OLN7500 Engineering for Humanity: Helping Elders Age in Place Through Partnerships For Healthy Living (Olin College Spring 2013 Course, specially aimed at 3-College students)Olin College: Engr 2141/AHSE 2141
Instructors: Caitrin Lynch and Ela Ben-Ur
Day/Time: Mondays and Thursdays, 12:30-3 [time can be shifted slightly to accommodate
commute time and lunch; contact the profs]

Do you want to make a positive difference in the lives of older adults in the local
community? We're looking for students with passion to help others and with diverse
backgrounds in arts, humanities, social sciences, business, and/or technical fields. This
innovative, intergenerational course is a partnership between college/graduate students
and local senior citizens. It is co-taught by two Olin College professors with experience in anthropology, design, and mechanical engineering, and will take place at Olin College and in the local communities (home visits and fieldtrips). We will partner Wellesley-Babson-Olin student teams with local senior citizen volunteers, and ultimately the students will design real, implemented solutions to specific everyday problems.

Projects will be customized to meet the needs of the senior citizen partners. Possible projects: students might design a device to help someone who has difficulty reaching up to change a light bulb, something to help hold a newspaper steady with shaky hands, or something to enable someone to get clothes out of a dryer that is difficult to stoop down to reach. The class meets 2x/week; some sessions are devoted to co-design with the client population or to team meetings, other sessions involve guest speakers and fieldtrips, others are for discussion of topics relevant to aging and/or design. No prerequisites; a sense of adventure highly recommended.

More info? See http://e4h.olin.edu/spring2013.html
Questions? Contact Caitrin Lynch clynch@olin.edu

Prerequisites: None

EPS3518 Crowdfunding
4 General CreditsThis hands-on workshop gives students the opportunity to plan a crowdfunding campaign for a creative project or entrepreneurial venture. Online crowdfunding builds community around innovative projects by organizing stakeholders and leveraging in-person and online social networks. Goals of crowdfunding include stakeholder alignment, concept testing, product pre-selling and venture de-risking. Students work individually or as part of a team to design a crowdfunding campaign which at students' discretion may be executed following the workshop. Students are expected to meet high standards and the focal point of the course is the production and refinement of a pitch video developed based on stakeholder engagement and opportunity shaping. The course integrates emerging research on crowdfunding and ongoing developments in the industry.

Prerequisites: Students must be at least second semester sophomores.

QTM3674 Cryptology/Coding/Theory
4 Advanced Liberal Arts CreditsCryptology includes the study of both cryptography, the science of developing _secret codes_ or ciphers for secure and confidential communication, and cryptanalysis, the breaking of ciphers. Coding theory consists of mathematical techniques for detecting and correcting errors that occur during data transmission. These topics are critical to secure and reliable information exchange, with applications ranging from e-commerce to the transmission of photographs from deep space to military operations. Through this exploration into the technical, social, and historical aspects of cryptology and coding theory, students will learn and extensively use basic concepts from number theory, finite field and ring theory, matrix algebra, and the software package GAP. Highlighted topics include the RSA cryptosystem, digital signatures, DES, linear and cyclic codes, and the coding theory based McEliece cryptosystem. This course is suitable for students with one year of university-level mathematics, or the equivalent; it should also be interesting for upperclassman from a variety of majors.

Prerequisites: AQM1000

CSP2051

4 Credits

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

CSP2050

4 Credits

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

EPS3539: Cultivating Entrepreneurial Youth Leaders

4 Advanced Management Credits

Through the Cultivating Entrepreneurial Youth Leaders course, Babson undergraduate students will learn how they can help middle and high school students develop stronger agency, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and empower young changemakers in Costa Rica. The course provides Babson students with the opportunity to learn key elements of teaching entrepreneurship and serving as coaches for youth, using a proven curriculum developed by Babson's Youth Impact Lab, EPIC (Entrepreneurship Program for Innovators and Changemakers). EPIC is a youth entrepreneurship program that teaches social entrepreneurship skills framed by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals) to youth to increase their resiliency and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. EPIC is designed to help middle school and high school students understand what it means to be a social entrepreneur, empowering them to make positive change in their lives, communities, and the world.

EPIC balances entrepreneurial concepts with social-emotional skills, or "soft skills." This unique combination, framed by the UNSDGs, helps youth develop grit, resiliency, a growth mindset, social awareness, social entrepreneurial intention, critical thinking, and self-reflection skills that can:
- Increase high school graduation rates
- Improve academic achievement
- Strengthen employability
- Raise earning potential
- Decrease mental health issues, drug and alcohol use, incarceration rates

​Prerequisites: (FME1000 and FME 1001) or (MOB1010 and EPS1000)

CVA2008 Cultural Anthropology
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts CreditsIntroduction to Cultural Anthropology is a four credit intermediate History and Society course. The central focus of this course is the phenomenon of culture, that remarkable accomplishment that makes humans unique among all other species. We will use the concept of culture to investigate the question of what it means to be human. A major area of focus will be upon the ways cultural meanings are generated, shared, symbolized, ritualized, contested and altered in the face of different types of challenges. We will also study the relationship of cultural meaning to different economic, kinship and political systems. Throughout the course, as we study a variety of unfamiliar societies, we will continually refer back to our own societies with the goal of looking at our own ways of doing things with a new frame of mind. This frame of mind, or anthropological perspective, searches for the internal logics and constellations of values and beliefs that underpin all societies and subcultures. Central to this course is a succession of small fieldwork projects. This course will particularly strengthen your multicultural and rhetorical competencies

This course is typically offered in the following semesters: Fall

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

CSP2008 Cultural Anthropology

(Formerly CVA2008)
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts CreditsIntroduction to Cultural Anthropology is a four credit intermediate History and Society course. The central focus of this course is the phenomenon of culture, that remarkable accomplishment that makes humans unique among all other species. We will use the concept of culture to investigate the question of what it means to be human. A major area of focus will be upon the ways cultural meanings are generated, shared, symbolized, ritualized, contested and altered in the face of different types of challenges. We will also study the relationship of cultural meaning to different economic, kinship and political systems. Throughout the course, as we study a variety of unfamiliar societies, we will continually refer back to our own societies with the goal of looking at our own ways of doing things with a new frame of mind. This frame of mind, or anthropological perspective, searches for the internal logics and constellations of values and beliefs that underpin all societies and subcultures. Central to this course is a succession of small fieldwork projects. This course will particularly strengthen your multicultural and rhetorical competencies

This course is typically offered in the following semesters: Fall

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

LTA2039 Curiosity in Literature
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts CreditsCuriosity contains within it a contradiction; it is our drive to know battling against our fear of the unknown, and it has played a major role in literature for a very long time. In this course, we will read texts that span several continents and centuries as we study curiosity and ask ourselves myriad questions. Why did the definition of curiosity change from negative to positive in the 14th century? Is curiosity hubristic tinkering or social responsibility? How is curiosity valued? Is the valuation of curiosity dependent on what is being sought? Is curiosity linked to gender? Who is rewarded for possessing it? Who is punished? If curiosity killed the cat, why? We will study Greek Myths and Fairy Tales as well as the following authors: John Milton, Christopher Marlowe, Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, Sigmund Freud, Agatha Christie, Anne Sexton, and Patricia Highsmith. We will also view Alfred Hitchcock's film Vertigo.

This course is typically offered in the following semesters: Spring

Prerequisites: RHT and AHS

MKT3574 Customer Acquisition and Persuasion
(Formerly Managing the Sales Process)
4 Advanced Management CreditsCustomer acquisition and retention is the driver of revenue and hence the lifeblood of every company. Therefore, organizations continuously seek people with strong persuasion skills. College graduates often become sales professionals, business development executives, customer relationship managers, or end up in positions that complement these roles. In addition, many entrepreneurs realize, often too late, the critical role of professional selling for the growth and survival of their nascent ventures. This course will equip students with the knowledge and skills to excel in professional selling, business development, and entrepreneurship.

Prerequisites: MKT 2000