GPS: Where Are You?
This MIT freshman seminar traces how people located themselves on Earth before satellites existed, then works through the mechanics of the Global Positioning System itself. Sessions cover historical navigation methods, the physics and signal processing behind GPS, and the range of modern applications, from surveying to mapping, that depend on it. The course materials include the syllabus, reading assignments, and topic outlines posted through MIT OpenCourseWare. Because the class caps at eight students and doubles as first-year advising, discussion and short student projects carry more weight than lectures. It sets up a follow-on UROP research project the next semester, where students analyze precise GPS measurements and publish results on the web. The course gives a compact grounding in geodesy and satellite positioning rather than a deep technical treatment, suited to students new to the subject.