ETHNOGRAPHIC FIELD RESEARCH IN NYC
This course provides the aspiring anthropologist with an array of primarily qualitative methodological tools essential to successful urban fieldwork. As such, it is a practicum of sorts, where regular field assignments help build one’s ability to record and analyze social behavior by drawing on several key data collection techniques. Because we have the luxury of inhabiting a large, densely populated, international city, this class requires that you take a head-first plunge into urban anthropology. The NYC area will define the laboratory for individually- designed research projects. Be forewarned, however! Ethnographic engagement involves efforts to detect social patterns, but it is often a self-reflexive exercise, too. Readings provide methodological, analytical, and personal insights into the skills, joys, and trials that define successful field research.
- Department: Anthropology @Barnard
- F 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
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Instructor:
Kaya N Williams
Info - 4 points
SENIOR THESIS SEMINAR I
Prerequisites: Limited to Barnard Anthropology Seniors. Offered every Fall. Discussion of research methods and planning and writing of a Senior Essay in Anthropology will accompany research on problems of interest to students, culminating in the writing of individual Senior Essays. The advisory system requires periodic consultation and discussion between the student and her adviser as well as the meeting of specific deadlines set by the department each semester. Limited to Barnard Senior Anthropology Majors.
- Department: Anthropology @Barnard
- M 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
- 4 points
INDEPENDENT STUDY
If a student wishes to pursue a research project or a course of study not offered by the department, he or she may apply for an Independent Study. Application: 1. cover sheet with signatures of the professor who will serve as the project sponsor and departmental administrator or director of undergraduate studies; 2. project description in 750 words, including any preliminary work in the field, such as a lecture course(s) or seminar(s); 3. bibliography of primary and secondary works to be read or consulted. Please visit the English and Comparative Literature Department website at http://english.columbia.edu/undergraduate/forms for the cover sheet form or see the administrator in 602 Philosophy Hall for the cover sheet form and to answer any other questions you may have.
- Department: English and Comparative Literature
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Instructor:
Eileen Gillooly
CULPA: 3 Info - 1-4 points
Troilus and Criseyde
The intellectual goals of the course are to understand the manuscript evidence for the text and to be able to read Chaucer with precision: precision as to the grammatical structure, vocabulary, rhymes, and meter of the text. Being such an enlightened, close reader will help students in many, if not all, of their other courses, and will be invaluable to them in most any job they will ever have thereafter.
- Department: English and Comparative Literature
- T 10:10 a.m.-noon
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Instructor:
David M Yerkes
CULPA: 41 Info - 4 points
FEMINIST AND DECOLONIAL STUDIES IN LATIN
This course introduces feminist and decolonial studies as an exciting and interdisciplinary field that helps us better understand power, inequality, and social change. It offers a foundation in key feminist and decolonial ideas while inviting students to connect theory with real-world struggles and movements.
In the first part of the course, we will learn core concepts and explore major debates in feminist and decolonial thought. In the second half, we will look at feminism not only as a set of ideas, but also as a diverse and dynamic social movement that has shaped political struggles, cultural representation, and historical change.
Together, we will ask important questions such as: Is gender shaped by colonial histories? What does intersectionality help us see about inequality? How can research and political action be guided by feminist and decolonial perspectives? What can we learn from Indigenous feminisms, community feminisms, and other transformative ways of thinking?
Throughout the course, we will engage with the work of activists, scholars, and artists—especially Indigenous, Afro-descendant, LGBTQ+, and land and water defenders—whose ideas are reshaping feminist studies today. We will also explore how feminist and decolonial perspectives help us understand the current planetary crisis and imagine more just and sustainable ways of relating to each other and to the environment.
- Department: Anthropology
- R 10:10 a.m.-noon
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Instructor:
Marisa G Ruiz Trejo
Info - 4 points
ECOCRITICISM FOR THE END TIMES
Prerequisites: the instructors permission. This seminar aims to show what an anthropologically informed, ecocritical cultural studies can offer in this moment of intensifying ecological calamity. The course will not only engage significant works in anthropology, ecocriticism, philosophy, literature, politics, and aesthetics to think about the environment, it will also bring these works into engaged reflection on living in the end times (borrowing cultural critic Slavoj Zizeks phrase). The seminar will thus locate critical perspectives on the environment within the contemporary worldwide ecological crisis, emphasizing the ethnographic realities of global warming, debates on nuclear power and energy, and the place of nature. Drawing on the professors long experience in Japan and current research on the aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster, the seminar will also take care to unpack the notion of end times, with its apocalyptic implications, through close considerations of works that take on the question of ecocatastrophe in our times. North American and European perspectives, as well as international ones (particularly ones drawn from East Asia), will give the course a global reach.
- Department: Anthropology
- T 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
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Instructor:
Marilyn Ivy
CULPA: 11
Wikipedia
Info
- 4 points
SENIOR THESIS SEMINAR
Computer Science majors at Barnard can choose to pursue a year-long senior research thesis for their senior experience. A senior thesis is intended to be a substantial piece of work in which the student engages in independent and original research. They should register for two semesters of research projects in CS through their faculty advisor’s home department (Barnard or Columbia), each for at least 3 credits (one in Fall and one in the Spring). They should additionally register for this course. The main goal is to provide students with a venue to discuss their senior thesis projects with each other. In the seminar, students learn how to communicate and present their work. They also become more familiar with other students’ areas of research and other types of research projects that fall under the umbrella of computer science. The seminar sometimes also features guest speakers in various areas of CS; students participate and engage in discussion with the speaker, further developing their research communication skills. The instructor of this course functions as a secondary advisor for the students’ projects. At the end of the academic year, the students present their projects to the CS community at Barnard.
- Department: Computer Science @Barnard
- W noon-1:50 p.m.
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Instructor:
Tiffany Tseng
Info - 1 points
INTRO TO CLASSICAL RHETORIC
Prerequisites: the instructor's permission. (Seminar). This course examines rhetorical theory from its roots in ancient Greece and Rome and reanimates the great debates about language that emerged in times of national expansion and cultural upheaval. We will situate the texts of Plato, Isocrates, Aristotle, Cicero, Quintilian, and others in their historical contexts to illuminate ongoing conversations about the role of words and images in the negotiation of persuasion, meaning making, and the formation of the public. In the process, we will discover that the arguments of classical rhetoric play out all around us today. Readings from thinkers like Judith Butler, Richard McKeon, Robert Pirsig, and Bruno Latour echo the ancients in their debates about hate speech regulation, the purpose of higher education, and the ability of the sciences to arrive at truth. We will discover that rhetoricians who are writing during eras of unprecedented expansion of democracies, colonization, and empire have a great deal to say about the workings of language in our globalizing, digitizing age. Application instructions: E-mail Professor Sue Mendelsohn (sem2181@columbia.edu) by April 11 with the subject heading Rhetoric seminar. In your message, include basic information: your name, school, major, year of study, and relevant courses taken, along with a brief statement about why you are interested in taking the course. Admitted students should register for the course; they will automatically be placed on a wait list, from which the instructor will in due course admit them as spaces become available.
- Department: English and Comparative Literature
- R 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
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Instructor:
Susan Mendelsohn
CULPA: 5
h-index: 3
Info
- 4 points
RESEARCH PROJECTS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE
RESEARCH PROJECTS IN CS
COMS BC3895 Research Projects in Computer Science (CS) is an opportunity for undergraduates to conduct research under the supervision of a Barnard CS faculty member. The research project is usually in an area that the faculty member is an expert in and often arises out of discussions with the faculty member, but at times it is student-driven. A student may enroll in COMS BC3895 more than once. Application to enroll in BC3895 must be approved by the Faculty Advisor who will supervise the research. The instructor of the student’s section of COMS BC3895 will be the Barnard CS Faculty Advisor. Note: Columbia CS has a similar course COMS W3998 Projects in Computer Science for students both at Barnard and Columbia to conduct research with Columbia CS faculty.
- Department: Computer Science @Barnard
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Instructor:
Smaranda Muresan
h-index: 22 Info -
Instructor:
Rebecca N Wright
Wikipedia h-index: 34 Info -
Instructor:
Corey Toler-Franklin
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Instructor:
Mark Santolucito
CULPA: 1 h-index: 8 Info -
Instructor:
Tiffany Tseng
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Instructor:
Murad Megjhani
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Instructor:
Ahmer Arif
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Instructor:
Eysa Lee
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Instructor:
Lucy Simko
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Instructor:
Niall Williams
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Instructor:
Elaine Li
Info - 1-4 points
READING ITALIANS - PRECEPT
The purpose of this precept is to read short selections of the readings for this course in the original Italian, closely comparing these texts with their English counterparts. Attention will be paid to stylistic, syntactical, and grammatical characteristics of both languages, carefully considering questions of tone, register, cadence, idiomatic expressions, archaisms, and other elements of the translator’s task. In addition to discussing the readings, we will work in class on translating specific passages from Italian into English. Depending on the makeup of the class, the discussions will take place either fully in Italian or in a mix of Italian and English.
- Department: English @Barnard
- W 4:10 p.m.-5 p.m.
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Instructor:
Jhumpa Lahiri
Wikipedia Info - 1 points
Research Training
Research training course. Recommended in preparation for laboratory related research.
- Department: Biomedical Engineering
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Instructor:
Gerard A Ateshian
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Instructor:
Tal Danino
Wikipedia h-index: 18 Info -
Instructor:
X. Edward Guo
CULPA: 2 h-index: 70 Info -
Instructor:
Henry Hess
CULPA: 1 h-index: 45 Info -
Instructor:
Clark T Hung
CULPA: 5 h-index: 65 Info -
Instructor:
Lance Kam
CULPA: 7
h-index: 38
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Instructor:
Andrew Laine
Wikipedia h-index: 43 Info -
Instructor:
Elisa Konofagou
Wikipedia h-index: 71 Info -
Instructor:
Kam W Leong
h-index: 126 Info -
Instructor:
Helen Lu
CULPA: 1 h-index: 54 Info -
Instructor:
Barclay Morrison
CULPA: 9 h-index: 42 Info -
Instructor:
Elizabeth Olson
h-index: 28 Info -
Instructor:
Paul Sajda
CULPA: 3 h-index: 47 Info -
Instructor:
Samuel Sia
CULPA: 1 h-index: 39 Info -
Instructor:
Stavros Thomopoulos
h-index: 63 Info -
Instructor:
John T Vaughan
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Instructor:
Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic
Wikipedia h-index: 132 Info -
Instructor:
Qi Wang
h-index: 24 Info -
Instructor:
Nandan L Nerurkar
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Instructor:
Stephen H Tsang
Wikipedia h-index: 58 Info -
Instructor:
Elham Azizi
h-index: 10 Info -
Instructor:
Jose McFaline-Figueroa
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Instructor:
Treena L Arinzeh
Wikipedia Info -
Instructor:
Sanja Vickovic
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Instructor:
Santiago Correa
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Instructor:
Parisa Yousefpour
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Instructor:
Lauren N Heckelman
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Instructor:
Grace McIlvain
Info - 0 points
Research Training
Research training course. Recommended in preparation for laboratory related research.
- Department: Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics
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Instructor:
Xuan Di
h-index: 15 Info - 0 points
DADA AND SURREALISM
- Department: Comparative Literature and Society @Barnard
- M 11 a.m.-12:50 p.m.
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Instructor:
Caroline Weber
CULPA: 8
Wikipedia
Info
- 3 points
READING ITALIANS: HER SIDE OF THE STORY
READING ITALIANS: HER STO
“In Italy, literary fiction has long been considered a man’s game.” So began a
2019 New York Times article discussing the growing international attention being
paid to Italian women writers, particuarly on the heels of Elena Ferrante’s
phenomenal global success. This course will center the female voice and
subjectivity in the Italian literary tradition, with a focus on celebrated prose writers
active from the early twentieth century to the present. Some, recently republished
and reconsidered for the Italian market, have also been re-translated and re-
introduced to a wider English readership. We will trace the reception of female
authors within the Italian critical establishment and abroad, and the role
translation might play in broadening and amplifying their reputation and reach.
We will focus on one author per week, paying special attention to themes of
resistance, rebellion, and self-fashioning. All readings will be in English.
- Department: English @Barnard
- TR 4:10 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
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Instructor:
Jhumpa Lahiri
Wikipedia Info - 3 points
Research Training
Research training course. Recommended in preparation for laboratory related research.
- Department: Mechanical Engineering
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Instructor:
Matei T Ciocarlie
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Instructor:
Michael Burke
h-index: 22 Info -
Instructor:
Sinisa Vukelic
CULPA: 2 h-index: 11 Info -
Instructor:
Bianca N Howard
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Instructor:
Jeffrey W Kysar
CULPA: 9
h-index: 37
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Instructor:
Sunil Agrawal
Wikipedia h-index: 65 Info -
Instructor:
Chaoqun Dong
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Instructor:
Sunil Agrawal
Wikipedia h-index: 65 Info -
Instructor:
Gerard A Ateshian
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Instructor:
Cody Paige
Info - 0 points
The Art of the Question in Latin America
The Question in Latin Ame
This course investigates the role of the question as a central artistic, political, and epistemological device in Latin American art from the early twentieth century to the present. We will explore how artists have deployed questions not merely as rhetorical devices or titles, but as strategies that shape form, content, and spectatorship—provoking reflection, resistance, and transformation.
Through case studies ranging from Oswald de Andrade’s provocative “Tupy or not Tupy?” (1928) and Marta Minujín’s playful “What types of materials turn you on?” (1968) to Alfredo Jaar’s public survey ¿Es usted feliz? (1981) and Clemencia Lucena’s feminist intervention ¿Qué hacen ellas mientras ellos trabajan? (1970), students will examine the diverse functions of questioning in visual art, performance, literature, and other media. Class discussions will focus on the aesthetic, political, and epistemic implications of questions in art: How do these works shape audience engagement? In what ways do they resist resolution? How do they generate critique, knowledge, or political action? We will also consider transnational and diasporic contexts, exploring how Latin American artists navigate questions across cultural and geographic boundaries.
The course is structured around five modules—Questioning Identity, Questioning the Patriarchy, Questioning Dictatorship, Questioning Spectatorship, and Questioning the Real—that highlight key moments in modern and contemporary Latin American art to uncover how uncertainty and questioning have shaped aesthetic and political imagination.
- Department: Latin American and Iberian Cultures
- MW 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
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Instructor:
Jeronimo Duarte Riascos
Info - 3 points
UNDERGRAD RES IN APPLIED MATH
This course may be repeated for credit, but no more than 6 points of this course may be counted toward the satisfaction of the B.S. degree requirements. Candidates for the B.S. degree may conduct an investigation in applied mathematics or carry out a special project under the supervision of the staff. Credit for the course is contingent upon the submission of an acceptable thesis or final report.
- Department: Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics
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Instructor:
Lorenzo M Polvani
CULPA: 6
h-index: 69
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Instructor:
Marc W Spiegelman
CULPA: 15
Info
- 0-4 points
UNDERGRAD RESRCH-APPLD PHYSICS
This course may be repeated for credit, but no more than 6 points of this course may be counted toward the satisfaction of the B.S. degree requirements. Candidates for the B.S. degree may conduct an investigation in applied physics or carry out a special project under the supervision of the staff. Credit for the course is contingent upon the submission of an acceptable thesis or final report.
- Department: Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics
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Instructor:
Alexander Gaeta
Wikipedia h-index: 89 Info -
Instructor:
Carlos Paz Soldan
h-index: 28 Info -
Instructor:
Michele Simoncelli
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Instructor:
Renata M Wentzcovitch
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Instructor:
Sherry Zhang
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Instructor:
Ben Zhu
Info - 0-4 points
AMEC Senior Thesis Seminar
The Senior Thesis Seminar is a one-semester requirement for all Barnard College students majoring in Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures (AMEC). This is a working research seminar devoted to helping students produce a substantive piece of writing that will eventually be part of their senior thesis project, the culmination of their work in the major. Students will participate in the seminar as thesis writers and as peer editors. In addition to working with the instructor in the seminar, students will also consult with a faculty member who specializes in the student's area of interest within the AMEC department.
- Department: Asian and Middle East @Barnard
- M 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
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Instructor:
Matthew L Keegan
CULPA: 8 Info - 4 points
UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH PROJECT
Candidates for the B.S. degree may conduct an investigation of some problem in chemical engineering or applied chemistry or carry out a special project under the supervision of the staff. Up to 6 points may be counted toward the technical elective content requirement. (Note that if more than 3 points of research are pursued, an undergraduate thesis is required.)
- Department: Chemical Engineering
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Instructor:
Scott Banta
CULPA: 1 h-index: 36 Info -
Instructor:
Kyle Bishop
h-index: 42 Info -
Instructor:
Christopher M Boyce
h-index: 17 Info -
Instructor:
Juliana Silva Alves Carneiro
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Instructor:
Neil D Dolinski
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Instructor:
Christopher J Durning
CULPA: 3 Info -
Instructor:
Daniel Esposito
h-index: 22 Info -
Instructor:
Oleg Gang
h-index: 45 Info -
Instructor:
Jingyue Ju
h-index: 77 Info -
Instructor:
Sanat Kumar
CULPA: 4 h-index: 79 Info -
Instructor:
Lauren E Marbella
Info - 0-6 points
UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH PROJECT
Candidates for the B.S. degree may conduct an investigation of some problem in chemical engineering or applied chemistry or carry out a special project under the supervision of the staff. Up to 6 points may be counted toward the technical elective content requirement. (Note that if more than 3 points of research are pursued, an undergraduate thesis is required.)
- Department: Chemical Engineering
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Instructor:
Lauren E Marbella
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Instructor:
Allie Obermeyer
h-index: 16 Info -
Instructor:
Ben O'Shaughnessy
CULPA: 3 Info -
Instructor:
Mijo Simunovic
CULPA: 1 h-index: 17 Info -
Instructor:
Dan Steingart
CULPA: 1 Wikipedia h-index: 36 Info -
Instructor:
Alexander Urban
h-index: 24 Info -
Instructor:
Venkat Venkatasubramanian
h-index: 58 Info -
Instructor:
Alan West
CULPA: 3 h-index: 48 Info -
Instructor:
Asher Williams
Info - 0-6 points
Supervised Individual Research
Supervised individual research in Cognitive Science. 1-4 points. May be repeated for credit.
- Department: Cognitive Science @Barnard
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Instructor:
Ann Senghas
CULPA: 17
Info
- 1-4 points
UNDERGRAD RES-ENVIRONMTL ENGIN
This course may be repeated for credit, but no more than 3 points of this course may be counted towards the satisfaction of the B. S. degree requirements. Candidates for the B.S. degree may conduct an investigation in Earth and Environmental Engineering, or carry out a special project under the supervision of EAEE faculty. Credit for the course is contingent on the submission of an acceptable thesis or final report. This course cannot substitute for the Undergraduate design project (EAEE E3999x or EAEE E3999y)
- Department: Earth and Environmental Engineering
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Instructor:
Kartik Chandran
CULPA: 4
Wikipedia
h-index: 51
Info
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Instructor:
Robert Farrauto
h-index: 52 Info -
Instructor:
Raymond Farinato
CULPA: 1 Info - 0-3 points
UNDERGRAD RES-ENVIRONMTL ENGIN
This course may be repeated for credit, but no more than 3 points of this course may be counted towards the satisfaction of the B. S. degree requirements. Candidates for the B.S. degree may conduct an investigation in Earth and Environmental Engineering, or carry out a special project under the supervision of EAEE faculty. Credit for the course is contingent on the submission of an acceptable thesis or final report. This course cannot substitute for the Undergraduate design project (EAEE E3999x or EAEE E3999y)
- Department: Earth and Environmental Engineering
- 0-3 points
UNDERGRAD RES-ENVIRONMTL ENGIN
This course may be repeated for credit, but no more than 3 points of this course may be counted towards the satisfaction of the B. S. degree requirements. Candidates for the B.S. degree may conduct an investigation in Earth and Environmental Engineering, or carry out a special project under the supervision of EAEE faculty. Credit for the course is contingent on the submission of an acceptable thesis or final report. This course cannot substitute for the Undergraduate design project (EAEE E3999x or EAEE E3999y)
- Department: Earth and Environmental Engineering
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Instructor:
Pierre Gentine
CULPA: 1 h-index: 43 Info -
Instructor:
Shaina Kelly
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Instructor:
Upmanu Lall
CULPA: 13
Wikipedia
h-index: 68
Info
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Instructor:
Vijay Modi
CULPA: 3
h-index: 40
Info
- 0-3 points