IAP 2015 Activities by Category - Educational Technology

Nick Montfort, Associate Professor of Digital Media

Jan/07

Wed

10:00AM-05:00PM

E15-335, lunch provided

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Limited to 15 participants

This one-day course is an introduction to programming that requires no previous experience. Through practice, we consider how to think with computation, how computation and media interact, and how computing is part of culture. Programming is introduced as a way to iteratively design artworks and humanities projects so that one can discover the direction of the project during programming. The idea of exploratory programming differs from the instrumental programming done to a pre-determined specification; beginning programmers, as well as others, can benefit from this different perspective. Students will develop and share several short projects during the day, will modify existing code, and will learn some programming fundamentals. The medium we will focus on will be text, but students completing the course should be better prepared to use computing with other media as well.

Students should bring their own notebook computers running any typical OS: GNU/Linux, Windows, or OS X. Windows and OS X, installing Anaconda with Python 2.7 <http://continuum.io/downloads> is required before the session begins. GNU/Linux users, please install iPython notebook. OS X users will need a text editor set up for use with plain text files (not TextEdit!) and, if one is not installed, should install TextWrangler. To continue after the course, installing Firefox and Processing is also recommended.

Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies/Writing
Contact: Nick Montfort, nickm@NICKM.COM

David Dufresne, Open Doc Lab Fellow

	Jan/14	Wed	10:00AM-05:00PM	E15-335
	Jan/15	Thu	10:00AM-05:00PM	E15-335, (continuation of Day 1, optional)

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Attendance: second day is optional

In this 1-day workshop (with an optional 2nd day), join David Dufresne, award-winning interactive documentary storyteller and OpenDocLab fellow, in brainstorming and prototyping non-linear story writing tools.

The challenge: how to build a new tool to write and conceptualize non-linear stories in a way that directors, storytellers, designers and developers can understand and use for their work.

We need new tools for creating non-linear narratives. A word processor is poorly adapted to think in terms of fragmented narratives, database, and interactive research. Word or Google Docs are too linear in their design, Excel too boring and not inspiring. Scrivener is wonderful but for solo usage. Let's invent the right writing and producing tool for the new narratives!

In this workshop we will brainstorm and prototype tools for non-linear documentary writing and conception. Anyone with an interest in developing interactive documentary tools is welcome including but not limited to students, faculty and staff with skills in storytelling, design, programming, and game design and development.

Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies/Writing
Contact: Sarah Wolozin, swolozin@mit.edu

Nancy Ouyang

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions

Day-to-day schedule and sign-up form here. List of RSVPs here.

This workshop aims to be a fun, productive, and provocative introduction to issues of diversity in STEM. We'll start out with a no-holds-barred discussion about what we personally think about diversity in STEM (is it worth it? do we need it? should we care? why or why not?), examine where our beliefs come from (share personal experiences), and then review the scientific literature on this subject. From there, we will begin work on concrete project(s) to showcase diversity at MIT, as well as compile a report to MIT's Institute Community and Equity Officer. On the final day, we'll present our projects to each other, so make them fun and interesting!

The goal is not to push an agenda; the goal is to relate to and engage with each other, even if we have very different beliefs, as human beings who developed our beliefs though our experiences.

Possible projects:

* Cookies that visually display the statistics about diversity at MIT (statistical food)
* Short film about people's experiences at MIT, about diverse people at MIT, or about what MIT people think about diversity
* Compelling website displaying a collection of quotes from the MIT community or results of polling MIT
* Game explaining recent scientific research into this topic

Feel free to email me if you have questions.

Sponsor(s): Electronic Research Society
Contact: Nancy Ouyang, (678) 379-8088, NOUYANG@ALUM.MIT.EDU

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Diversity in STEM

	Jan/12	Mon	07:30PM-08:30PM	66-154, Bring laptop please!
	Jan/13	Tue	07:30PM-08:30PM	66-154, Bring laptop please!
	Jan/14	Wed	07:30PM-08:30PM	66-154, Bring laptop please!
	Jan/15	Thu	07:30PM-08:30PM	66-154, Bring laptop please!
	Jan/16	Fri	07:30PM-08:30PM	66-154, Bring laptop please!

See description for tentative schedule for each day.

Kurt Fendt, Executive Director, MIT HyperStudio

Jan/23

Fri

08:30AM-05:30PM

Room 66-110

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/15
Limited to 50 participants
Prereq: None

Instructors and students in the humanities and the liberal arts increasingly work in an electronically supported and extended world of multimedia texts. Digital archives, online media repositories, and new tools for creating digital content have not only changed the way students interact with cultural content, they have also radically changed the landscape within which learning can take place. Instructors are faced with the challenge of how to respond to this shift, how to innovate and redesign their roles and curricula.

In this workshop, we investigate one possible solution to this challenge: digital annotation. Digital annotation brings the long humanistic tradition of annotation, one of John Unsworth's "scholarly primitives," into contemporary electronic media. Participants in this workshop will discuss the opportunities digital annotation tools create for new forms of social engagement with the text, for students to share ideas, interpretations, references, sources, adaptations, or other related media with peers and other readers that significantly change the way students acquire and produce knowledge.

Keynote Address: John Bryant, Hofstra University

Presentations and Sessions:

Jody Gordon & Chris Gleason, Wentworth Institute of Technology

Mary Isbell, University of New Haven

Alex Mueller, University of Massachusetts, Boston

MIT: Suzanne Lane, Wyn Kelley, Ina Lipkowitz, Roberto Rey Agudo

For more information and registration, visit HyperStudio.mit.edu

Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies/Writing
Contact: Gabriella Horvath, 617 715-4480, HYPERSTUDIO@MIT.EDU

Jonathan Hunt, Sr. Education & Sustainability IT Project Manager

Jan/27

Tue

04:00PM-05:15PM

32-155 -> 36-122, Postpone to Feb 3rd at 4pm in 36-122

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Prereq: none

POSTPONED DUE TO BLIZZARD - likely to be held Feb 3rd at 4pm in 36-122

Do you want learn more about 3D printing, rapid fabrication and 'maker spaces'? This joint IS&T and ODLxTalks event will give you an overview of what is happening at MIT as well as a look into how some alums are taking 3D Fabrication out into the world.

We will begin with a crash course on the basics and key concepts by Jonathan Hunt, followed by a series of short examples of its use at MIT from a panel of pioneers active in this area. Nancy Ouyang, Martin Culpepper, Nadya Peek, John Hart and representatives from the Edgerton Center will be sharing presentations and demos. 

After the presentations we will host a panel discussion with Q&A.

 

contact jmhunt@mit.edu to be notified with updated time and location

Sponsor(s): Information Systems & Technology, Office of Educational Innovation and Technology
Contact: Jonathan Hunt, E17-110A, 617 253-0172, JMHUNT@MIT.EDU

Nina Kominiak, Apple Consulting Engineer

Jan/21

Wed

02:00PM-04:00PM

32-155

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/16
Limited to 80 participants
Prereq: Basic programming knowledge

iOS development is notorious for being wrought with complications due to the baggage of C. Fear no more! Last year, Apple introduced Swift, a noble successor.

Join us in learning about Apple’s new Objective-C based programming language with one of Apple's consulting engineers, Nina Kominiak. Fast, modern, safe and interactive — Swift has been proven to be more efficient at complex object sorts and more reliable for RC4 encryptions. In this seminar, we will be going over the basics of Swift and sharing resources that can help you jumpstart developing your next iOS application.

Reserve your spot at developers.mit.edu/iapmob

Sponsor(s): Information Systems & Technology
Contact: Amber Bennoui, E19, 617 324-6573, BENNOUI@MIT.EDU

Mark Wiklund

Jan/20

Tue

01:00PM-02:00PM

E17-121

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Prereq: None

Have you just heard about lynda.com's online training, or are you already familliar with it and would now like to learn how to take better advantage of this great learning resource? lynda.com's catalog of over 1,500 courses on web development, desktop software, and many business and technology topics are avaiilable free of charge to MIT faculty, students, and staff.

In this non-credit IAP session, we will provide you wiith an overview of the lynda.com catalog - you'd be surprised what's out there. We'll show you how you can track and manage your training and how to create and share custom lists of related courses with your team. We'll also show you some examples of how lynda.com training can be blended with MIT and other resources to meet complex learning needs. This non-credit event will be led by Mark Wiklund, IS&T Training Manager.

Sponsor(s): Information Systems & Technology
Contact: Mark Wiklund, W92-228H, 617 253-0686, MWIKLUND@MIT.EDU

Tim Mathieu

Jan/27

Tue

10:00AM-12:00PM

(CANCELED)

Enrollment: Advanced Registration Preferred
Prereq: None

In this session, you will learn how to use MATLAB to gain insight into your scientific data. With the MATLAB language, interactive tools, and built-in math functions, you can explore and model your data, build customized analyses, and share your discoveries with others. Through product demonstrations, you will see how to:

• Access data from files and spreadsheets 

• Manage complex and messy data

• Plot data and customize figures

• Perform statistical analysis and fitting

• Generate reports and build apps 

This session is for students, faculty, and researchers who are new to MATLAB. Experienced MATLAB users may also benefit from the session, which features capabilities from recent releases of MATLAB.

About the Presenter
Sean de Wolski joined MathWorks in November 2011 and works as an Applications Engineer supporting MATLAB and Math products. He has a MS and BS in Civil Engineering with a Structural Engineering Focus from the University of Maine. His research focused on developing tools to better characterize microstructural properties of concrete using X-ray Microtomography and image processing.

MathWorks®, Inc. is hosting six sessions, 3 lectures and 3 hands-on workshops, during MIT's Independent Activities Period (IAP) 2015.   Attend as many sessions as you like.

Please visit the following URL for more information and to register for these sessions:

http://www.mathworks.com/company/events/seminars/mit_iap15/?refresh=true

Sponsor(s): Office of Educational Innovation and Technology
Contact: Tim Mathieu, Tim.Mathieu@mathworks.com

Tim Mathieu

Jan/29

Thu

01:00PM-03:00PM

W31-301

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Prereq: Knowledge of MATLAB is nice-to-have, but not necessary.

This workshop will teach you how to use MATLAB to acquire real-world test signals from data acquisition hardware. You will learn how easy it is to use MATLAB as a single environment for data acquisition and analysis. 

We will be using the Data Acquisition Toolbox in this workshop as an example of the complete test and measurement workflow with MATLAB. The workflow is similar for both Data Acquisition and Instrument Control Toolboxes.

Highlights include: 

Use a Digilent Analog Discovery Kit, MATLAB and the Data Acquisition Toolbox to stimulate a device under test and acquire a response

Analyze the acquired data to characterize the device under test

Create a published report of your work 

Build a deployable GUI to share with your colleagues

Note:

We have a limited class size for this workshop. Register now and we will contact you closer to the event to confirm your seat. Necessary software and hardware kits will be made available to attendees for the duration of the workshop.Faculty, staff and graduate students will be given preference as attendees.Knowledge of MATLAB is nice-to-have, but not necessary.

About the Presenters Adam Sifounakis

MathWorks®, Inc. is hosting six sessions, 3 lectures and 3 hands-on workshops, during MIT's Independent Activities Period (IAP) 2015.   Attend as many sessions as you like.

Please visit the following URL for more information and to register for these sessions:

http://www.mathworks.com/company/events/seminars/mit_iap15/?refresh=true

 

Sponsor(s): Office of Educational Innovation and Technology
Contact: Tim Mathieu, tim.Mathieu@mathworks.com

Tim Mathieu

Jan/27

Tue

01:00PM-05:00PM

(CANCELED)

Enrollment: Advance Registration Preferred
Prereq: None

MATLAB is a high-level language that allows you to quickly perform computation and visualization through easy-to-use programming constructs.

Attendees will learn how to import data from an external file, plot the data over time, then perform some analysis to view the data trends. You’ll learn how to write a MATLAB script and publish it to a format for sharing, such as HTML. You’ll also learn how to write your own MATLAB functions, use flow control, and create loops.

By the end of the session, you’ll have learned to create an application in MATLAB.

Key topics:

Navigating the MATLAB desktop

Working with variables in MATLAB

Calling MATLAB functions

Importing and extracting data

Visualizing data

Conducting computational analysis

Fitting data to a curve

Note:

Attendees must bring a laptop to this hands-on workshop with MATLAB already installed.In advance of the session MathWorks will provide each registrant with a temporary MATLAB license that attendees will be required to install.Please register for the hands-on workshop only if you have 100% certainty of your ability to attend.

Presenter Eoin Moore

MathWorks®, Inc. is hosting six sessions, 3 lectures and 3 hands-on workshops, during MIT's Independent Activities Period (IAP) 2015.   Attend as many sessions as you like.

Please visit the following URL for more information and to register for these sessions:

http://www.mathworks.com/company/events/seminars/mit_iap15/?refresh=true

Sponsor(s): Office of Educational Innovation and Technology
Contact: Tim Mathieu, tim.Mathieu@mathworks.com

Tim Mathieu

Jan/30

Fri

01:00PM-03:30PM

W31-301

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Prereq: Knowledge of MATLAB is nice-to-have, but not necessary.

To address the growing need in curriculum and research for low-cost, easy to use hardware and software environments, Simulink now includes the capability to program low-cost hardware such as Arduino, Raspberry Pi, LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3, and other platforms. 

The purpose of this workshop is to demonstrate how using Simulink to program low-cost hardware can enhance courses in signal processing, computer vision, communications, data acquisition, instrument control, embedded systems, and more, by easily going from theory to practice. 

This workshop uses LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 as the target platform. Participants will develop and test robot control algorithms that access and use standard EV3 sensors and actuators, and automatically generate code to program the robot.

No prior experience with MATLAB or Simulink is necessary.

Note:

We have a limited class size for this workshop. Register now and we will contact you closer to the event to confirm your seat. Necessary software and LEGO EV3 Kits will be made available to attendees for the duration of the workshop.Faculty, staff and graduate students will be given preference as attendees.

 

MathWorks®, Inc. is hosting six sessions, 3 lectures and 3 hands-on workshops, during MIT's Independent Activities Period (IAP) 2015.   Attend as many sessions as you like.

Please visit the following URL for more information and to register for these sessions:

http://www.mathworks.com/company/events/seminars/mit_iap15/?refresh=true

Sponsor(s): Office of Educational Innovation and Technology
Contact: Tim Mathieu, tim.Mathieu@mathworks.com

Tim Mathieu

Jan/29

Thu

10:00AM-12:00PM

4-163

Enrollment: Advanced Registration Preferred
Prereq: None

MathWorks provides the tools you need in a single environment to acquire, analyze, explore data and automate tasks. Within MATLAB and Simulink you can control and acquire data from plug-in data acquisition boards, test instruments, Web cameras and frame grabbers. 

During this seminar, we will demonstrate some of the latest data acquisition and instrument control capabilities provided by our test and measurement toolboxes. We will show you how to acquire data from external sources, interactively explore it, and perform live visualization and data analysis. We will also show you how to automate your tasks to simplify data collection and analysis. 

Highlights include:

• Communicating with hardware and instruments 

• Acquiring, analyzing and visualizing your test data in one environment 

• Automatically generating reports in MATLAB to share your results

About the Presenters Adam Sifounakis

MathWorks®, Inc. is hosting six sessions, 3 lectures and 3 hands-on workshops, during MIT's Independent Activities Period (IAP) 2015.   Attend as many sessions as you like.

Please visit the following URL for more information and to register for these sessions:

http://www.mathworks.com/company/events/seminars/mit_iap15/?refresh=true

 

Sponsor(s): Office of Educational Innovation and Technology
Contact: Tim Mathieu, tim.Mathieu@mathworks.com

Tim Mathieu

Jan/30

Fri

10:00AM-12:00PM

4-163

Enrollment: Advanced Registration Preferred
Prereq: None

In this session on simulation, control and automated code generation for the ARDRONE Autonomous Quadcopter, you will be able to see how you can design a Simulink simulation for the ARDRONE and deploy the code onto the ARDRONE hardware. 

Highlights include:

• Building a dynamic multi-domain simulation from Solidworks CAD models

• Design a flight control system using automated PID tuning and system identification

• Generate flight code and deploy to the drone over Wi-Fi with 1-click

About the Presenter
Daren Lee has a Masters in Aerospace Engineering and has been with the Mathworks for past two years working on various hardware-driven demonstrations with MATLAB and Simulink. As a member of the Pilot Engineering group, he looks forward to consulting with customers in topics related to auto-code generation of MATLAB/Simulink algorithms to C/C++ and HDL for model-based design workflows.

 

MathWorks®, Inc. is hosting six sessions, 3 lectures and 3 hands-on workshops, during MIT's Independent Activities Period (IAP) 2015.   Attend as many sessions as you like.

Please visit the following URL for more information and to register for these sessions:

http://www.mathworks.com/company/events/seminars/mit_iap15/?refresh=true

Sponsor(s): Office of Educational Innovation and Technology
Contact: Tim Mathieu, tim.Mathieu@mathworks.com

Mian Qin, COMSOL

Enrollment: Limited: First come, first served (no advance sign-up)
Limited to 80 participants
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions

Learn how to build and share physics-based numerical models through introductory to advanced-level tutorials. Free trials will be provided as we explore the capabilities of COMSOL Multiphysics 5.0, including the new Application Builder.

Suitable for all Engineering and Science disciplines.

Sponsor(s): Chemical Engineering
Contact: Mian Qin, (781) 273-3322, mian@comsol.com

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1. Introduction to COMSOL Multiphysics

Jan/13

Tue

09:30AM-12:30PM

66-110

Discover the capabilities and features of COMSOL Multiphysics; learn the natural workflow of the COMSOL Desktop user interface.

* To receive the trial version before this lecture, please confirm your attendance at: http://www.comsol.com/events/c50abw/34151/
No prior COMSOL experience necessary. Existing users would benefit from the introduction to 5.0 release highlights.

Mian Qin - COMSOL

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2. COMSOL Application Builder & Server

Jan/13

Tue

01:30PM-03:30PM

66-110

COMSOL Applications provides a means for you to share your COMSOL models with anyone, anywhere in the world. In this session you will learn how to quickly convert your COMSOL models into Applications, and how to share them with others.

http://www.comsol.com/events/c50abw/34161/
This lecture is suitable for anyone with an engineering, physics, or science background, who are interested in developing or using a COMSOL App.

 

Jeff Hiller - COMSOL

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3. Intensive Immersion in COMSOL

Jan/20

Tue

09:30AM-12:30PM

66-110

We will go over the details of:

• Geometry import and geometry creation
• Best practices for meshing geometry
• Usage of moving and adaptive meshes
• Postprocessing and data extraction

* To receive the trial version before this lecture, please confirm your attendance at: http://www.comsol.com/events/c50abw/34171/
This lecture is suitable for anyone with an engineering, physics, or science background.

Fabrice Schlegel - COMSOL

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4. Tips and Tricks when using COMSOL

Jan/20

Tue

01:30PM-03:30PM

66-110

Looking to increase your productivity with the COMSOL product suite? From setting up to post-processing your COMSOL models, this session will showcase techniques that save time. Regardless of your engineering field, these tips and tricks will boost your efficiency and help you get the most out of your modeling efforts.

*To receive the trial version, please confirm your attendance:http://www.comsol.com/events/c50abw/34181/

Mian Qin - COMSOL

Kim Patch, Tech Consultant, President of Redstart Systems

Jan/14

Wed

01:00PM-02:30PM

E17-121, Bring your iPhone or iPad with you to this event!

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up

Kim Patch will discuss how to use an iOS device via voice.  Kim will demonstrate ways to efficiently use the native speech control on the iPhone and iPad, and she will talk about workflow strategies, apps and hardware that leverage the iPhone and iPad to make computing less hand intensive.   

About the Speaker:  Kim Patch is a user interface expert, software developer, writer, editor, and musician. She developed Utter Command, add-on software that makes Dragon NaturallySpeaking more productive. She is also an invited expert for the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Accessibility Initiative, where she is an editor for the User Agent Working Group and co-facilitator of the Mobile Accessibility Task Force.  Kim began using speech input two decades ago after she was hit with repetitive strain injuries.

Additional Sponsor Information:  IS&T Accessibility and Usability and IS&T Mobile Customer Support

Sponsor(s): Information Systems & Technology
Contact: Mary Ziegler, 7-143, 617-258-9328, maryz@mit.edu

Sophie Mori, Taylor Sutton

Jan/20

Tue

08:00PM-11:59PM

56, 1st floor

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up

Splash for Us is a one-evening IAP event where MIT students present classes about anything they want. Come to teach or learn or both, and explore a variety of unusual, entertaining, and edifying topics!

Where: First floor, Building 56
What: Teach anything, learn anything! By MIT students, for MIT students!
When: January 20, 2014. 8:00pm-11:59pm.
How: If you want to learn, just show up whenever you want! We plan to serve pizza and other snacks while supplies last.

What classes will be taught? As classes are scheduled, you'll be able to see them here to see an up-to-date schedule of the classes that will be taught at Splash for Us.

Teaching?
Interested in teaching? Visit here to sign up to teach a you want to teach a class for Splash for Us. Classes will be scheduled on a first-come first-serve basis until classroom space is filled up.

If you don't want to teach a long class, you can also sign up to teach a 5-minute lecture during "Firestorm", our series of short lightning lectures. You can decide to teach during Splash for Us, but if you know in advance you want to do a Firestorm class, you can sign up here.

Sponsor(s): Educational Studies Program
Contact: Taylor Sutton & Sophie Mori, splash-for-us@mit.edu

Jonathan Reed

Jan/13

Tue

02:00PM-04:00PM

4-231

Enrollment: Advanced Sign Up Preferred
Sign-up by 01/01
Limited to 45 participants

APIs are everywhere these days, powering your favorite websites and mobile applications. APIs are great for integrating and updating data in a more streamlined way and can be made relatively easily with the right resources.  While using an API may seem like a daunting task, it can be as simple as visiting a website.  

In this seminar, we'll learn about what APIs are available, both within the MIT community, and in the larger Internet.  Techniques for integrating these APIs into your websites or other projects will be discussed, and some sample code will be provided.  If time permits, we'll also talk a bit about how you would go about writing your own API to make your data or service available to the larger MIT community.

Reserve your spot at developers.mit.edu/iap.

Sponsor(s): Information Systems & Technology
Contact: Amber Bennoui, E19, 617 324-6573, BENNOUI@MIT.EDU