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In John's December Newsletter

OCW relies on your support

Dear John,

OCW is, in essence, powered by you. And so, we ask you to consider OCW in your end-of-year giving so that we can continue to serve the more than 30,000 people who visit our website every day.

Your donation will help OCW remain an open and vibrant reflection of the breadth of MITâs teaching. If you've already donated, then thank you for supporting our work.

Sincerely,
The OCW Team

15.483 Consumer Finance: Markets, Product Design, and FinTech (New Course) This course provides a solid understanding of consumer decision-making and how new products and services are developed, especially given the rapid pace of innovation and regulatory change, to help students succeed in consumer finance today. Specific examples will be drawn from retirement saving products, credit cards, peer to peer lending, cryptocurrencies, and financial advising.

17.42 Causes and Prevention of War (Updated Course) This course examines the causes of war, with a focus on practical measures to prevent and control war. Topics include causes and consequences of misperception by nations; military strategy and policy as cause of war; religion and war; U.S. foreign policy as a cause of war and peace; and the likelihood and possible nature of great wars in the future.The historical cases covered include World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Seven Years' War, the Arab-Israel conflict, other recent Mideast wars, and the Peloponnesian War.

21L.004 Reading Poetry (Updated Course) How do you read a poem? Intuition is not the only answer. In this class, we will investigate some of the formal tools poets useâmeter, sound, syntax, word-choice, and other properties of languageâas well as exploring a range of approaches to reading poetry, from the old (memorization and reading out loud) to the new (digitally enabled visualization and annotation). We will use readings available online via the generosity of the Poetry Foundation and the Academy of American Poets. We will also think collectively about how to approach difficult poems.

Be an MIT Student for a Day: The Experience

By Yvonne Ng

We were thrilled to host Patrick Abeya as the grand prize winner of last Springâs Be an MIT Student for a Day sweepstakes. Abeyaâs day was jam packed!

> See the recap of his experience

7.342 A Double-Edged Sword: Cellular Immunity in Health and Disease (New Course) Immune cells protect our bodies from both self-derived threats and exogenous pathogens, while keeping peace with normal cells and non-harmful commensal microbiota. They have various mechanisms to perform these tasks, a capacity that is essential for maintaining homeostasis. However, these same mechanisms can backfire, resulting in severe disorders such as immunodeficiency, chronic inflammation, allergy, degenerative diseases, and cancer. This course discusses the connections between normal physiology and disease by examining the developmental relationship between innate and adaptive immune cells as well as the functions and malfunctions of immune cells. More generally, students learn to identify relevant primary research literature, critically evaluate experimental data, and reach their own conclusions based on primary data.

14.15J Networks (Updated Course) This course highlights common principles that permeate the functioning of networks and how the same issues related to robustness, fragility and interlinkages arise in several different types of networks. It introduces conceptual tools from dynamical systems, random graph models, optimization and game theory, and covers a wide variety of applications.

Doctoral Students Arenât Lone Wolves: An interview with Brian Charles Williams

The Curiosity Mars rover, a complex, collaboratively-built system based on cognitive robotics. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

By Peter Chipman, Digital Publication Specialist and OCW Educator Assistant

Robotics and artificial intelligence are fast-paced fields in which researchers constantly have to adapt to new technological developments. But in such fields, progress isnât always achieved by competitive, individual effort; in many circumstances, cooperation and collaboration are more fruitful approaches. In the interview excerpt below, Brian Charles Williams, a professor at MITâs Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, describes how he develops learning communities in the graduate-level course 16.412 Cognitive Robotics:

OCW: How is learning different in a course focused on an emerging field like cognitive robotics?

> Read the complete article

Views from OCW Supporters

"Iâll start with this. OCW deserves much more money from me than I can afford to donate.

I cannot explain the degree to which OCW has become my touchstone. For everything I am curious about, I consult the OCW. I have viewed many lectures and learned a great amount. I thought at first that since it is MIT, the courses would be too difficult for me to handle. But the opposite is true. The professors are the easiest to learn from. And when I stop and think about it, it makes sense that the top university would have the best teachers. What a gift to be able to have access to this priceless material!

I hope to continue to give. It embarrasses me a bit that I could not do more considering the amount I take advantage of your courses.

Thank you very much to all who provide and support this OpenCourseWare."

-Christine, Independent Learner, USA

> Read more