A few weeks ago MIT refreshed its OpenCourseWare project. This project – in which MIT shares curriculum, lecture notes, exams, and other material from over 1700 projects – is amazing.
The project was launched in 2002 by computer science professor Hal Abelson with 32 courses. I took 6.001: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs from Abelson in 1984. You can take it also – including working through the online version of the textbook!
While I don’t have a favorite MIT course (that would be an emotionally complex oxymoron), my most miserable was 18.700 Linear Algebra which I dropped about halfway through. Sloan (management) courses are well represented, including 15.351: Managing the Innovation Process which was my introduction to Eric von Hippel and my lifelong hatred of software patents.
Speaking of other amazing MIT feats, one of my fraternity brothers – Dan Tani – is current in outer space.
I also have a photo of Dan from a party dressed up as a piece of nigiri sushi, but I’ll spare you that.