dr. Shu T. Lai, shlaii11@mit.edu

Speakers: Dan Erkel (Research Assistant, MIT AeroAstro ESL), Dr. Brian Weeden (Secure World Foundation) and Prof. Jeffrey A. Hoffman (Director of Human Systems Lab, HSL MIT; former NASA Astronaut)
Dates: Thursday, January 27, 2022 and Friday, January 28, 2022
Time: 10 AM to Noon ET (for both talks)
Registration Link: Please register for these talks.

Talk Descriptions:
Talk 1 (January 27, 2022): Dan Erkel, AeroAstro PhD and TPP SM candidate served as one of the lead technical experts supporting the creation of Hungary’s National Space Strategy In the first lecture, Dr Weeden and Dan will discuss challenges and options new actors and spacefaring nations face in developing national space strategies The lecture will use the lens of systems focused methods and give case studies of how Hungary and other countries recently developed their space strategies.

Talk 2 (January 28, 2022): The focus of the second lecture will be on Hungary’s astronaut program, HUNOR. Prof. Hoffman will discuss the current and future role of astronauts, addressing questions with Dan on how an astronaut program can benefit emerging space nations in a new era of human spaceflight.

Contact: Dan Erkel, derkel@mit.edu

Special Subject #: 16.101 Topics in Fluids & Propulsion
Subject Title: Additive Manufacturing for Aerospace Engineers
Prerequisites: 16.001
Units: 3 units, letter-graded
Instructors: Professor Zachary Cordero
Schedule: 9:00 AM-3:00 PM; 1/30, 1/31, 2/1, 2/2, 2/3; Room 33-419 + Lab TBA
Lectures will be held in the morning and labs in the afternoon. A final design competition will take place over the weekend.                                
Subject Description:
Introduces the physics and practice of metal additive manufacturing with work in the Aerospace Materials and Structures Laboratory (AMSL). Students gain hands-on experience by designing, printing, and testing an additively manufactured component as part of a design contest. Lectures supplement laboratory sessions with background information on the physics of additive manufacturing, post-processing, and properties of additively manufactured materials.  Enrollment is limited to Course 16 students.

Learning Objectives:
After completion of the course, the students should be able to:

1. Explain the underlying physics, advantages, and disadvantages of the different additive manufacturing modalities as well as post-processing strategies (e.g., surface finishing, heat treatments, etc.).
2. Develop a workflow for designing, printing, post-processing, and finishing an additively manufactured component.
3. Use a laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) machine to fabricate a net-shaped component within desired geometric and functional specifications.
4. Interpret mechanical test data and micrographs to guide further process optimization.

Special Subject #: 16.687 Selected Topics in Aeronautics & Astronautics–Private Pilot Ground School (to receive credit, students must register under 16.687)
Subject Title: Private Pilot Ground School
Prerequisites: Register for 16.687 and attend all sessions
Units: 3-0-0
Level: U (graded P/D/F)
Enrollment: Unlimited – not limited to MIT students. Advance sign-up required.
Pre-register at: http://philip.greenspun.com/teaching/ground-school/
To receive MIT course credit, also register in WebSIS under 16.687.
Attendance: Participants must attend all sessions.
Instructors: Dr. Tina Prabha Srivastava; Dr. Philip Greenspun
Schedule:

• Jan/11, Wed, 09:00AM-05:00PM, room 1-390
• Jan/12, Thur, 09:00AM-05:00PM, room 1-390
• Jan/13, Fri, 09:00AM-05:00PM, room 1-390

Subject Details:
Would you like to fly a plane, helicopter, or commercial drone? Or understand the engineering behind today’s human-occupied aircraft and air traffic control system? Come spend 3 days with us and learn everything that an FAA-certificated Private pilot or Remote Pilot needs to know for the official knowledge test. The course includes qualitative aerodynamics, airplane and helicopter systems, practical meteorology, navigation and cross-country flight planning, and human factors. We present the FAA-required theory, pose some thought-experiments, and offer practical advice based on instructors’ real-world experience.

Additional prerequisites: A few evenings of reading. Download three free PDFs from the FAA web site: Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (read Chapters 1, 3-8, 12, 14-16), Airplane Flying Handbook, (read Chapters 1-3, 7-8, 10), and Helicopter Flying Handbook (read Chapters 1-4, 9). Download ForeFlight (iOS only) or Garmin Pilot (Android or iOS) and set yourself up with a 30-day free trial. Bring a device to class, if convenient.

Course staff: Dr. Tina P. Srivastava, pilot and MIT alum (Course 16 S.B.; System Design and Management S.M.; Ph.D supervised in Course 16, ESD, Sloan); Dr. Philip Greenspun, an FAA Airline Transport Pilot and Flight Instructor for both airplanes and helicopters, MIT alum (Course 18 S.B.; Course 6 Ph.D).

Special Subject #: 16.S685 Special Subject in Aeronautics & Astronautics, Spacecraft Attitude Control, U-level
16.S890 Advanced Special Subject in Aerospace Systems, Spacecraft Attitude Control, G-level
Subject Title: Spacecraft Attitude Control
Prerequisites: Permission of instructor
Units: 6 Units, PDF graded
Instructor: Mr. Michael Paluszek
Schedule:

• Thurs 1/12, Fri 1/13, Tues 1/17, Wed 1/18, Mon 1/23, Tues 1/24, Mon 1/30, Tues 1/31
• 11:00 AM-12:30 PM, Room 35-225

Subject Details:
Have you ever wondered why you can navigate anywhere on Earth without maps? It is due to the GPS (and other) constellations of navigation satellites. One of the key elements of the spacecraft is the pointing control system that was developed at GE Astro-Space for the GPS IIR satellites. Mr. Paluszek was the lead engineer on the system. In this course, you will learn about this system and other cutting-edge attitude control systems.

The course is an introduction to the pointing control of spacecraft. It covers the space environment, actuators, sensors, control, and estimation. Students learn how to go from requirements to an operating control system.

Students also learn how to design the attitude determination and control systems for a spacecraft and how to fly one from the ground. The course prepares students to design their own ACS.

There are six 90-minute lectures and two labs, and one problem set. In the labs, students build an operating attitude control system in MATLAB. Examples are drawn from a wide variety of operating spacecraft, such as Kepler.

Students taking the graduate version of the course (16.S890) have additional questions in the problem set and the lab.

Special Subject #: 16.S896 (G) meets with 16.S688 (U) “Planetary Surface Technology Development”
Subject Title: Planetary Surface Technology Development
Credit (U or G): 6 units, letter-graded
Units: 1-3-2 (units cannot be arranged)
Instructors: Prof. Jeffrey Hoffman, Prof. Olivier de Weck, George Lordos

IAP and Spring Schedules: Lecture (in person): Tues 4-5 pm ET, Room 37-212 in IAP and Room
35-225 in the spring. Lab sections (in person) are TBA: Lunar Tower, WORMS, Lunar Forge, Homesteading Mars, Lunar North Pole Tourism.

Prerequisites: Permission of instructor. No prior space systems experience is required or expected, however, enrollment is limited by lab and section capacities. Enrollment to the class is limited to members of one of the five NASA-sponsored project teams currently affiliated with MIT’s Space Resources Workshop. Current members of the teams may pre-register directly (see QR code further below). For prospective members wishing to join one of the teams, the application link is here: http://tiny.cc/MIT-planetary-tech. Information about the current team projects can be found on https://spaceresources.mit.edu/projects-summary. If approved to join a team by the team leadership, permission will then be granted to enroll in the class and students must register officially with the Registrar before the end of IAP and by the Add Date deadline in the Spring term.

Subject Description and Outline:
Project-based, hands-on class for NASA challenges teams affiliated with MIT’s Space Resources Workshop. Students work in teams and sub-teams to conceive, propose, design, prototype, build, integrate, test and deliver innovative technologies and systems to support planetary surface crewed or robotic activities. One section per project team, up to a maximum of five sections. Current teams for AY2022-2023 are developing a Lunar tower, a Lunar reconfigurable robot, a Lunar metallurgy concept, a Mars Homestead and a Lunar North Pole Tourism concept. Guest speakers each week share expertise relevant to the stage of all projects at that time of year. Lab hours are hands-on teamwork sessions, devoted to design, fabrication, integration or testing. Individual preparation varies by project and phase.

Learning Objectives:

• Experiencing the full-cycle systems engineering process, from conceiving to operating
• Understanding, by doing, which decisions drive the value of a complex system and why
• Gaining hands-on experience in designing and building planetary surface space systems
• Gaining experience in writing and presenting proposals, reports and conference papers
• Personal growth in engineering judgment and engineering leadership.

QR Code for Pre-Registration Application:

Special Subject #: 16.101 Topics in Fluids & Propulsion
Subject Title: Computational Fluid Dynamics for Practical Aerodynamicists
Prerequisites: Unified Level Fluid Mechanics
Units: 3-3-0
Level: U (graded A-F)
Instructors: Professor Qiqi Wang; Dr. Robert Haimes
Schedule: 1/11 through 1/21, 10:00-11:00 AM EDT, Virtual
Zoom Link: Access the Zoom link for this course.
Subject Description:
Skills for using modem computational aerodynamics is becoming increasingly important in the aerospace industry. Four critical tools are required for a complete toolchain: geometry preparation, meshing, flow solver, and visualization. This IAP course will give students a practical tutorial of how to use these tools to predict aerodynamic performance of aircraft designs and investigate the aerodynamic flow field.

Learning Objectives:
After completion of the course, the students should be able to:

1. Construct a water-tight geometry for typical aircraft configurations, with parts including fuselage, wings, typical tails, nacelle, and propeller blades.
2. Generate surface and volume meshes for such geometry suitable for Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) solutions, making correct decisions on what regions the surface mesh and volume mesh should be refined.
3. Perform computational fluid dynamics simulations using the generated mesh, making correct decisions on the appropriate boundary conditions, turbulence models, and time step size.
4. Interpret the results, and investigate the computed flow field using appropriate flow visualization techniques.

Special Subject #’s: 16.S685 (U-level) or 16.S890 (G-level)
Subject Title: Spacecraft Attitude Control
Units: 3-2-1
Prerequisites: 16.002. 16.06, 16.07 would be helpful
Grading: P-D-F
Instructors: Michael Paluszek; Professor Kerri Cahoy; Professor Olivier de Weck

Course Description: An introduction to the pointing control of spacecraft. Learn how to go from requirements to an operating control system. The course will cover the space environment, actuators, sensors, control and estimation. There will be six 90 minute lectures and two labs. There will be one problem set. In the labs, you will build an operating attitude control system in MATLAB. Examples will be drawn from a wide variety of operating spacecraft. Students taking the graduate version of the course (16.S890) will have additional assignments. For more information, contact the instructor, Michael Paluszek, at paluszek@mit.edu.

Schedule:
Lectures 1/10-1/12; 1/18-1/20; 1/24-1/25; 2:00-3:30 PM EDT; Room 35-225
Lab: 1/24-1/25; 2:00-3:30 PM EDT; Room 1-390

• Week 1:
  Monday, 1/10 Lecture
  Tuesday, 1/11 Lecture
  Wednesday, 1/12 Lecture – Problem set distributed
  
• Week 2:
  Tuesday, 1/18 Lecture
  Wednesday, 1/19 Lecture
  Thursday, 1/20 Lecture
  
• Week 3:
  Monday, 1/24 Lab
  Tuesday, 1/25 Lab

The lectures will be 90 minutes starting at 2:00 PM EDT, including 60 minutes of presentation and 30 minutes of guided discussion of the presentation material. Office hours will be from 4:00 pm to 5:00 PM EDT, Mondays and Tuesdays; and 10:00 AM-12:00 PM EDT on Tuesdays.

Students taking the graduate version of the course (16.S890) will have additional assignments.

All enrolled students will get a draft of Michael Paluszek’s textbook to accompany the course plus MATLAB software for the labs.

Special Subject #: 16.S688
Subject Title: “RACER: Robot Autonomy for CompetitivE Racing”
Level: U (graded P/D/F); or taken for no-credit (open to grad students and postdocs)
Prerequisites: none
Units: 3-3-0
Instructors: Professor Luca Carlone and Matthew Boyd (contact either with questions)
Classroom: 32-082 (final competition at the Johnson Athletic Center track)

IMPORTANT: Fill in this admission survey by Saturday (Jan 8th) at 8pm to help us form the teams.
We have a limited number of platforms, so admissions will prioritize undergraduate students and will be on a first-come first-served basis otherwise.

Proposed Schedule:

• January 10th, 2-4 pm: Robots and Autonomous Vehicles: Intro and Assembly
• January 12th, 2-4 pm: Robot Operating System and Python
• January 14th, 2-4 pm: Sensing and vision
  
• January 18th, 2-4 pm: Control and obstacle avoidance. (Note: this is a Tuesday since Monday, Jan 17th is MLK Day)
  
• January 19th, 2-4 pm: Localization and Mapping
• January 21st, 2-4 pm: Machine Learning and Object Detection
  
• January 24th, 2-4 pm: No lecture / Hackathon
• January 26th, 2-4 pm: No lecture / Final Competition
  

Would you like to learn how to program fully-autonomous mini racecars, and compete in an autonomous head-to-head race? Form your team, and join the race!

Every member of the winning team will be awarded an iPad mini. The subject is 6 credit units for undergraduate students. Graduate students and post-doctoral scholars are also eligible for the prizes.

Subject Description:
This subject builds on top of the RACECAR course offered at MIT during IAP 2016-2019 and is motivated by the increasing interest towards agile autonomous systems, as witnessed by the recent RACER (Robotic Autonomy in Complex Environments with Resiliency) DARPA program or the Formula Student Driverless competition. The subject provides a hands-on introduction to robotics and autonomous systems, starting from hardware and software architectures (e.g., electro-mechanical components, Robot Operating System) and focusing on algorithms and autonomy (spanning sensing, perception, and control). The lectures are complemented by in-person labs centered on a new RACECAR platform that the students will use to implement autonomous behaviors, leading to a final autonomous race. Contrarily to previous offerings, we will put more emphasis on perception and visual navigation, and the final race will see the racecars competing head-to-head at the Johnson Athletic Center track. The subject is particularly recommended for students without prior experience in robotics who (i) are interested in experiencing some of the challenges of embodied intelligences, (ii) want to reinforce their background in preparation for more advanced course (e.g., 6.141/16.485, 16.485, or 6.800/6.843, to name a few), or (iii) want to become part of a community of students and researchers with a strong passion for robotics.

Special Subject #: 16.687 (to receive credit, students must register under 16.687)
Subject Title: Private Pilot Ground School
Prerequisites: none
Units: 3-0-0
Level: U (graded P/D/F)
Enrollment: Register for 16.687 but also sign-up in advance at https://tinyurl.com/mit16687-2022. Attendance: Participants must attend all sessions
Instructors: Dr. Tina Prabha Srivastava; Dr. Philip Greenspun

Schedule:

• Jan/3 Mon 12:00PM-1:00PM Virtual
• Jan/4 Tues 12:00PM-1:00PM Virtual
• Jan/5 Wed 12:00PM-1:00PM Virtual
• Jan/6 Thur 12:00PM-1:00PM Virtual
• Jan/7 Fri 12:00PM-1:00PM Virtual

Subject Details:
Would you like to fly a plane, helicopter, or commercial drone? Or understand the engineering behind today’s human-occupied aircraft and air traffic control system? Join us and learn everything that an FAA-certificated Private pilot or Remote Pilot needs to know for the official knowledge test. The course includes qualitative aerodynamics, airplane and helicopter systems, practical meteorology, navigation and cross-country flight planning, and human factors. We present the FAA-required theory, pose some thought-experiments, and offer practical advice based on instructors’ real-world experience.

Prerequisites: A few evenings of reading. Download three free PDFs from the FAA web site: Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (read Chapters 1, 3-8, 12, 14-16), Airplane Flying Handbook, (read Chapters 1-3, 7-8, 10), and Helicopter Flying Handbook (read Chapters 1-4, 9). Download ForeFlight (iOS only) or Garmin Pilot (Android or iOS) and set yourself up with a 30-day free trial.

Course staff: Dr. Tina P. Srivastava, pilot and MIT alum (Course 16 S.B.; System Design and Management S.M.; Ph.D supervised in Course 16, ESD, Sloan); Dr. Philip Greenspun, an FAA Airline Transport Pilot and Flight Instructor for both airplanes and helicopters, MIT alum (Course 18 S.B.; Course 6 Ph.D).

16.687 Format for IAP 2022: This course is usually taught as an in-person 3-day 9am-5pm course. However, in 2022, it will be taught in a virtual format (same as in 2021). Rather than having 3 day-long Zoom classes, we have developed a modified format in conjunction with the MIT Learning Tech office:

Dates: The course will be 5-days, from January 3-7th.
Zoom Session: Each day, we will have a 1-hour live Zoom session at 12pm ET. During this morning session, we will teach selected concepts, conduct Zoom polls, review the main concepts covered the previous day, and hold a Q&A.
Asynchronous: We will leverage the videos of the lectures recorded during the IAP 2019 class posted on MIT OCW: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/aeronautics-and-astronautics/16-687-private-pilot-ground-school-january-iap-2019/. We will assign a few lectures per day. Students can watch these asynchronously, on their own time, or in advance of the course. We will also provide a Zoom room where students can optionally watch the lectures together each day. Assignments: Each day, students will have an assignment related to that day’s materials. Assignments will be due by 5pm ET.
Register at: http://philip.greenspun.com/teaching/ground-school/. To receive MIT course credit, also register with MIT Registrar for 16.687.

Prerequisites: (6.911 and 6.912) or permission of instructor
Units: 3-3-0
Schedule: Meets 1/10 to 1/21; Lecture: MTWRF 8-5 (33-116)
Instructors: Professor Olivier L. de Weck; Dr. Jim Magarian
Course Description: Builds fundamental skills in engineering design and develops a holistic view of the design process through conceiving, designing, prototyping, and testing a multidisciplinary component or system. Students are provided with the context in which the component or system must perform; they then follow a process to identify alternatives, enact a workable design, and improve the design through multi-objective optimization. The performance of end-state designs is verified by testing. Though students develop a physical component or system, the project is formulated so those from any engineering discipline can participate. The focus is on the design process itself, as well as the complementary roles of human creativity and computational approaches. Designs are built by small teams who submit their work to a design competition. Pedagogy based on active learning, blending lectures with design and manufacturing activities. Limited to 30 students. Preference given to students in the Gordon-MIT Engineering Leadership Program.