Are you passionate about politics? Do you think art has power? In this class we will explore the intersection of political movements and independent art collectives. We will seek to understand the motivations of the group, and the formal artistic techniques they employ to reach their goal. You will gain confidence in analyzing art as well as understanding of political ideologies. Additionally, we will discuss together how we can use art as a tool to affect our own political change. Finally, supplies will be provided to create your own art piece.


Class Style
Lecture

Arts & crafts workshop - Each week work on a different project
- observational drawing
- polymer clay crafting
- mixed media craft/papercraft
- mural painting


Class Style
Activity

Prerequisites
Excitement to learn about different types of arts & crafts!

Shaders are little programs that run on the graphics chip in a computer. Video games and other graphics programs rely on them for anything from special effects, water rendering, to generation of beautiful landscapes and sculptures.

Starting from scratch, we will learn GLSL, a very common shader language that many of your favorite games probably use. Using it, we will work our way up from displaying little rainbows, 2D effects all the way to 3D renderings. This is a very creative class, and you will be encouraged to develop your own ideas for interesting digital creations.

If you find this class interesting and are creative, but don't have very much experience with programming or math, please don't be shy! All necessary coding and math will be explained.

The focus of the class will be on writing code for every step yourself, so it's best if you bring a computer.


Class Style
Activity

Prerequisites
None. Some prior programming experience helps, but is not necessary.

Ready to delve in the math and physics required for understanding quantum algorithms? Looking to gain valuable experience simulating quantum systems? Or just wanna know what the hype is all about? If so, this might be the class for you!

We'll start by laying a strong foundation in probability, linear algebra, complex numbers, quantum measurement, etc.

From there, we'll apply what we've learned through Python simulations written using the QuTiP library.

By the end of the class, we will have enough tools under our belt to simulate quantum algorithms!


Class Style
Seminar

Prerequisites
No coding experience is assumed! Please bring a laptop with access to a Google account to class as we work through some simulations.

Have you ever wondered what all the buzz about AI is about? In this course, we will learn about what artificial intelligence is and how it is being used in the world today. We will give you an opportunity to explore current research surrounding AI and how AI is used in various fields of science through a series of engaging lectures given by various teachers. No prior background in AI is needed - we hope to see you there!


Class Style
Activity

The theory of computation centers on simple to describe systems with complex behavior. In this course we will talk about a number of systems from Turing Machines to Cellular Automata \, how they work and why they can potentially compute anything that a regular computer can achieve. We will explore these systems using a variety of techniques including implementing in Python.


Class Style
Discussion

Prerequisites
Minimum experience with Python programming is a plus but not essential as the programming should all be pretty self-explanatory.

You have seen a computer. You have touched a computer, but what is it actually doing in a mathematical sense? And did you know there are some questions that your computer can never answer?

In this class we will walk you through mathematical models of computers (so-called automata). We will mathematically prove what they can and cannot do. It will turn out that even our most powerful model, the Turing machine, cannot answer all of our questions.


Class Style
Lecture

Prerequisites
This class will contain a fair amount of proofs. You don't need to know much about proofs before, but it helps if you are good at math or puzzles.

Ever wondered how objects from our daily lives are designed? How can we generate a computer 3D model of a mug, a bottle of Diet Coke, or a Saturn V rocket? What about designing the blades of a jet-engine? A test dummy? How about making an animation of a LEGO house building itself? Or making a realistic render of a bowl of fruit? In this workshop, you will learn the skills to design all of these, and much more!

Designed for beginners and pro-users alike, this workshop (HS Edition) is split into 5 sessions, the first half of which will be spent learning new Solidworks/Fusion 360 skills (computer-aided design softwares), the second half of which will see the application of these news skills through in-class activities, with a focus on reverse engineering. In contrast to traditional mechanical design courses, this workshop places greater emphasis on the design process itself, understanding how we can plan and best leverage our available tools to arrive to our desired result. Thus, the sessions are less about following the instructions on an engineering drawing, but about independent thinking and strategizing, reverse engineering an object into a 3D model.


Class Style
Activity

Prerequisites
Just willingness to have fun and think outside the box!

Learn about rockets with MIT Rocket Team! The class will begin with a brief introduction about the basic of how rockets work. Then, we will spend each week discussing a different rocket system. We will include examples from the rockets MIT Rocket Team has built! In the last week, students will be able to model their own rocket designs based on what they've learned!


Class Style
Lecture

Writing a story is something they really do not teach you because the writing of a short story is creative. That being said there are tools of the trade. And that's this class: openings, Chekhov's Gun, plot, Drawing Characters.
Story writing takes time. Continue here.


Class Style
Seminar

Take a different class each weekend of HSSP! Schedules will be added later.


Class Style
Lecture

The goal of this course is to play some Dungeons & Dragons, and learn while doing it!
We'll be playing D&D 5E (Fifth Edition), and talking about literature and math.
More specifically, Game Theory - the study of playing games and making smart decisions, and World-building, the art of inventing compelling fictional worlds.


Class Style
Activity

Prerequisites
Familiarity with D&D or other role-playing games is helpful - but NOT necessary. Beginners welcome, the only real requirement is an interest in playing!

Most problems cannot be computed exactly, and even those that can might be very expensive. Numerical methods try to find good enough approximations efficiently.

================

Tentative Schedule:
1. The derivative, fixed point iteration, Newton’s method, Euler, Runge-Kutta, and multistep methods.

2. Quadrature a.k.a. numerical integration, finite difference methods and correctors.

3. Linear differential equations, matrix fundamentals, the QR algorithm, Newton-like methods, stiffness.

4. Finite element methods, various bases, Fourier/DCT transforms, Fourier analysis (faster solvers), Fourier analysis (stability).

5. Optimization: Binary and golden-section search, the simplex method, gradient descent, conjugate gradient descent, and Adam.

================

Class website: https://programjames.github.io/hssp-spring-numerical-methods/


Class Style
Lecture

Prerequisites
At a minimum, you should know middle school math such as algebra and sines/cosines. If you wish to do homework (it's optional) you should know Python or MATLAB. We will rederive anything more advanced, such as calculus or linear algebra, but some background in them will make it easier to follow.

This class is all about mathematical objects called sets. A set is a container that can hold anything, like numbers, shapes, graphs, and even other sets. After introducing basic set operations and their symbols, we will tour how set
theory is used in two important areas: probability theory and computer logic. At the end of the course, we will discuss the role set theory has in more abstract mathematical areas. Part of each class will be dedicated to solving example problems of varying difficulty.


Class Style
Seminar

High school physics experiments tend to fall in a few categories - they either require expensive equipment, aren’t quantitative, or are just plain boring. But this doesn’t have to be the case! In this class, we’ll use low-cost materials and equipment to measure properties of light, sound, magnetism, and more to explore the world around us. Example labs include: measuring the width of your hair using laser pointers, finding your own height based on air pressure, and determining MIT’s latitude from Earth’s magnetic field! If you want to perform physics experiments that are more than just measuring velocities or forces, and you want to learn about some areas of physics not typically covered in high school, this is the class for you!


Class Style
Activity

Prerequisites
Completion or concurrent enrollment in a physics class OR familiarity with kinematics, Newton's Laws, kinetic and potential energy, and characteristics of waves. Students should also be familiar with trigonometry (sine, cosine, and tangent) and be comfortable manipulating algebraic equations.

A lightweight interactive crash course on molecular simulations and property predictions using Python.

We'll start with inputing and visualizing molecules into a computer. Then, we'll simulate and visualize the three-dimensional motion of small molecules and proteins using molecular dynamics. Lastly, we'll try out some recent machine learning approaches to molecules.

This course will be a fun introduction and will be super basic! We probably won't go very in depth into the details of the models. I'll be teaching what I know about the field from research or classes at MIT.

You should be interested in learning about molecules in a computational context. Please bring a laptop! We'll go through some code.


Class Style
Activity

Prerequisites
Physics, chemistry, and some basic Python knowledge

Where are they? In a universe so vast, there should be aliens around somewhere, so why haven't we seen them yet? In this class, we will take a galactic perspective of life and discuss the origins of life and space travel, engineering, and communication.


Class Style
Lecture

Microbes are the most abundant life forms on the planet, from bacteria to viruses to fungi. But how much do you know about them? Join this class to dive into the basics of microbe cell structure, and the role these microbes play in our everyday lives. We'll be discussing the impact of microbiology in human health, agriculture, evolution, the environment, and more.


Class Style
Lecture

Prerequisites
One previous biology class

A crash course in the study of disease. Each class will begin with introducing the pathophysiology of select disease processes and using this to showcase the interactions of the various organ systems. Each class will end with a show-and-tell of sorts connecting the discussed disease with phenomena of the everyday and nature. The overall theme of the course will revolve around the examining of boundaries, in the body and in nature. The place where one thing meets another is where all the interesting stuff happens.


Class Style
Lecture

Prerequisites
basic understanding of biology and chemistry

The Earth is alive! At least, kinda :)! In this class we'll look at an overview of Earth's many moving parts, both what the Earth is like today and how it got this way. We'll be focusing on a variety of different subjects and how they interact, including living systems, climate, and geology!

During the five weeks of the program we'll talk about the following topics:
- Plate tectonics
- A brief history of Earth
- The Carbon Cycle
- The beginnings of life
- How plants changed the world
- The Anthropocene: how humans are changing the world

This class will mix lectures with interactive lessons as we learn about how the world works :)


Class Style
Lecture

About 1.5 million people immigrate to the US every year. Why is that? What are the effects of that? Does it help, or hurt our economy? How do we measure that? And how do we regulate immigration? (Or should we not regulate it at all?)

In this class, we will use economic models, mathematics, and a close look at the US immigration law to investigate these questions thoroughly. That will help us get a sense of one of the most divisive and complex political issues of our time. In this election year, we will also look at policy proposals from candidates.


Class Style
Seminar

Prerequisites
None, formally. A background in mathematics helps.

Explore a new STEM topic every week with lectures given by various teachers!


Class Style
Lecture

Take a different class each weekend of HSSP! Schedules will be added later.


Class Style
Lecture