Style

Flexible; Individual projects (teamwork can also be possible upon the wish of students).

To pass, you must: (i) attend at least 3/4 of the class sessions, (ii) participate in all of the invited speaker lectures, and (iii) complete the summary articles, which leads to the final perspective essay. By the end of Class #1, students must decide whether to register or drop the course.

Overview

Decoders 2.0 is the core class that sets up the foundation for D1.5 and D1.6. The lecture series plant seeds of question and curiosity in the minds of students. Invited speakers present the recent advances in their particular field once every other week. The website and selected publications of the speakers are featured on the course website. The individual project is to write a summary paper based on three papers of the invited speaker. Prepared questions and a draft of the summary papers are to be submitted prior to the speaker’s lecture. It is mandatory for students to ask questions during guest lectures. After the guest lecture, students submit the final summary paper and discuss it in the class. The final project is to write a perspective article consisting of the written summary papers. At the end of the course, a booklet of all of the perspective essays is to be uploaded on the class website. The perspective essays are a resource for future students, who take the following D1.5 and D1.6.

Objectives

1. To gain knowledge from experts in the field,
2. To encourage participation in class by the asking of questions to the invited speakers,
3. To understand the impact of microfabricated devices on society,
4. To foster interest in mechanically adaptive microfabricated devices and their purposes,
5. To write a perspective article based on the knowledge gained by the students.