The Hopkins Engineering Applications & Research Tutorials (HEART) program provides new undergraduate students with a window on cutting-edge engineering research and its applications to society. These small classes are taught by advanced graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Students will be introduced to cutting-edge engineering research and learn how that research impacts society. These tutorials will be useful to students as they evaluate their potential role in research projects. To ensure these courses are accessible to entering freshmen (who have priority on registration) they have no prerequisites. The tutorials will be kept small so students will have ample time to interact with their instructor and each other.

The Hopkins Engineering Research-Opened Investigation Courses (HEROIC) program provides upper-division undergraduates with a chance to learn about the frontiers of research being explored in Hopkins laboratories. These small classes are taught by advanced PhD students and postdoctoral fellows working on engineering-related projects across the institution who have distinguished themselves as exemplary instructors in the HEART program. Like HEART courses, HEROIC courses are kept small—with a limit of about 12 in each section—so students will have ample time to interact with their instructor and each other. We are not offering HEROIC courses in Fall 2026.

Detailed information about the tutorials and instructors is available below. Alternatively, you can view the General Engineering course listings for information about the tutorials being taught this semester, including the day and time for each section.

Incoming first-year students can enroll in one of the tutorials when course registration begins on July 26, 2026. You may also register for the HEROIC course with permission.

Sophomores, juniors, and seniors can register for the tutorials beginning August 1, 2026.

The courses have no prerequisites and are open to all JHU undergraduates in both KSAS and WSE. Registration is done through SIS.

2026 HEART Courses

Cancer therapy is not defined by discovery of powerful drugs – it is about engineering the drug to reach the right cell population, in the right amount, at the right time. This course provides an overview of the engineering principles that drive drug delivery design. Students will be familiarized with concepts – diffusion and convection limited drug penetration, surface-modification techniques for selective binding to cancer cells, self-assembly, interfacial and intermolecular forces affecting the fate and efficacy of drug carriers. Through a mix of lectures, interactive discussions, case studies, research paper presentations and readings, students will be equipped to apply fundamental principles to real-world patient scenarios and overcome current clinical challenges.

Section, Date, and Time: EN.500.111.01 / Mon / 10:30-11:45 am

Instructor: Aira Sarkar

Aira Sarkar is a 4th year Ph.D. student in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, advised by Dr. Stavroula Sofou. Her research focuses on investigating combinatorial alpha-particle radiopharmaceuticals (RPT) and its synergy with immune checkpoint inhibitors to modulate the spatial localization of infiltrating T-cell and macrophage subsets in the brain. Her thesis goal is to ultimately design therapeutic modalities that improve survival outcomes.

This course will introduce simulation modeling for public health decision making using the example of respiratory disease epidemics. Students will develop understanding of the structural components of agent-based network models through hands-on activities and coding exercises. Each class will begin with a description of a disease scenario and hypothetical policy question (e.g., Who should we vaccinate first?). Using a custom board game and pre-built simulations in Python, students will test how adjusting model parameters (e.g., duration of infection, recovery time, infectiousness) influences health outcomes across demographic and geographic groups of a population. Python programming is not a prerequisite. By the end of the course, students will be able to suggest which parameters to adjust given a new disease or intervention scenario and brainstorm ways simulation modeling can inform policy decisions outside of infectious diseases.

Section, Date, and Time: EN.500.111.02 / Wed / 9:30-10:45 am

Instructor: Alisa Hamilton

This course explores how the Earth system works, why do people care about greenhouse gases, and how do scientists use a range of approaches to model greenhouse gas emissions. The course also covers the broader societal impacts of climate change, and how emerging technologies and the ways artificial intelligence is being applied to address climate change-related problems.

Sections, Dates, and Times: EN.500.111.03 / Thu / 6:00-7:15 pm

Instructor: Hanyu Liu

Hanyu (Mason) Liu is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering at the Whiting School of Engineering and is advised by Dr. Scot Miller. His research focuses on quantifying wetland methane fluxes across high-latitude North America using atmospheric observations, transport modeling, and geostatistical inverse modeling. His work evaluates how global process-based wetland methane flux models have evolved over recent decades and aims to inform future model development. Outside of the lab, Hanyu was a Division I NCAA tennis player from George Washington University with approximately 20 years of experience in the sport.