Courses

Students will explore encryption/decryption techniques and methods of mathematical modeling through hands-on experience with codes, biological systems, and financial markets. Math areas covered include logic and set theory, number theory, and linear modeling. 

Students will explore encryption/decryption techniques and methods of mathematical modeling through hands-on experience with codes, biological systems, and financial markets. Math areas covered include logic and set theory, number theory, and linear modeling. 

*This course is full. Registration is no longer available.*

How do engineers utilize the electrical signaling to develop tools to monitor the inner workings of the human body? Students will explore how biometrical tools are designed, built, and marketed. They will work together to propose an enhanced prototype for a biometric tool that expands its current accessibility and function.

*This course is full. Registration is no longer available.*

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Students will investigate how engineers apply Newton's third law of motion to studying the causes of traumatic brain injuries and designing solutions to prevent them. Students will collaboratively apply that knowledge to design and test helmets for quidditch players in Harry Potter’s world and undergraduate muggles.

*This course is full. Registration is no longer available.*

Explore the realms of digital design, representation, and production using the Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign) as well as 3d modeling software. In this two-week course, students will focus on visual and spatial communication through digital media and express their design ideas in the digital laboratory using laser cutters, 3d printers, a CNC router, and 3d scanner. They will work with innovative digital tools to compile a portfolio of work that is lively, relevant and professional. 

*This course is full. Registration is no longer available.*

At the root of the architecture discipline is the study of design. In this two-week course, students will focus on analog techniques of design utilizing hand drawing, mixed media exploration, and physical model making. The course will allow students to embrace the tactile facets of the creative process as a foundation of Architecture and its allied fields. Students will explore the city of New Orleans with their sketchbook, experiencing the spatial, environmental, and cultural context of New Orleans, while creating beautiful work that will be digitally archived for their professional portfolio. 

Can you predict the future? Students will expand their understanding of climate change and the impact that factors such as rising global sea-surface temperatures have on our communities. They will be tasked with proposing solutions on how humans can counteract climate change and develop safeguards for their own future. 

*This course is full. Registration is no longer available.*

How do coastal plants, animals, and microbes respond to climate change? Are coastal ecosystems resilient to climate change? This course will introduce students to the complex ways that climate change affects ecological systems in coastal areas. We will explore topics through lectures, readings, debates, field trips, and group research projects. We will learn about restoration and mitigation techniques and discuss ways students can act on behalf of threatened ecosystems. 

*This course is full. Registration is no longer available.*

Can you picture yourself solving critical issues along our coastal waterways? As our climate changes and we see the sea levels rise, scientists and engineers must work together to create practical solutions for the future. Students will explore the current issues that impact coastal communities and collaboratively strategize how they can make positive changes for resilience and sustainability now and moving forward. 

This course introduces an array of tools, techniques and motivations associated with Contemporary Computer Music Composition and Programming. Students will gain familiarity with the Digital Music Studio and Audio Workstation environments as they prepare frequent short composition assignments. Compositional paradigms to be explored in the course include MIDI Arranging, Sampling and Audio Editing, Sound Spatialization, Sonification Techniques and Process Music. We will also explore basic sound synthesis techniques including FM synthesis, ring modulation, granular synthesis, additive and subtractive synthesis. 

*This course is full. Registration is no longer available.*

Do you like playing games with strategy in them? Ever wonder how chess experts figure out winning moves? Then this is the course for you! You will explore a range of games -- many of which will be completely new to you -- and learn how to apply ideas from mathematics to figure out the optimal strategy in the game. In doing so, you will be learning how to think like a mathematician and discover that mathematics is much more interesting than memorizing a bunch of formulas! No mathematical background is required -- all you need is curiosity and a willingness to work hard. 

*This course is full. Registration is no longer available.*

Have you ever wondered how neuroscientists learn more about the brain? In this course, students will be exposed to laboratory techniques that are fundamental to the study of neuroscience. These techniques will range from processing brain tissue for microscopy to trying to record electrical activity from living neurons. Students will gain practical experience that will provide them a frame of reference for how research is conducted, as well as gain skills that are translatable to other fields of science.

*This course is full. Registration is no longer available.*

This course covers topics from the nervous system and the brain, to learning and memory, to disorders and treatment, to social psychology. Through class lectures and a hands-on laboratory component, we will examine real human brain specimens, understand why we sleep and what dreams are for, see childhood development in action, explore how psychological disorders are treated, and examine how prejudice plays out in the courtroom. Students in this course will learn to read, write, and think like a psychologist and understand how psychologists ask their research questions. 

*The June 20-23 session of this course is full. Registration is only available for the July 17-21 session.*

As a leader in public health for over a century, Tulane University recognizes the importance of community outreach and action. Students will examine the factors leading to outbreaks of disease and the impact that infectious diseases have on our society. Empowered with this information, they will design public health campaigns to mitigate the spread of infectious diseases. 

As a leader in public health for over a century, Tulane University recognizes the importance of community outreach and action. Students will examine the factors leading to outbreaks of disease and the impact that infectious diseases have on our society. Empowered with this information, they will design public health campaigns to mitigate the spread of infectious diseases. 

Biomedical engineering is a multidisciplinary field at the interface of engineering, medicine, and living systems. Through design challenges, case studies, and guest speakers, students will explore this diverse field and develop a better understanding of how engineering design is applied solve problems associated with healthcare and human activity. For their culminating project, students will select a real-world healthcare challenge that their community faces and design innovative solutions. 

The internet is all around us and coding for it has never been easier and more accessible thanks to open source and free software. In this introductory course (no prior coding experience necessary), students will learn how to code for the web using p5.js (a JavaScript Library) to create interactive and fun applications. Along with the students' own designs, we will be looking at artists, designers and online communities who have been making experimental works with code over the last 50 years. Students will leave this course with a basic to intermediate understanding of coding structure, logic and syntax in addition to a final project. 

This course will introduce students to the engineering design process and apply design process methodology to the development of a solution to a “real-world” problem. Through team projects, students will be challenged to begin thinking critically and apply physical fundamentals to complex systems. Daily lectures will highlight phases of the design process, including problem identification, conceptual design, and early prototyping. Additionally, students will develop skills in using Solidworks, a 3-D computer aided design software package, and gain experience with rapid prototyping techniques, including 3-D printing and laser cutting. 

*This course is full. Registration is no longer available.*

This course is designed to introduce you to human metabolism from a biochemical perspective. We will explore the composition of human bodies, how our cells utilize various fuel sources, and the relative nutritional value of different types of foods through discussion of the scientific literature, laboratory experiments and environmental explorations.

Plants are considered chemical factories on our planet earth and have profoundly influenced human cultures. This course is designed to introduce students to plants and how different plants and plant products have shaped human existence. We will explore plant history, plant domestication, and plant products through lecture, readings, discussions, and field trips. By the end of this course, successful students will be familiar with some of the plants that have influenced human civilization. 

*The July 3-14 session of this course is full. Registration is only available for the July 17-28 session.*

Neuroscientists study everything from the electrical activity of individual brain cells to the behavior of animals and people. In the course, students will learn how to measure human brain waves, interpret data through statistical analysis, and read, write and think like a scientist. Activities include learning basic brain anatomy by studying actual human brain specimens, testing the effects of drugs on the behavior of rats, and preparing brain tissue for study under a microscope. 

The focus of this course in on the field of Materials, an interdisciplinary field applying the properties of matter to various areas of science and engineering. Students will rotate between six materials science research laboratories, combining lectures with hands-on laboratory activities to excite and introduce students to contemporary methods in superconductivity, optics and lasers, biomaterials, nanotechnology, and energy harvesting technologies. Students will be introduced to contemporary methods of biomaterials engineering from stem cells and regenerative medicine to cancer therapy. 

*The June 26-30 and July 24-28 sessions of this course are full. Registration is only available for the July 10-14 session.*

"I am going to be a doctor." Ok, what type? From diagnosis to treatment, students will explore the complexity of modern medicine and the different medical specialties that intricately work together to solve each patient’s medical mystery. Through case studies, guest speakers, and field observations, students will develop a better understanding about what it means to "be a doctor." They will be challenged to use their knowledge to diagnosis and prescribe treatments to their own medical mystery. 

*This course is full. Registration is no longer available.*

"I am going to be a doctor." Ok, what type? From diagnosis to treatment, students will explore the complexity of modern medicine and the different medical specialties that intricately work together to solve each patient’s medical mystery. Through case studies and guest speakers, students will develop a better understanding about what it means to "be a doctor." They will be challenged to use their knowledge to diagnosis and prescribe treatments to their own medical mystery. 

What do zines, blogs, pussy hats, yarn bombs, and protest signs have in common, and how are they feminist? D.I.Y. feminism is a term used by scholars to describe and define the ways in which feminists communicate and elevate ideas through independent cultural production that resists mainstream representations. D.I.Y. feminist material culture takes many forms, including zines, blogs, protest signs, art installations, craftwork, tarot and oracle decks, posters, collage, etc. The Newcomb Archives and Vorhoff Collection of Tulane University collects, preserves, and makes available resources that document the history of women and gender, including LGBTQ+ activism, second and third wave feminist activist movements, feminist zines, feminist tarot and oracle decks, and women’s political campaigns. Students will engage directly with feminist forms of memory keeping and cultural information production through the collections of the Newcomb Archives and Vorhoff Collection, while thinking critically about the role of creative media in the formation of intersectional feminist identities. The week will culminate with the creation of a class zine as a tangible record of our shared experience, as well as a portfolio of creative D.I.Y. feminist media produced by students throughout the course. 

*This course is full. Registration is no longer available.*

This seminar explores the histories and issues surrounding the women’s rights and feminists movements, especially those of Indigenous, Latina, and Black women, using frameworks of race, gender, class, and sexuality. Students will discuss cases where colonialism, capitalism, heteropatriarchal power, and racialized systems were used to position the issues important to some groups of women over the needs of other women. Through films, media, and key texts, students will analyze and apply arguments for including Intersectional feminism, Native feminisms, and trans-national feminisms into contemporary discourse and to address the issues that affect marginalized groups.   

This course models a “think-tank” approach to addressing an urgent social issue: ending sexual assault. Although #MeToo has shed new light on the issue, there is much work left to do in order to dismantle a culture that normalizes, excuses, and enables gender-based violence. Students will learn about the scope, causes, and consequences of rape culture, and they will develop evidence-based strategies for peer education, prevention, and intervention. 

This course models a “think-tank” approach to addressing an urgent social issue: ending sexual assault. Although #MeToo has shed new light on the issue, there is much work left to do in order to dismantle a culture that normalizes, excuses, and enables gender-based violence. Students will learn about the scope, causes, and consequences of rape culture, and they will develop evidence-based strategies for peer education, prevention, and intervention. 

*This course is full. Registration is no longer available.*

How have television, film, and new media technologies shaped public opinion and policy around reproductive issues? What are the new implications of media portrayals and technologies in the post-Roe world? This course focuses on relationships among reproductive politics, popular media, social media, and movements for reproductive rights and justice in the United States. By analyzing a range of today’s media – from Jane the Virgin and Teen Mom to sex ed and fertility apps – students will gain an understanding of key issues within reproductive politics, including the effects of social inequalities on reproductive freedom and outcomes. 

*This course is full. Registration is no longer available.*

This course engages students in considering the real-world dilemmas of women working in organizations and bringing about social change in those and other organizations. The course analyzes different theories and explanations of why so few leaders are women and how women can become leaders and lead as well. Case studies are used to examine the intricacies of organizations, the roles of women in various organizations, as well as the impact of organizations on policy (public, social, scientific, educational), government, and leadership in a global world. Through this course, you will enhance your critical understanding of the dilemmas that are encountered by women leading change, your ability to evaluate and compose case studies at the intersection of leadership and gender, and your critical thinking and problem-solving skills. 

*This course is full. Registration is no longer available.*

Students are passionate about social issues in their communities. But how can they get the word out and effect change? In this course, students will learn the tactics of persuasive communications necessary to advocate for causes they believe in. Students will practice these methods, from effective public speaking to strategic social media, to create effective communications. Seminar discussions will focus on contemporary issues of gender, politics, and advocacy work. 

*This course is full. Registration is no longer available.*

Computational tools are a critical part of our everyday lives. Software is the driving force behind cutting edge scientific discovery, blockbuster entertainment, and today’s fast‐paced marketplace ‐ and will continue to become even more important. This course is an introduction to techniques and problem‐solving approaches that are used to develop some of these computational tools. Students will use Python programming language to learn basic programming principles. Upon completion of this course, successful students will be able to design, implement and test computational solutions to problems. 

*This course is full. Registration is no longer available.*

Should a football team punt on 4th down or go for it? How much money should a team spend on its starting shortstop? Does home-court advantage really matter? These questions were once answered by a coach’s gut-instinct, player’s skill, or perhaps even team tradition. The sports industry is now turning to statistical analysis and number-based reasoning for answers. In this course, students will focus on how analytics is utilized to guide different aspects of sports teams from game strategy to team operations and management. Students will learn basic analytics skills and apply them in a variety of different situations in the sports industry, ranging from in-game play calling to salary negotiations. 

*This course is full. Registration is no longer available.*

Should a football team punt on 4th down or go for it? Does home-court advantage really matter? These questions were once answered by a coach’s gut-instinct, player’s skill, or perhaps even team tradition. The sports industry is now turning to statistical analysis and number-based reasoning for answers. In this course, students will focus on how analytics is utilized to guide different aspects of sports teams from game strategy to team operations and management.  

Are you sports consumer savvy? Sports marketing is comprised of a wide range of products such as the sporting event itself, the athletes, teams, facilities, equipment, and merchandise, as well as nutrition and personal training.  In this course, students will have the opportunity to gain insight and develop skills related to the business side of the ever-changing sports industry. Using the knowledge and skills learned, students will collaboratively work together to develop a marketing strategy to promote the mentioned products to the consumer population and develop decision-making skills in advertising, public relations, event marketing, sponsoring as they relate to the sports industry. 

Louisiana leads the world historically in incarceration rates and now in criminal justice reform. Learn about the broad social impacts of a justice system rooted in inequalities and the struggles to reverse them. Students meet with formerly incarcerated activists while studying the structures for incarceration through film, video, and reportage and learn interview techniques in producing a profile for ViaNolaVie.

New Orleans is a world-historical city on the frontlines of the global battle against climate change. In this course, students will explore the ways that sound and sonic cultures—e.g., music, radio, and podcasting—have amplified the voices of Gulf South residents as they fight climate change and struggle for climate justice. We will heed these voices by listening to podcasts, meeting with guest speakers, and assessing how different forms of audio storytelling may help to advance the cause of climate justice.

This class will examine the intersection of social justice, housing, and photojournalism. Students will study current housing issues in New Orleans, particularly in marginalized communities, and how photographers can use their craft to bring attention to these struggles and advocate for fair and adequate housing. The class will explore the role of social justice organizations in advocating for marginalized communities and their right to safe and affordable housing and how documenting these organizations can amplify their cause and raise awareness of the issue. Through the course, students will gain experience in the ethical and technical aspects of producing photojournalism that addresses issues of social justice and housing.

Everyone seems to be expressing themselves online, telling their story, and trying to explain their point of view. But rarely is someone’s authentic voice able to come through. We are in a hurry and unconsciously editing ourselves as we post a comment or create a post. There is little time to think through how we know what we know, why we feel what we feel, and to express our true selves. How can we tell our stories and our truths and show our unique perspective in new and interesting ways? What social issues matter to you, and why and how do they personally affect you? What is it about certain political topics that relate to your personal experience, and how can you develop your authentic voice to create messages that are meaningful and surprising, creative, and simply true—your truth?