Courses:

Biology -

AS 020.170.01 (N)
Vaccine Development
Instructor: Lewis Schrager
Schedule: MW 6:00-9:00pm; Meets Jan 4-13
Credits: 1, graded S/U

Description: An overview of the development and use of vaccines in the service of public health. Important issues regarding vaccine development and their global use -- from earliest development to smallpox eradication to current vaccine development strategies for 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza and HIV -- will be discussed. Information presented in this course will be accessable and relevant to students with science and non-science majors.

AS 020.296.01 (N)
Foreign Gene Expression Laboratory
Instructor: Robert Horner
Schedule: MTWThF 9:00-2:00pm; Meets Jan 4-22
Credits: 2, graded S/U

Description: This laboratory will introduce students to molecular cloning techniques that allow bacteria to be used to produce a particular gene product. Recombinant plasmids, carrying a fusion protein gene, will be constructed and used to transform E. coli. These transformed clones will be used to manufacture the fusion protein, and it will be isolated. This is a project lab. All students will need to get the instructor's permission. Biology majors will have priority in registering.

Chemistry -

AS 030.440.01 (N)
Practical NMR: Basic Techniques
Instructor: Tina Trapane
Schedule: TTh 6:00-8:30pm; Meets Jan 4-22
Credits: 1, graded S/U

Description: Mandatory for individuals (postdocs, graduate, and undergraduate students) intending to utilize NMR facilities in the Chemistry Department. Sessions will be held at the Bruker NMR spectrometers used most frequently for routine NMR data collection. Focus is on setting up instrument parameters, obtaining useful spectra, and data processing. Proton, C-13, F-19 and P-31 acquisition will be demonstrated along with preparation and handling of samples, troubleshooting and recognition of artifacts.

Computer Science -

EN 600.106.01 (E)
Pre-programming (algorithmic thinking)
Instructor: Jorge Vasconcelos
Schedule: MWF 1:00-2:30pm; Meets Jan 4-22
Credits: 1, graded S/U

Description: This is a non-technical course intended for people new to the world of computer programming. It is aimed to introduce methodological and conceptual tools to solve problems by thinking in abstract and logical ways. Situations common to the field of programming are discussed, along with fundamentals to create stepwise solutions, and programming techniques common to many languages. Students primarily do paper solutions, but some exercises may require computer. A cultural approach is promoted.

EN 600.133.01 (E)
Embedded Systems Fundamentals: Programming the Hardware-Software Interface
Instructor: Jorge Vasconcelos
Schedule: MWTh 6:00-9:00pm; Meets Jan 4-22
Credits: 2, graded S/U

Description: This hands-on course will be a gentle introduction to the field of embedded computing; computer systems that interact with the real world, making possible cell phones, MP3 players, flash drives, Wii games, and many more. Students will be programming different projects in modern microcontrollers, witnessing the effects immediately. The course will address the hardware-software interface of computer systems, setting a good foundation to understand the physical layer of computer applications and networking. The main topics are computer architecture fundamentals, assembly language, interfacing peripherals, programming device drivers, working with sensors, and data acquisition. Each student will be provided with the material to perform experiments individually, as well as with learning handouts. The course will be intensive but fun. (Projected syllabus http://www.cs.jhu.edu/~jorgev/cs333/ESF.pdf)

Entrepreneurship & Management -

EN 660.160.01 (Note: This course has no area designation for distribution)
Real Estate Development & Finance
Instructor: Jeremy Gorelick
Schedule: MTTh 4:00-5:45pm; Meets Jan 4-21 Credits: 1
Credits: 1, graded S/U

Description: Taught by a professional in the field and a Hopkins graduate, this course explores whether the basic truths of real estate development still hold water today. Readings will be contemporary and will analyze real estate development from the point of view of the developer, the community with vested interest, the representatives of debt and equity lenders and the end purchaser.

Film & Media Studies -

AS 061.101.01 (H)
Hollywood 101: Survival in and Mechanics of the Entertainment Industry
Instructor: Chris Aldrich
Schedule: Tuesday, January 19 – Friday, January 22; 9:30AM-6:30PM. (With ample breaks.)
Credits: 1, graded S/U

Description: Hollywood is infamous for its glamour and wealth, but what goes on behind the façade? Join Hopkins entertainment industry alumni in an intensive one-week program and explore the business side of fame. Use this course to learn how the industry works and how to network and navigate your way through it. The course will cover various aspects of development, production, distribution, financing, marketing, and representation within the film, television, publishing, music, and internet markets.

AS 061.146.01 (H)
The Stand-Up Comic in Society
Instructor: Adam Ruben
Schedule: MTTh 7:00-10:00pm; Meets Jan 4-22
Credits: 2, graded S/U

Description: Stand-up comics uniquely reflect the collision of cultures that produced them. Students study and analyze influential comics, then create, workshop, and ultimately perform their own five-minute stand-up routine.

Music -

AS 376.135.01 (H)
Classical Music Moments during the Cold War
Instructor: Jolie Lin
Schedule: MWTh 6:00-7:30pm; Meets Jan 4-22
Credits: 1, graded S/U

Description: This class will explore three major works of Western classical music in connection to three different points throughout the Cold War. These works are Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony composed during the siege of Leningrad, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 made historic by Van Cliburn's first prize win at the First International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow, and Leonard Bernstein’s rendition of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in a celebration concert after the fall of the Berlin Wall. A field trip to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will take place on January 22.

AS 376.140.01 (H)
Digital Sound Art
Instructor: Mark Lackey
Schedule: TTh 9:00-11:30am; Meets Jan 4-22
Credits: 1, graded S/U

Description: Owners of personal computers may have overlooked the potential of these machines as unique, non-imitative musical instruments. This course combines an historical overview of electronic music with a workshop environment for creative exploration. Participants will study the history of electronic music, then use freeware and low cost shareware for recording, editing, altering, and layering sounds to create personal, idiomatic (non-pop) works of sound art. Computers are available; participants are welcome to bring a laptop computer if they prefer.

Writing Seminars -

AS 220.174.01 (H)
Three Weeks in Hell: Dante's Inferno
Instructor: Stephen Kampa
Schedule: MTTh 1:00-4:00pm; Meets Jan 4-22
Credits: 2, graded S/U

Description: Before there were horror films, there was Dante. Rivers of boiling blood! Schismatics tearing themselves apart! Sinners locked in solid ice! We will read one of the greatest poems in world literature with an eye to appreciating Dante through poetic imitation. Emphases will include the architecture of hell, the notion of retributive justice, allegory, and theology. For three weeks, we'll study a classic in which one character eats another's brains.

AS 220.193.01 (H)
Fitzgerald and Dickens
Instructor: John D. Rockefeller, V
Schedule: MWF 6:00-9:00pm; Meets Jan 4-22
Credits: 2, graded S/U

Description: F. Scott Fitzgerald's novels are often admired for their lyrical prose, but seldom esteemed for their intellectual rigor. As a result, the political commentary that Fitzgerald subtly wove into the fabric of his novels has been overlooked. We'll redress this oversight by examining Fitzgerald's sustained engagement with Charles Dickens's Bleak House in The Beautiful and Damned--both of which focus on characters who are destroyed by the lawsuits they win. Fitzgerald selected Bleak House as the backdrop for his second novel because of an alliance he felt with Dickens, who similarly conceived his novels as instruments for steering society to the left. Ironically, though, Fitzgerald critiqued the progressive movement from the left by contrasting his novel with Dickens's. The Beautiful and Damned illustrates that, rather than the culmination of the progressive movement, Prohibition was a betrayal of it.

AS 220.196.01 (H)
Fiction for Foodies
Instructor: Shashi Bhat
Schedule: TTh 1:00-3:30pm; Meets Jan 4-22
Credits: 1, graded S/U

Description: In this course we will read and write delicious descriptions of food! We will explore excerpts from writers such as E.B. White, Alice McDermott, Roald Dahl, Jhumpa Lahiri, Vladimir Nabokov, and J.K. Rowling. We’ll study techniques in writing about food, and may also watch clips of film adaptations of great food books (Like Water for Chocolate, Julie and Julia), and hold a potluck, as inspiration for students to craft rich food scenes of their own.