Engineering systems design must have the flexibility to take advantage of new opportunities while avoiding disasters. This subject develops "real options" analysis to create design flexibility and measure its value so that it can be incorporated into system optimization. It builds on essential concepts of system models, decision analysis, and financial concepts. Emphasis is placed on calculating value of real options with special attention given to efficient analysis and practical applications. The material is organized and presented to deal with the contextual reality of technological systems, that substantially distinguishes the analysis of real options in engineering systems from that of financial options.
Note
This MIT OpenCourseWare site is based on the materials from Professor de Neufville's ESD.71 Web site. Additional materials, updated as needed by Professor de Neufville, can be found there.

This course explores the proper role of government in the regulation of the environment. It will help students develop the tools to estimate the costs and benefits of environmental regulations. These tools will be used to evaluate a series of current policy questions, including: Should air and water pollution regulations be tightened or loosened? What are the costs of climate change in the U.S. and abroad? Is there a "Race to the Bottom" in environmental regulation? What is "sustainable development"? How do environmental problems differ in developing countries? Are we running out of oil and other natural resources? Should we be more energy efficient? To gain real world experience, the course is scheduled to include a visit to the MIT cogeneration plant. We will also do an in-class simulation of an air pollution emissions market.

This six-week summer course teaches basic concepts of corporate financial accounting and reporting. This information is widely used in making investment decisions, corporate and managerial performance assessment, and valuation of firms. Students perform economics-based analysis of accounting information from the viewpoint of the users of accounting information (especially senior managers) rather than the preparer (the accountant). This course is restricted to MIT Sloan Fellows in Innovation and Global Leadership.

Our goal is to help you develop a framework for understanding financial, managerial, and tax reports. The course goal is divided into five subordinate challenges that can help you organize the way you learn accounting:

The record keeping and reporting challenge
The computation challenge
The judgment challenge
The usage challenge
The search challenge

The course adopts a decision-maker perspective of accounting by emphasizing the relation between accounting data and the underlying economic events generating them. Restricted to first-year Sloan MBA students.
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgment is hereby given to Professor G. Peter Wilson for his authorship of the following content in this course:

The Five Challenges (see Syllabus and Lecture 1)
"What Do Intel and Accountants Have in Common?" (see Lecture 1)
A Conceptual Framework for Financial Accounting (see Lecture 1)

Studies basic concepts of financial and managerial accounting. Viewpoint is that of the users of accounting information (especially managers) rather than the preparer (the accountant).

Financial Management studies corporate finance and capital markets, emphasizing the financial aspects of managerial decisions. It touches on all areas of finance, including the valuation of real and financial assets, risk management and financial derivatives, the trade-off between risk and expected return, and corporate financing and dividend policy. The course draws heavily on empirical research to help guide managerial decisions.

Urban governance comprises the various forces, institutions, and movements that guide economic and physical development, the distribution of resources, social interactions, and other aspects of daily life in urban areas. This course examines governance from legal, political, social, and economic perspectives. In addition, we will discuss how these structures constrain collective decision making about particular urban issues (immigration, education…). Assignments will be nightly readings and a short paper relating an urban issue to the frameworks outlined in the class.

The Mangrove Mapping Curricula strives to provide opportunities for students to learn about and explore mangroves and their ecosystems. Through this process it is hoped that students develop and understanding and appreciation for mangroves and the role they play in a healthy environment. Mangroves are group of tropical/subtropical trees that live in salt or sweet (salt/fresh water combination) water coastal environments. They are considered a cornerstone species and play important roles in habitat formation and stabilization of coastal environments.

This is a course in how corporations make use of the insights and tools of risk management. Most courses on derivatives, futures and options, and financial engineering are taught from the viewpoint of investment bankers and traders in the securities. This course is taught from the point of view of the manufacturing corporation, the utility, the software firm—any potential end-user of derivatives, but not the dealer. Most related courses focus on the extensive taxonomy of instruments and the complex models developed to price them, and on ways to exploit mispricing. While this course will make use of some of these pricing models, the focus is on how corporations use the insights and models to improve their operations, to increase the value of their real assets, or to create the financial flexibility necessary to implement their core strategy.

Lecture notes for risk and valuation models for financial risk management , part 1