Harvard University courses

This course explores the concepts and algorithms at the foundation of modern artificial intelligence, diving into the ideas that give rise to technologies like game-playing engines, handwriting recognition, and machine translation. Through hands-on projects,…

This course is an intensive introduction to the intellectual enterprises of computer science and the art of programming. This course teaches students how to think algorithmically and solve problems efficiently. Topics include abstraction, algorithms, data…

This course introduces students to probability theory and statistics, and their applications in engineering and data science. Topics include random variables, distributions and densities, conditional expectations, statistical sampling, limit theorems, and…

One of the broad goals of data science is examining raw data with the purpose of identifying their structure and trends, and deriving conclusions and hypotheses from the latter. In the modern world awash with data, data analytics is more important than ever…

This course examines Africana philosophy as a field of study practiced by professional philosophers of African descent and non-African philosophers. The course focuses on fundamental dimensions of Africana philosophy: history, method, logic, epistemology,…

This course teaches all the math not taught in the traditional calculus/linear algebra sequence that is needed to take more advanced courses in theory of computation and/or algorithms. That is, it teaches discrete mathematics, logic, and basic probability,…

Human interaction with drugs permeates our society. Alcohol, cigarettes and electronic cigarettes, heroin, and marijuana—all of these chemicals can act on the brain and potentially alter an individual's behavior. Psychopharmacology is the study of drugs'…

This course is designed for students seeking preparation for <a href="/search/?p=EXPO%20E-25" data-action="result-detail" data-group="code:EXPO E-25" class="notoffered" title="This course is not being offered in the selected term.">EXPO E-25</a>, which is a…

This course helps business professionals improve their writing so they are better equipped to accomplish their educational and professional goals. Students consider how essential forms of business writing—memos, cover letters, proposals, presentations, and…

This course is designed for students who wish to build upon the skills developed in <a href="/search/?p=EXPO%2025" data-action="result-detail" data-group="code:EXPO 25" >EXPO S-25</a> in order to produce more advanced research and writing in the humanities.…

Most data scientists spend 20 percent of their time building data models and analyzing model results. What do they do with the remaining 80 percent of their time? The answer is data engineering. Data engineering is a subdiscipline of software engineering that…

While beating the markets was long thought to be impossible, hedge funds have seemingly challenged many financial theories, cracked the mysteries of Wall Street, and made fortunes in the process. They are also one of the fastest growing and least understood…

Pursue your own undergraduate research project under the supervision of an Extension School instructor or a faculty member at another Harvard school. The reading and research course counts as four upper-level credits toward your concentration and field of…

Pursue your own undergraduate research project under the supervision of an Extension School instructor or a faculty member at another Harvard school. The reading and research course counts as four upper-level credits toward your concentration and field of…

Pursue your own undergraduate research project under the supervision of an Extension School instructor or a faculty member at another Harvard school. The reading and research course counts as four upper-level credits toward your concentration and field of…

Pursue your own undergraduate research project under the supervision of an Extension School instructor or a faculty member at another Harvard school. The reading and research course counts as four upper-level credits toward your concentration and field of…

This course explores the brain at the level of molecules, cells, circuits, and behavior. Topics include brain anatomy and function; sensory and motor systems; how the brain processes thoughts; how the brain regulates emotions; learning, memory, and attention;…

This is a workshop for those who wish to learn the foundations and processes for writing feature-length motion picture screenplays. Adaptations, documentary, and television scripts may be written with the instructor's permission. Topics covered include…

Far-right movements have, in recent years, gained striking momentum across Europe. From France's anti-immigrant National Front and neo-Nazis in Germany to efforts to rehabilitate Francisco Franco and Benito Mussolini in Spain and Italy, forces of extreme…

With gender inequities and biases pervasive within and across cultures worldwide, and the global pandemics of gender-based violence and structural violence further intensified by responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, how have individuals, groups, communities,…

This course examines the main ways in which the relationship between self, society, and politics has been conceptualized in major sociological and philosophical texts. What are the political implications of different ways of understanding the self? Is it fair…

This course is an introduction to historical linguistics, the study of language change over time. It covers the fundamental aspects of language change (semantic, phonological, morphological, and syntactic), as well as the techniques and procedures involved in…

This course provides an overview of macroeconomic theory and the role and effects of governmental macroeconomic policy. We apply these ideas to understand some of the current debates about the US macroeconomy, such as the impact of tariffs and the causes of…

This course examines the design and development of new therapeutic products. Students learn through case-based studies of product development for pharmaceuticals, biologics, medical devices, and combination therapies. The course describes the steps of…

The past decade has signaled a massive transformation in the world's understanding of the connections between climate change and our planet's water cycle. A single volcanic eruption off Tonga increased global atmospheric water vapor (our most abundant…

This course provides an introduction to web development by way of the essential language and runtime environment that powers modern web interfaces. Through a series of examples and projects, students learn basic programming concepts while building an…

Data science and artificial intelligence (AI) are creating new opportunities to improve businesses' decision-making, productivity, and competitiveness. However, data science and AI also create ethical and privacy concerns. For example, a classification…

This course is an integrated introduction to general chemistry, taught in a contextual framework of social, environmental, technological, and health issues. It is intended for students with little to no background in chemistry, as well as those who desire to…

Evolutionary processes provide the foundation for understanding the origins and distribution of inherited and environmentally influenced variation among populations and species of all organisms. Demographic (Malthusian) factors, evolutionary (Darwinian)…

This course aims to introduce students to the world of data science and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies via articles published in the <i>Harvard Data Science Review</i>, a global forum disseminating everything data science and data science for…

In an era of increasing climate-driven disasters, understanding community-based approaches to disaster prevention and response is crucial across all sectors. This interdisciplinary course explores disasters as complex social phenomena, blending environmental…

This course seeks to introduce students to the core beliefs and practices of Islam, with special focus on how Islam has manifested in diverse cultures throughout its vast history (China, Spain, the United States, and the Middle East). Students obtain a…

The course is an introduction to cybersecurity for technical and non-technical audiences alike. Students learn how to secure their accounts, data, systems, and software against today's threats and how to recognize and evaluate tomorrow's as well, both at home…

This intensive course provides a comprehensive introduction to modern Ukrainian language and culture for those who would like to speak Ukrainian or use the language for reading and research. Designed for students without any previous knowledge of Ukrainian,…

This course is an introduction to Newtonian mechanics. Topics include Newton's laws, kinematics, statics, conservation of energy and momentum, the simple harmonic oscillator, and rotations. This course fulfills one of two semesters of physics for entrance to…

This course is a survey of fundamental data structures for information processing, including lists, stacks, queues, trees, and graphs. It explores the implementation of these data structures (both array-based and linked representations) and examines classic…

This course provides a structured approach to the design, analysis, and implementation of networks and protocols. We study various protocols, including TCP/IP, WWW/HTTP, email/SMTP, domain name system (DNS), multimedia protocols for voice and video, routing…

Waste materials are often unavoidable by-products of most human activity and are defined as something to be discarded as unusable or unwanted. Rapid economic growth, urbanization, and increasing population have resulted in an increase in resource consumption…

This course deals with issues related to human behavior in a variety of organizational settings. Conceptual frameworks, case discussion, and skills-based activities are applied to each topic/issue. Topics include communications, motivation, group dynamics,…

This course is designed for students who wish to build upon the skills developed in <a href="/search/?p=EXPO%2025" data-action="result-detail" data-group="code:EXPO 25" >EXPO S-25</a> in order to produce more advanced research and writing in the social…

This course deals with issues related to human behavior in a variety of organizational settings. Conceptual frameworks, case discussion, and skills-based activities are applied to each topic/issue. Topics include communications, motivation, group dynamics,…

This course covers the intersection of start-ups, entrepreneurship, and intellectual property (IP) law. Students gain skills with navigation of major tenants of intellectual property law including patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trades secrets as these…

Why do people from some cultures find body modifications attractive that others find ugly? What makes a Picasso beautiful? Why are fashion trends constantly changing? This course delves into the hidden functions that explain our aesthetic tastes, including…

This course examines the role of nuclear weapons in US and international security. In addition to familiarizing students with the types and effects of nuclear arms, the course considers the history and future of nuclear strategy, the control and reduction of…

This course is designed for people with little or no background in Japanese. We cover lessons 1-12 of the <i>Genki 1</i> textbook and lessons 13-16 of <i>Genki 2</i>. This fast-track introductory course aims to develop a basic foundation in the four skills of…

Game theory is a set of tools designed to study multiple strategic agents in many different environments. The scenarios involve interactions where the payoff of one agent, Agent A, depends on both Agent A's actions and the actions taken by other agents in the…

This course provides an introduction to basic notions in special relativity and general relativity. After discussing the older Galilean relativity of Newtonian mechanics, the Lorentz transformations of special relativity are derived and their consequences…

This course provides an overview of the neuroscience of learning through mind, brain, health, and education science (MBHE), or the intersection of psychology, cognitive neuroscience, health, and education. Fundamental biological, psychological, social, and…

What happened in the past, and if and how we should remember it, is hotly contested. What is our degree of certainty about the past societies and cultures that historians, archaeologists, and others study today? Whose past matters? And how should we remember…

This course explores the concepts of stress and resilience in relation to the underlying psychophysiologic mechanisms that regulate them. Shaped by evolutionary forces, human psychophysiologic, emotional, behavioral, and social performance continuously adapts…