Passive Solar Architecture
Passive solar design takes advantage of a building’s site, climate, and materials to minimize energy use. A well-designed passive solar home first reduces heating and cooling loads through energy-efficiency strategies and then meets those reduced loads in whole or part with solar energy. Because of the small heating loads of modern homes it is very important to avoid oversizing south-facing glass and ensure that south-facing glass is properly shaded to prevent overheating and increased cooling loads in the spring and fall.
A passive solar home collects heat as the sun shines through south-facing windows and retains it in materials that store heat, known as thermal mass. The share of the home’s heating load that the passive solar design can meet is called the passive solar fraction, and depends on the area of glazing and the amount of thermal mass. The ideal ratio of thermal mass to glazing varies by climate. Well-designed passive solar homes also provide daylight all year and comfort during the cooling season through the use of night-time ventilation.
Mechanical Engineering
Materials Science: fundamentals of physical structure, energetics, and bonding in materials.
Materials Processing and the scaling laws that govern process speed, volume, and material quality. In particular, this course will cover the transport of heat and matter.
Solid-state Chemistry, with an emphasis on solid-state materials and their application to engineering systems design.
Engineering Tools Students work with a variety of machine tools, the emphasis being on practical problem-solving, not programming or algorithms.
Optics A) geometrical optics: ray-tracing, lens design, and radiometry. B) wave optics: polarization, interference, diffraction, and resolution.
Holographic Imaging from a scientific point of view, moving from interference and diffraction patterns, to imaging of single points to the display of 3D images.
Aerospace Engineering
Aerospace Engineering principles are revealed through a hands-on, lighter-than-air (LTA) vehicle design project. Students must design, build, and fly radio-controlled vehicles.
Aerodynamics - fluid mechanic concepts governing the aerodynamic performance of wings, including subsonic vortex creation, viscous flows, turbulent boundary layers, and thin airfoil theory.
Jet Propulsion aerospace propulsive devices as systems, with functional requirements and limitations that constrain design choices. Both air-breathing and rocket engines are covered.
NASA Jet Propulsion Lab Links to the various resources available to students, such as download kits and competition dates.
Electrical Engineering (EECS)
Nano-electronics, the electronic properties of molecules, carbon nanotubes and crystals, including energy bands and the development of semiconducting composites.
Electromagnets including wireless and optical communications, circuits, computer peripherals, microwave communications, power generation and transmission.
Magnets: attraction and repulsion, magnetic torques, magnetic materials, plasma control, induction, magnetic levitation, magnetic recording, hard disks, superconducting electromagnets, and ferrofluids.
Civil Engineering
Building Technology aims at providing a fundamental understanding of the physics related to building design and placement, in order to offer the occupants physical, functional, and psychological benefits.
Urban Planning, with an emphasis on the evolving structure of cities, and the way that cities, suburbs, and metropolitan areas can be re-designed and systematically developed.
Structural Design for buildings and bridges, from Gothic cathedrals to long-span suspension bridges.