Light from a laser-illuminated coffee cup interferes with a holographic image of itself in the laboratory, producing a series of coarse interference fringes. (Photo by Prof. Michael Halle.)
Instructor(s)
Prof. Michael Halle
Prof. Stephen Benton
MIT Course Number
MAS.450
As Taught In
Spring 2003
Level
Undergraduate
Course Description
Course Features
Course Description
MAS.450 is a laboratory course about holography and holographic imaging.
This course teaches holography from a scientific and analytical point of view, moving from interference and diffraction to imaging of single points to the display of three-dimensional images. Using a "hands-on" approach, students explore the underlying physical phenomena that make holograms work, as well as designing laboratory setups to make their own images. The course also teaches mathematical techniques that allow the behavior of holography to be understood, predicted, and harnessed.
Holography today brings together the fields of optics, chemistry, computer science, electrical engineering, visualization, three-dimensional display, and human perception in a unique and comprehensive way. As such, MAS.450 offers interesting and useful exposure to a wide range of principles and ideas. As a course satisfying the Institute Laboratory Requirement, MAS.450 teaches about science, scientific research, and the scientific method through observation and exploration, hinting at the excitement that inventors feel before they put their final equations to paper.