This year's course focuses on a two week trip in January 2026 to the Mpala Wildlife Research Centre in Kenya, where we will visualize relationships among animals, plant life and humanity. We prepare for Mpala with critical analyses of wildlife films and their environmental impacts and then compare them to anthropological depictions. Students also learn techniques of documentary production in order to experiment with visualizing complex multispecies relations in Mpala. In that setting, we will include scientific research and Mpala itself as multispecies interventions into problems of biodiversity and the climate crisis.

In preparation for a fluid and evolving contemporary design practice, this course introduces physical prototyping and computational design strategies for an era of environmental transformation and climate crisis. Across platforms and instruments, exercises and readings emphasize process development as a core competency in architecture. A lecture component provides a technological overview, situated in a long-term cultural perspective and a theoretical framework. Focused lab modules provides exposure to a range of prototyping and fabrication resources at SOA, where students gain hands on experience.

From the ubiquitous water bottle to food packaging to Barbie, we live in a plastic world. While plastics provide benefits from safe food delivery to sterile healthcare products, only a small percentage is recycled. This course addresses the historical development of plastics and their impacts. We'll discuss the science of plastics and their lifecycle from sourcing through manufacturing, use, and end-of-life. Topics will include microplastics, plastics in the ocean, and the impacts of additives (e.g. BPA). Finally, we'll examine solutions including recycling and bio-based plastics from scientific, behavioral, and economic perspectives.

This class acquaints the student with the state-of-art concepts and algorithms to design and analyze origami systems (assemblies, structures, tessellations, etc). Students will learn how to understand, create and transform geometries by folding and unfolding concepts, and thus apply origami concepts to solve engineering and societal problems. In addition, using origami as a tool, we will outreach to some fundamental concepts in differential geometry.

An introductory course with several demonstration and hands-on components of fabrication with autonomous and robotic systems. Covers formal methods of fabrication and programming of moderately complex elements, including related fabrication platforms, extrusion platforms, various designs of material, structure, and programming of toolpath. The course is centered around lectures with laboratory/virtual studio individual and team-based assignments involving computer-controlled additive manufacturing and robotic systems, student reading, and peer-reviewed presentation and reporting assignments.

Which human activities are changing our climate, and does climate change constitute a major problem? We will investigate these questions through an introduction to climate processes and an exploration of climate from the distant past to today. We will also consider the impact of past and ongoing climate changes on the global environment and on humanity. Finally, we will draw on climate science to identify and evaluate possible courses of action. Intended to be accessible to students not concentrating in science or engineering, while providing a comprehensive overview appropriate for all students.

Which human activities are changing our climate, and does climate change constitute a major problem? We will investigate these questions through an introduction to climate processes and an exploration of climate from the distant past to today. We will also consider the impact of past and ongoing climate changes on the global environment and on humanity. Finally, we will draw on climate science to identify and evaluate possible courses of action. Intended to be accessible to students not concentrating in science or engineering, while providing a comprehensive overview appropriate for all students.

Within a broad context of historical, social, and ethical concerns, a survey of normal childhood development and selected disorders from the perspectives of the physician, the biologist, and the bioethicist. There is an emphasis on the complex relationship between genetic and acquired causes of disease, the environment, medical practice, social conditions, and cultural values. The course features visits from children with some of the conditions discussed, site visits, and readings from the original medical, scientific, and bioethical literature.

What do informed citizens & future leaders of our society need to know about physics & technology? This course is designed for non-scientists who will someday become our informed citizens & decision-makers. Whatever the field of endeavor, they will be faced with crucial decisions in which physics & technology play an important role. This course will present some of the key scientific principles & underlying technical information that can be used to inform potential policy decisions. Topics include energy generation & storage, radiation & radioactivity, forces & collisions, light & sound, and new concepts in quantum technology.

What do informed citizens & future leaders of our society need to know about physics & technology? This course is designed for non-scientists who will someday become our informed citizens & decision-makers. Whatever the field of endeavor, they will be faced with crucial decisions in which physics and technology play an important role. This course will present some of the key scientific principles & underlying technical information that can be used to inform potential policy decisions. Topics include energy generation & storage, radiation & radioactivity, forces & collisions, light & sound, and new concepts in quantum technology.

Musical instruments reside at the intersection of varied topics: sound, perception, embodiment, music theory, social values, and more; how has their design influenced the development of music and how might they be reinvented to spur new ideas? We will explore these questions through readings, listening, analysis, labs, and composition. Specific topics include: harmony and the keyboard; tuning and temperament; preparing the piano, digital and analog. More generally, we will consider the productive tension between qualitative and quantitative understandings of musical concepts.

This course will teach STEM & non-STEM majors how to write about research in STEM fields with clarity and a bit of flair. Goal will be to learn to convey technical topics to non-experts in a compelling, enjoyable way while staying true to the underlying facts, context and concepts. We'll do this through readings, class discussion, encounters with professional writers and journalists of all sorts, across several different media. Most important of all, students will practice what they learn in frequent writing assignments that will be critiqued extensively by an experienced science journalist.

Glass is so ubiquitous that we barely notice it. Yet, glass has far-reaching applications in global communications, biomedical, and energy industries! Glass has also been a versatile medium for creating visually stunning artworks. Few materials so brilliantly connect the artists and the scientists among us. The seminar introduces the material science, physical and chemical properties of glass that result in applications that impact culture, scientific discoveries, and technology. Through museum and artisan studio visits in Venice, and hands-on activities, we highlight how material properties connect to artistic characteristics.

From Buddhism in Asia to Christianity and psychoanalysis in the West to Melanesian societies recently integrated into capitalist markets, the "self" is an important object of speculation, analysis, and power. We focus on anthropological and psychoanalytic perspectives to examine three questions: How is the self formed and under what conditions can it change? What is the self's relationship to modern capitalism, social media, and to different socio-cultural formations? What is reflexivity and its ethical implication? Our goal is to arrive at a more rigorous, comparative, and nuanced understanding of the self.

This seminar explores the process of scientific inquiry by investigating the many ways in which field biologists observe and study organisms in the lab and field. Through hands-on learning experiences in the lab and field, we will combine technology, problem-solving skills, and creativity to collect and interpret behavioral, morphological, physiological, and sensory data in living and non-living organisms. This course will include coordinated trips during class time to local sites in the Princeton area, and also offers an optional 3-week field experience at Mpala Research Centre located in Laikipia, Kenya during January 2025.

For as long as we have been human, we have been looking up. In this course, we will explore the connection between past and present: what tools did ancient civilizations use to study astronomical phenomena, how did they then explain said phenomena, and how does what they learned compare to what we know now? In addition to readings and discussions, we will collaborate on the creation of "artifacts," conduct research, and visit museums to view artifacts associated with the history of astronomy. This course will combine the creative and the scientific. Fall break will be spent in Cusco, Peru, where we will tour Incan astronomical sites.