New Course Offerings 2008-09

Computer Applications III

Differs from other courses in the series by focusing on software used more frequently in undergraduate education settings. Students will engage in self-directed study of Facebook, AIM, Flash games, World of Warcraft, and BitTorrent. Additional challenge will be supplied by the distraction of a vaguely awkward middle-aged person standing at the front of the room rambling on about some boring crap.

The course will culminate in an opportunity for students to complain on course evaluations that they didn’t learn anything. Cross-listed with all other Hose-Rulman courses.

Applied Biology for Computer Scientists

Explores systems with which students in computing fields may have little or no hands-on experience: those involved in executing the genetic algorithms of human organisms. Relevant skills include the ability to monitor human interfaces to determine when digital manipulation might be acceptable. Individual preference may lead students to focus on either software or hardware. Practice with a partner is highly desirable but cannot be guaranteed.

Personality Disorders: Narcissism and Megalomania

Covers clinical conditions recognized by psychiatrists as prevalent among the college-age population. Learning objectives include constant reassurance that those enrolled are in fact more intrinsically valuable than other human beings. Course materials include Freud’s major texts, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th. Edition, and Mean Girls. On Wednesdays, we wear pink.

Prerequisites: Membership in at least 4 competing Facebook groups claiming to constitute the 50 H0tTtTest People at Rose. No, you don’t qualify.

Seminar in Interdisciplinary Engineering

Cross-listed in Civil Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Humanities and Social Sciences

This cross-disciplinary design experience will prepare students for interdisciplinary workplaces by drawing on the strengths of several departments. The course will commence with the design and fabrication of microprocessors, which will then be caked in mud, struck repeatedly with concrete blocks, and run over by pickup trucks. Participants will then sit in a circle and talk about their feelings.

Nerdimatics

Know your tools from your dweebs? Able to identify the precise instant a geek becomes a Poindexter or Melvin? If you said “no” to either question, then push your glasses back onto your nose and register! This course introduces cutting-edge research and equipment designed to help Nerdologists sort through the protean phenomenon that is Nerd-dom. Learn the Frincke Scale of Social Discomfort, the Kirk-Picard Assessment Matrix, the Chortle-meter of Oddly Timed Amusement, and the Recent Bathing Heuristic.

All students and faculty will be expected to sign a Human Subjects Research Waiver. And bring a mirror.

Paraphernaliology (Lab)

From wrapping papers to improvised “pieces,” students will test a wide range of materials for suitability and performance, beginning with apples, bananas, and potatoes, advancing to aluminum cans and clarinet segments, and culminating with novels, birth control pill dispensers, and Precious Moments figurines.

Meets concurrently with: Food, Literature, and Culture

The

Examines the use of the preposition “the,” primarily in American but also British literature and perhaps film. Introduces students to the utility, the flexibility, and the cultural significance of the “the.”

Existentialism and Show Tunes

What underlying commentary about consciousness is made in “Hello Dolly!”? Would Descartes conclude that consciousness is necessary for Dolly to exist? How would Jean-Paul Sartre evaluate the value system expressed in “Oklahoma!”? Is the wind whipping through the plain a metaphor for God? Additional topics to be covered: The Gershwin-Nietzsche connection. The writings of Kierkegaard as expressed by Gilbert and Sullivan.

Game Theory I: Risk Management

Analysis of risk, including the study of initial conditions, optimal movement strategies, hostile takeovers, defense of territory and probability of ruin. Ages 10 and up.

Game Theory II: Applications to Real Estate Development

A continuation of Game Theory I with particular attention to the Monopolistic advantages of owning adjacent properties and the development thereof. The construction of hotels, pricing the rooms, and collecting the rents. The buying of votes to become Chairman of the Board. Some techniques for avoiding jail time if caught. Students will host the Mr. Rose beauty pageant and contribute a $10 prize for second place.

Special Lectures on Engineering Education Principles (SLEEP)

This self-study course is intended for graduating seniors who have already fulfilled their major degree requirements, but still fall short of the graduation credit hour requirement. Students are expected to reflect on their undergraduate engineering experiences at Rose-Hulman. This course will allow students to engage in activities not made readily available in the past. There will be no homework or exams, but participation in class activities is mandatory. Note: Despite the apparent ease of this course, it is against Institute policy for students to try SLEEP prior to their senior year. Several students have unsuccessfully attempted SLEEP early in their degree programs, often ending in failure.

Even Prime Numbers

Properties of even prime numbers. The proof that there are finitely many even prime numbers. The distribution of even prime numbers. Formulas which produce even prime numbers. Computations with even prime numbers. Open problems concerning even prime numbers. Special emphasis will be placed on learning the terminology associated with this study.

Biomathematics

This course will teach how to count the number of legs on various organisms, starting with unicellular organisms and working though fungi, plants, and finally animals. Octopi will be studied intensely. If time permits, the question of toes may be addressed.

The Fibonacci Sequence

One. One, two, three. Five. Eight, thirteen. Twenty-one. Thirty-four, fifty-five, eighty-nine. If time permits, one hundred and forty-four.

Applications of Infinity

Topics may include: what to do if you have infinitely many guests in your hotel, how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, and how many roads must a man walk down before you can call him a man. Also, where do the parallel rails of a railroad track meet, and what to do when you get there.

Special Topics:

Computer French Science Deux: LaPack, LaTex, LaTTe

Computer German Science Eins: EisPack, EisCream, EisCycle

Greek Mathology: Pi-thagorus, Mu-ton’s method, Non-Euclidean gamma-theory

Numerical Mafias I: Shooting Method, Bisection Method, Divide and Conquer

Numerical Mafias II: Simpson’s Rule, backslash-backslash--delete 2 and escape

Social Engineering Math I: Beam Defections, Racial Integrations, Boundary Dispute Problems Anatomy Geometry I: Dirac’s Deltoids, Simpson’s Quads, Arnold’s Trapezius

The New Curriculum Committee: Badley Brurchett, Torey Caylor, Slosh Holden, Whallen Ite, Mohn Jassman, Mirk Manster, Moochael Mirehead. Chair: Foofoo McKnuckleberry .