12.215 (Fall) NO LONGER GIVEN Modern Navigation This undergraduate class looks at the evolution of navigation methods with concentration on the developments and applications of the Global Positioning System (GPS). The development of the Global Positioning System (GPS) started in the 1960s, and the system became operational in 1992. The system has seen many diverse applications develop in the last few years with the accuracy of positioning ranging from a few meters (after May 2000, 100 meters prior to that) to 1 millimeter (without the need for a security clearance!) In this course we will apply many of basic principles of science and mathematics learnt at MIT to explore the applications and principles of GPS. We also use GPS and other equipment in the class (and outside on Campus) to demonstrate the uses of this system.

12.010 (Fall) Computational Methods of Scientific Programming This undergraduate course introduces programming languages and techniques used by physical scientists: FORTRAN, C, MatLab, and Mathematica. Emphasis is placed on program design, algorithm development and verification, and comparative advantages and disadvantages of different languages. Students first learn the basic usage of each language, common types of problems encountered, and techniques for solving a variety of problems encountered in contemporary research: examination of data with visualization techniques, numerical analysis, and methods of dissemination and verification.

12.540 (Spring) Principles of GPS. The aim of this course is to introduce the principles of the Global Positioning System and to demonstrate its application to various aspects of Earth Sciences. The specific content of the course depends each year on the interests of the students in the class. In some cases, the class interests are towards the geophysical applications of GPS and we concentrate on high precision (millimeter-level) positioning on regional and global scales. In other cases, the interests have been more toward engineering applications of kinematic positioning with GPS in which case the concentration is on positioning with slightly less accuracy but being able to do so for a moving object. In all cases, we concentrate on the fundamental issues so that students should gain an understanding of the basic limitations of the system and how to extend its application to areas not yet fully explored.