Courses are listed in order of their designators (EA333, FR221, NL355, SM422, etc). Credits are listed after the the course title as an ordered triple (R-L-C), where R is the number of weekly recitation-lecture hours, L is the number of weekly laboratory hours, and C is the number of credits.
ELECTRICAL and COMPUTER ENGINEERING
EE485F Advanced Technology (3-0-3).
The objective of this course is to explore and discuss the fundamental
advances in science, engineering, and technology that under pin the
equipment, operations, and tactics employed by the defense community. Topics
to be discussed include: radar, sonar, lasers, optical communications,
advanced materials and structures, alternate energy and energy scavenging,
and space satellites. A key component of the course is the reading and
analysis of current selected papers and other technological media for
underlying scientific and engineering content, especially advances in the
field. Once identified the students will address how these advances can be
applied to the military and quantify their potential impact based on
superior performance, economics, logistics, reduction in casualties, etc.
Prereq: Calculus II, Physics II.
EE485S Introduction to Information Theory
(3-0-3). This course explores the fundamental limits
on compression and transmission of information. Topics include limits and
algorithms for lossless data compression, channel capacity, lossy
compression, fundamentals of error control codes and decoding algorithms,
block codes, convolutional codes and trellis codes. Prereq: EE354 or
permission of chair.
EE487B Applications of Cyber Engineering (3-2-4).
This is an introductory course in cyber engineering and will count for EE302
or EE334. Students are introduced to the fundamental computer engineering
concepts associated with cyber security including networking, digital signal
representation, and digital data transmission in wired and wireless
protocols. The avenues of cyber attack are studied including assembly level
programming, network socket programming, and buffer overflow attacks.
Vulnerabilities of Windows, UNIX and Linux operating systems are explored. Prereq: Physics II.
WEAPONS and SYSTEMS ENGINEERING
ES485C Cyber-Physical Systems (2-2-3). Cyber-physical Systems are composed of dynamically interdependent computational and physical processes with pervasive impact for both military and economic success. A unified approach to building smart systems which span the cyber-physical domains is introduced. Advanced shipboard engineering and damage control systems are presented as a motivating example. Laboratory exploration of Cyber-Physical Systems culminates in a final distributed microcontroller network. Prereq: (ES201 and ES303) or (ES410 and a programming course).
ES487G Desktop Manufacturing and Product Design (2-4-4). In this hands-on project-based design course, students develop and produce a consumer product from concept through prototype using newly available desktop manufacturing tools such as small 3D printers and laser cutters. Topics include the tools of consumer product design, from needs assessment through usability, aesthetics, life cycle and design for large-scale manufacturing. Students will also be introduced to techniques for rapid prototyping and custom electronics design, and will be responsible for every aspect of their product, including marketing materials and hands-on fabrication of their prototype. Prereq: ES201, ESE or ESEH major
ECONOMICS
FE481F Personal Finance (1-0-1). 43% of American workers have less than $10,000 in savings for retirement. This course is designed to provide studentswith an understanding of personal finance and how individual choices impact goals and future earnings potential. Real world topics include income and taxes, money management, spending and credit, investment vehicles, Post 9-11 G.I. Bill, and insurance. Students will create personal and household budgets, demonstrate knowledge of finance, debt, and credit management, retirement and estate planning. Prereq: none.
LANGUAGES and CULTURES
FA281A Basic Arabic Conversation (1-0-1).
This weekly conversation hour supports FA101 and provides students with the
opportunity to practice, implement and hone speaking skills in Arabic. The
course reinforces the material covered in Basic Arabic. Coreq: FA101.
FA281B Intermediate Arabic Conversation (1-0-1).
This weekly conversation hour supports FA201 and provides students with the
opportunity to practice, implement and hone speaking skills in Arabic. This
course reinforces the material covered in Intermediate Arabic. Coreq: FA201.
FA281C Advanced Arabic Conversation (1-0-1).
This weekly conversation hour provides students with the opportunity to
practice, implement and hone speaking skills in Arabic. Students will have
to accomplish interactional tasks using material from advanced Arabic
classes. This course supports any 300- or 400- level Arabic course. Coreq:
FA301 or higher.
FA485 Arabic Conversation and Composition (3-0-3).
In this course, students focus on the skills of speaking and writing, while
building on reading skills and vocabulary acquisition. Students read and
discuss each other's theses, then work on their own compositions on several
topics. Prereq: FA202.
FA485A Arabic Political Discourse (3-0-3).
[Instr J. Owens. This advanced Arabic course presents an overview of various
political movements in the Arab World beginning in the 19th century,
including Pan Arabism, Islamic fundamentalism, and political discourse in
the Arab diaspora. Prereq: FA302 or instructor's permission.
FC485E China in the Reform (3-0-3). [Asst Prof F. Yuan]
This course is an English-language introduction to Chinese society and
culture. The course focuses on China’s economic transformation from a
planned economy to a market one over the past 30 years and its impact on the
life of ordinary Chinese and on the global economy. Prereq: HE111 or
instructor's permission.
FF281A Basic French Conversation I (1-0-1). This is a
non-mandatory conversation course designed for students in FF101 who wish to
develop basic conversational French. The course will reinforce vocabulary
and structures from the FF101 textbook and will use the FF101 film as a
springboard for conversation. Coreq: FF101.
FF281B Intermediate French Conversation I (1-0-1).
This is a non-mandatory conversation course designed for students in FF201
who wish to develop intermediate conversational French. The course will
reinforce vocabulary and structures from the FF201 textbook and will use the
FF201 film as a springboard for conversation. Coreq: FF201.
FF485 Advanced French Composition and Conversation (3-0-3).
[Prof E. Knutson] This course aims to develop midshipmen's competence in
oral and written expression by integrating the study of grammar and
vocabulary into communicative practice. Midshipmen work with model texts,
including news media, film and narratives. Prereq: FF302 or instructor's
permission.
FJ281 Study Abroad Japan: Conversation and Ethnography (1-0-1).
This is a distance-learning course for midshipmen studying in Japan.
Students will record and analyze conversations with language partners in
Japan and keep language learning journals. The instructor will guide them
through this process using email and video chat. Coreq: participation in
SEMEX Japan.
FJ485A Socio-cultural approaches to understanding Japanese folktales (3-0-3).
[Asst Prof S. Anzai] This course examines Japanese culture through Japanese
folktales. In reading Japanese folktales, students will explore and examine
historical, social, and psychological dimensions of Japanese culture. The
course will be conducted in Japanese. Prereq: FJ202 or instructor's
permission.
FJ485B Japanese for Naval Officers (3-0-3). [CAPT Tanaka]. This
Japanese-language course introduces political and social issues surrounding
the Japanese Self-Defense forces and the Japanese public attitude towards
the military and war. The course will also examine the language and culture of the Japanese
military. Prereq: FJ202 or instructor's approval.
FS485 Latin American Culture through Film (3-0-3). This
Spanish-language course satisfies either HUM/SS or core elective
requirements. Midshipmen examine cultural phenomena and perceptions
affecting contemporary Latin American societies and their relations with the
U.S. through criticism and analysis of Latin American films. Prereq: FS301.
ENGLISH
HE360 How to Tell a True War Story: The Fiction
of Tim O'Brien (3-0-3). [LCDR W. Bushnell] "That's
what fiction is for. It's for getting at the truth when the truth isn't
sufficient for the truth." --Tim O'Brien. This course will seek many truths
suggested by Tim O'Brien's stories. It will survey the body of his work and
examine his legacy not only as a writer known primarily as a chronicler of
the Vietnam War, but as a prominent figure in contemporary American
literature. We will look at his eight major publications, most likely in
chronological order. "And in the
end, really, there's nothing much to say about a true war story, except
maybe 'Oh.'" --from "How to Tell a True War Story." Prereq: HE112.
HE461 Modernism in the Trenches: Literary Landscapes of World War I (3-0-3). [CDR M. Larabee] World War I posed a unique challenge to the representative power of words, maps, and visual art. This course explores a compelling story of responses to that challenge, showing particularly how modernist topographies of war in fiction by Ford Madox Ford, Virginia Woolf, Edmund Blunden, Richard Aldington, Rebecca West, and others shaped the meaning of the Great War and offered reconstructions of self and culture. Restoring their writing to a context of spaces and places recorded in archival materials, the course will range across literature, cartography, geography, art history, and aesthetic philosophy to reorient our knowledge of modernism, revealing its promise of healing and redemption. Moving outward from this historical instance, the course will show midshipmen how their ability to read maps and interpret landscapes, combined with a new awareness of the ways that literature maps the imagination and creates meaning, will give them techniques for understanding the wars in which they may serve. Restricted enrollment: to preregister, sign up outside Sampson 212. Prereq: one 300-level English course and permission of the Chair.
HE463 Readings from the Best of Charles
Dickens (3-0-3). [Prof. E. Johnston] Marking the two
hundredth anniversary of Charles Dickens' birth, this seminar addresses
three of the author's long masterpieces--David Copperfield,
Bleak House, and Our Mutual Friend. While all three novels
appeared in serialized parts, they differ significantly in their narration.
David Copperfield, a semi-autobiographical Bildungsroman, is told
from a first-person point of view. It was, by the way, the novel closest to
Dickens' heart ("Of all my books, I like this the best"). Bleak House
may be unique among Victorian novels in featuring two very different
narrators, Esther Summerson, who is one of the main characters, and an
unnamed third-person omniscient narrator. The contrasts in tone, outlook,
sensibility, and degree and kinds of awareness between the two narrators are
compelling. Our Mutual Friend, Dickens' last finished novel, is a
multiplot novel told by a single third-person omniscient narrator. Students
will explore Dickens' choices about structure and narration; his famous
methods of characterization; his increasingly severe critiques of aspects of
Victorian society, particularly its obsession with class and wealth and its
faulty social and political institutions; and his evocative use of
figurative language and symbolic settings. The course aims to develop
students' understanding of the art of fiction, the world of Victorian
England, and the nature of what has come to be called "Dickensian".
Restricted enrollment: to preregister, sign up outside Sampson 212. Prereq:
one 300-level English course and permission of the Chair.
HE503 Slavery and American Culture (3-0-3).
[Prof. M. McWilliams] From the first literature by African Americans to epic
treatment by some of America's greatest writers, from work songs and field
hollers to gospel and the blues, from minstrelsy to recent films, slavery
has haunted the imagination of the United States. In this course we will
examine how writers, musicians, artists, and thinkers have explored this
central tragedy of American history. Restricted enrollment: to preregister,
sign up outside Sampson 212. Prereq: HEGH majors only. Coreq: HE521.
HE521 Honors Supplement (1-0-1).
Focused study of a topic generated in HE503. Prereq: HEGH majors only. Coreq:
HE503.
LEADERSHIP, ETHICS and LAW
NL285 Psychology of Intimate Relationships (3-0-3). [LT D. Grow] This course will provide an in-depth understanding of the psychological processes involved in intimate relationships through the application of psychological theory to our own lives in the context of interpersonal attraction, friendship development, affiliation, loneliness, shyness, theories of love, courtship, sexual relationships, commitment, violence in close relationships, marital conflict, divorce, and marital therapy. Counts for 200-level humanities-social science credit. Prereqs: 3/C standing.
NL485B Biological Basis of Behavior
(3-0-3).
[LT D. Grow] This is an advanced
independent study course in the biology of human behavior.
The course will focus on the brain
and its interrelations with the mind and behavior.
This course was developed for future
officers. Many of its activities
apply principles of human behavior to effective leadership in the Navy and
Marine Corps. The course will cover
several prominent domains of neuropsychological research.
At the end of this course, the
student will have an understanding of the central nervous system’s
functioning as it relates to mental illness, developmental disabilities, and
trauma. The student will also have an
understanding of how physiological events within the body contribute to
perception, mood and behavior and a solid foundation for further study of
the biological basis of behavior and psychopharmacology.
Counts for 300-level
humanities-social science credit.
Prereq: NL310.
NP485 Christian and Islamic Just War Theory (3-0-3).
[Assoc. Prof. M. Skerker] Christianity and Islam have robust traditions of
moral reflection on warfare. This course will study and compare the two
traditions with a main focus on primary texts from classical to modern
times. Counts for 300-level humanities-social science credit. Prereq: (NE203
or NP230) and 2/C standing
NP485A Philosophy of Law (3-0-3).
[Assoc. Prof. D. Garren] It is often said that ours is “a government of
laws, and not of men.” But is that a good thing? What are laws, after all?
Where do they come from? What purpose do they serve? Why are we obligated to
obey them? What recourse do we have if we don’t agree with them or think
them immoral or unjust? For example, what if the law requires us to do
something that we don’t wish to do (buy health insurance), or forbids us
from doing something that we do wish to do (marry a member of the same sex)?
Must we follow such laws, or is it permissible to break them? Through a
careful reading of texts and cases, weekly writing assignments and robust
discussion and debate, students will explore these and other fundamental
questions in the philosophy of law. Counts for humanities-social science
credit. Prereqs: (NE203 or NP230) and 2/C standing.
NP485B Philosophy of Film (3-0-3).
[Dr. S. Baker] This course will examine perennial problems or themes in the
history of philosophy through the medium of films. Topics we will explore:
skepticism, personal identity, philosophy of mind, relativism, utilitarian
and deontological ethics, the meaning of life, and the problem of evil.
Counts for 300-level humanities-social science credit. Prereqs: NE203 or
NP230 and 2/C standing.
NP485C Philosophical Reflections on Christian Faith (3-0-3). [Assoc. Prof. C. Eberle] The Christian faith tradition includes many metaphysical claims regarding the nature of reality as well as moral claims regarding the human condition. This course will help students critically reflect on those claims. Topics covered include the nature of justice, love and forgiveness, the existence of God, the relation between religion and science, the moral assessment of war. Authors covered include: St. Augustine, Vitoria, C.S. Lewis, Nicholas Wolterstorff. Counts for 300-level humanities-social science credit. Prereq: NE203 or NP230 and 2/C standing.
CHEMISTRY
SB453 Neuroscience and Developmental Biology
(3-2-4). This course offers an advanced treatment of
neuroscience and developmental biology that builds on both the molecular and
cellular background provided in SB251 and the basic principles underlying
nervous system function introduced in SB252 and applies them to topics
including both somatic and special sensory modalities, initiation, execution
and coordination of motor programs and the neuro-anatomical organization of
the pathways that control these functions. Additional special topics will be
introduced on a rotating basis. The course will also use the examples set by
studies performed in model organisms to elucidate the mechanisms by which
normal development proceeds in higher eukaryotes with an emphasis on neural
development. The course does not count as a chemistry major elective. Prereq:
SB252.
SC287 Art Conservation Chemistry (3-2-4). This course will deal with the chemical aspects of art conservation as well as the philosophy and ethics of science involved in art conservation. Investigating the physical content of art and artifacts can give us insight into the mind and culture of the people who created the object. State of the art analytical techniques will be used to determine the composition of artifacts and the effects of time. Prereq: Chemistry I.
SC412 Environmental Chemistry (3-0-3).
Many analytical chemistry techniques can be used to learn more about the
chemistry of our environment. In this course students will be exposed to
specific applications of these techniques to various environmental systems
(i.e. water, air, soil, etc.). Topics to be explored may include the bio-
and geo-chemical cycles, the effect of military activities on the
environment and the use of "green chemistry" in industry. Prereq: SC262 or
SC264 or permission of the chair.
SC485A Computational Methods for Chemists (3-0-3). This course will explore the use of numerical methods that are utilized by theoretical chemists to solve problems on computers. The students will write programs in FORTRAN or C to solve equations, do matrix manipulations, do curve fitting, do numerical integration, etc. These techniques will be applied to chemical problems. The use of advanced techniques, such as Spartan, Gaussian, or molecular dynamics programs, that utilize prewritten software, may also be explored for various problems. Prereq: SM212.
SC485C The Organic Chemistry of Biological Pathways (3-0-3). Organic Chemistry is the study of the reactions of carbon compounds. Biochemistry is the study of the chemical reactions in living systems. This course will explore the connection between these two sub-disciplines of chemistry by looking at the organic reactions involved in many biological pathways. Among other topics, we’ll examine the biosynthesis of steroids and the metabolism of amino acids; looking at the intermediate compounds and mechanisms of their formation from the organic point of view, writing mechanisms and showing how the reactions are examples of what you learned in organic chemistry. This course will fulfill the elective requirement of the biochemistry option. Prerequisites SC226 and SC335.
SC485E Chemical and Biological Warfare Agents (3-0-3). This course will give students a working knowledge of potential chemical and biological threats to US Forces as well as the civilian population. Students will also learn the effects that chemical and biological agents have on the human body, learn how to recognize symptoms of attack by specific agents, and learn about the available treatments and their mechanisms of action. Prereq: SC112 and (SB201 or SB211 or SB251 or permission of chair).
PHYSICS
SP481 Science of
Music & Sound (1-0-1). This seminar will
focus on the technical aspects of music and sound. Topics will start with a
review of basic definitions of waves and oscillations, followed by an in-depth
look at sound generation on strings and pipes. Modes of plates and volumes will
be discussed as a prelude to putting all the elements together to form musical
instruments. The relationship between a source, medium and detector responses
will complete the picture as to what exactly is being heard when we perceive
sound. A mathematical discussion about the nature of music and its relationship
to harmonies will lead to a closing discussion about music theory. This course
has a lab component which is held 7th period as it will involve making loud
sounds. Prereq: none.
SP487 Computational Physics (3-2-4).
During the first 6-8 weeks, this course will provide an introduction to
structured programming (via BASIC or MATLAB) as well as model building,
differential equation systems and basic matrix theory. For the last 6 weeks,
modules (collected from the physics department) will be presented as a grounds
for model building and data fabrication. Once students have data sets, the focus
will switch to statistical analysis and presentation (plotting as well as some
LaTeX). Prereq: SM212.