Optics
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this introduction to optical science with elementary engineering applications. Geometrical optics topics include ray-tracing, aberrations, lens design, apertures and stops, radiometry, and photometry. Wave optics topics cover basic electrodynamics, polarization, interference, wave-guiding, Fresnel and Fraunhofer diffraction, image formation, resolution, and space-bandwidth product. The course emphasizes analytical and numerical tools used in optical design. Graduate students complete assignments with stronger analytical content plus an advanced design project, while undergraduates work through a standard problem set track. Materials include lecture notes, assignments, and design exercises drawn from MIT's mechanical engineering curriculum. No enrollment fee applies since the course is published as open courseware, with no certificate offered. The course suits students with a physics and calculus background who want a rigorous grounding in both ray-based and wave-based treatments of light.