China

This course is intended for students whose work interacts with user interface issues in the design of social and software systems. The course stresses the importance of user-centered design and usability in the development of software applications and systems. Students will receive theoretical training on the analysis, design, and evaluation of user interfaces. They will also acquire hands-on design skills through a graphical user interface design project. The module takes into account contextual, organizational, and social factors in system design.

This course is a freshmen seminar, aiming to equip students with basic knowledge of the unique research and development methodologies, application scenarios, and hands-on practices of large language models (LLMs). The topics covered in the course include the using LLM for in-context learning, end-to-end application development using LLMs, fine- tuning, data management for AI, and development tools and services for large language models. The course consists of lectures and a significant amount of programming labs. Under the guidance of teaching assistants, students will complete several independent mini-experiments and team up to design a real-world LLM-based application. In this course, students will:

1) Learn how to use LLM for in-context learning with modern open-source frameworks; 2) Understand the fine-tuning methods of large language models, the usage of distributed training systems, and metrics to evaluate the quality of LLMs;
3) Learn the end-to-end practical development methods of LLM applications by designing and developing a non-trivial LLM application project;

4) Know the latest application scenarios of large language models and cutting-edge research problems in LLM;
5) Learn practical skills to work on a shared cloud computing environment;
6) Improve their team collaboration skills and project presentation skills.

Science and technology (S&T) permeate everyday international exchange and increasingly drive change in international relations in complex ways. The criticality of competition in S&T at all levels of international interactions warrants systematic study from social science perspectives. This graduate seminar studies key aspects in S&T affecting the broad notion of International Political Economy, with China being an actor and factor, in the contemporary world. The substantive focus of this course is on how S&T manifests in diplomacy, international laws and norms, economic growth, trade, sustainable development and geopolitical risk assessments. The course invites students to appreciate and analyze these complexities through situating the role of S&T in examples include environment, health, manufacturing technology, energy, and AI. The course draws heavily on recent research to showcase how social scientists and policy-makers have evaluated and navigated debates over the interplay between S&T and international relations.

Prior knowledge about a particular topic covered in the syllabus is not required. The course will introduce basic concepts required for understanding the issues covered. The load of required readings is deliberately kept low to incentivize comprehension and questioning before the class meeting so that students from diverse backgrounds can have as much of a common plate to relate with each other during class.

Upon completing the course, participants can expect to have enriched knowledge base and appreciation for the scientific and technological dimensions of the broader issues they are interested in. The main objective is to enable students to produce research on current topics by practicing critical thinking.

This course aims at improving the ability of academic writing in Chinese for international students. This course consists of three parts: 1. Learning the features, format, writing style of Chinese academic papers, as well as the features of related language expressions, including vocabulary, sentence structure, paragraphs etc. 2. From the aspect of language expression, you will be provided with the writing methods which are frequently used in academic writings, including explanations, descriptions, making statements and examples, comparisons and arguments. 3. You will be provided with exercises related to academic writing, including the topics and subtitles, abstract and key words, introduction, literature review, arguments (eg. quotes), conclusion, reference, appendix as well as concluding remarks. This course will connect writing techniques with your language ability training. By reading examples and making analysis of common mistakes, students will get some ideas about the features of Chinese academic papers, will understand the differences of academic and non-academic Chinese, and will study the general guideline for writing Chinese academic papers. As students understand certain necessary procedures and skills of academic writing, they will be capable of writing academic papers independently.

Structure and function of nervous system is a course designed to introduce the structure and function of the human nervous system. Learning formats include lecture, laboratory observation, and group discussion. The course begins with the structure of spinal cord, spinal, nerves, brain, and cranial nerves. Role of nervous system in sensation, movement, and homeostasis, higher mental functions, autonomic system, and special senses are introduced and developed as the course proceeds. Common diseases of the nervous system will be discussed in group. A neuroanatomy laboratory will observe the structures in gross brain specimens and models. 

This course is an introduction to algorithms. Lectures are about the fundamental skills of algorithm design and analysis. The course will teach the students how to analysis the asymptotic performance of algorithms with the growth of functions, as well as the probabilistic analysis and amortized analysis. Basic algorithm design skills such as divide-and-conquer, dynamic program functions and greedy algorithm are also included. Some specific topics, such as sorting algorithms, string matching algorithms, NP completeness theory and approximation algorithms will also be discussed.

This course introduces the major theories and research methods of interpersonal communication and explains how they can be applied to effective communication in a variety of specific interpersonal relationships. Topics discussed include privacy and communication, nonverbal interpersonal communication, computer-mediated interpersonal communication, and social networks. The program is designed to incorporate cutting-edge academic and industry developments and to foster an international perspective.

Artificial intelligence is the technology that is commonly recognized to have profound impact to the economy and every aspect of human life. This course will focus on exploring how AI affects various aspects of the economy. We will focus on discussing the effects of AI on macroeconomics, labor market, education, as well as how AI combined with big data will transform business strategy, including issues such as individualized recommendation system, market design, data trading, etc. We will also discuss more fundamental ethnical issues such as privacy concern, algorithm discrimination, inequality and welfare. We will then have a better understanding of government policy regarding the AI technology.

The course carries a three-fold purpose: to raise our readerly patience and sensitivity, to showcase aspects of western culture, and to help enhance our English language skills. A mixture of lecture and discussion will form the main classroom activity.