News flash: All spaces are filled

We have received over 50! preregistrations for the 8 spaces in the seminars, and have already selected membership in the seminars and a waiting list, so we are not accepting any more registrations. Please check back over IAP or next semester for other seminars offered here, though.

This is the home page for seminars taught by members of REC (the Robotics and Electronics Cooperative at MIT) during the Fall 2000 semester.

SP.710, SP.711, and SP.712 are short (one month long), intensive (6 hours of class a week), 3-unit seminars on various engineering topics. The first seminar will run during September, the second during October, and the third during November (roughly), allowing you to enroll in one, two, or all three of the seminars if you wish.

(Note that while each seminar is 3 units, because it only lasts a third of the semester, the workload during that time will be equivalent to that of a 9-unit course.)

While there may be short lectures at the beginning of each class, most of the class time will be devoted to "learning by building stuff": assembling circuits, building mechanical things, and writing computer programs. There will be both clearly defined projects and more open-ended projects that will depend on your initiative and creativity. These are not classes you will get anything out of by just coming and sitting around, we want you to get in there and try things!

Each of the seminars has a $20 lab fee to cover materials, and is limited to an enrollment of 8 students. If a seminar is oversubscribed, we will have to go through some sort of lottery / selection process.

Times and dates: The seminars will meet Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings from 7-9 PM, room 4-409. The first seminar, Programmable Microcontrollers, will begin Monday, September 11th.

For more information about each seminar, visit its web page:

SP.710: Programmable Microcontrollers

SP.711: Things That Move: Motors and Motion Control

SP.712: Printed Circuit Board Design and Fabrication

More questions? Send email to rec-seminars@mit.edu

[Note to freshmen: Yes, these seminars count towards the credit limit, like all other credit-bearing classes. Sorry.]

last edited 9/6/00