English

This course examines the relationships among marketing organizations and final consumers in terms of production-distribution channels or value chains. It focuses on consumer responses to various marketing decisions (product mixes, price levels, distribution channels, promotions, etc.) made by private and public organizations to create, develop, defend, and sometimes eliminate, product markets. Emphasis is placed on identifying new ways of satisfying the needs and wants, and creating value for consumers. While this unit is heavily based on theory, practical application of the concepts to "real world" situations is also essential. Specific topics of study include: market segmentation strategies; market planning; product decisions; new product development; branding strategies; channels of distribution; promotion and advertising; pricing strategies; and customer database management.

This course includes basic techniques such as finite-state machines, neural networks, genetic algorithms, and methods for application areas such as behavioral modelling, combinatorial optimization, and generation of 3D geometries. The programming language used is C++.

The course covers the political and social history of Rome down to Augustus, together with the material culture, monuments, art, literature and thought of the Romans during this period. Lectures cover topics such as early Rome, the conquest of Italy and the Mediterranean, Roman myth and religion, the city of Rome, Roman poetry and drama, the fall of the republic and the Augustan revolution.

This course examines interactions between contemporary China and world politics. It systematically analyzes and applies theoretical frameworks of international relations, comparative politics, and interactions between domestic and international politics. The course explores major issues and debates in the study of so-called “global China” phenomenon and its major characteristics. It also empirically surveys the relations between global China and every other region (Asia, Africa, Europe, America, Oceania).

This course introduces major concepts and definitions in political geography followed by a brief introduction of the intellectual history and lineage of political geography. The course then examines theoretical issues and empirical cases, grouped into a number of topics. The tenet of this course is to show how world order and the lived experiences of people are shaped by, but also reshape, the respective capacities of, and interactions between, state regimes. It is to show that sovereignty, territoriality and nation-state matter a great deal in defining global economy, social transformation and culture. Topics investigated in the course include: classical geopolitical theories; global economy and the world-system; critical geopolitics; globalization and the regulation of difference; imperialism and post-colonial geographies; territoriality, sovereignty and the border; nation-state, nationalism and citizenship.

This course focuses on integrating software and hardware and building working computer systems. The course covers building touchpads; wearable devices; motion tracking; haptic devices, and autonomous vehicles. 

The course offers an overview of social studies of technologies (science and technologies studies), with particular reference to the social dimensions of digital media and communication technologies, providing a set of historical, conceptual, and methodological tools to analyze the relationship between technologies and society. The course is structured in two parts: a first theoretical part presents some of the main concepts and theories for the study of the social implications of technologies, with particular reference to the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS); a second part is dedicated to the deepening of the social and cultural implications that have characterized some of the most important technologies for digital communication and in particular the Internet, the smartphone, and online platforms. More specifically, the topics addressed are: an introduction to the basic concepts and terminology for the study of the relationship between technologies and society; the critique of “technological determinism;” the “social construction of technologies” approach; the role of end users in shaping technologies; the history of the Internet in a social and cultural perspective; the process of innovation of the smartphone and its uses in society; and the social role and technical mechanisms of digital platforms.