English

This course covers the basic concepts and applications of linear optimization, convex optimization, and non-linear & combinatorial optimization. Topics include introduction to optimization, intro to convex optimization, linear programming (LP), least squares (LS), quadratic programming (QP), second-order cone programming (SOCP), semi-definite programming (SDP), duality: connecting convex optimization with non-convex optimization, strong/weak duality, gradient descent ascent (GDA), interior point method (IPM), Lagrange relaxation, applications: unsupervised learning (GAN, Wasserstein GAN), and applications: sparse/low-rank recovery (compressed sensing, matrix completion). 

Prerequisites: Calculus, Linear Algebra 

Feelings are things we usually think of as "natural," but sociologists are interested in to what extent emotions are socially constructed and/or socially constituting. In this course, students examine why sociologists have largely neglected emotions and what a sociological approach can bring to our understanding of them. This enables students to explore how the sociology of emotions can challenge some of sociology's key premises and ways of thinking and to critically analyze debates about the changing role of emotions in social life. The topic examines how modernity has made people feel about each other and their world and how those feelings have in turn shaped that world. 

This course enriches students' culture by deconstructing many prejudices about a film genre that is often caricatured. It also provides a parallel view of the evolution of a young nation, and the main problems linked to its expansion. Working with films and documents emphasizes the importance of speaking out and constructing an argumentative discourse. Students also work on their writing skills through research projects.

This course is a survey of the history of Great Britain from the Revolution of 1688 to Brexit. The course seeks to understand how Britain and the British came to be the way they are at present-economy, society, politics, and culture. It covers the rise and fall of British power and influence; the expansion of English power within the British Isles; the formation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain; the transformation of a traditional society; the rise and decline of British industrial power; the development of a class society, and the rise and fall of Britain as a great power. 

This course examines the prominent sources of labor precarity and how workers – across different institutional settings – respond to these threats. The course covers phenomena such as workplace technological change/automation, international trade, green transition, as well as their consequences, including growing inequality, the revival of the radical right, protectionism, and demand for redistributive policies.

This course explains the emergence, development, and design of social insurance systems from the industrial revolution to the modern society. The course discusses the insurance protection needs of the society as a whole, discussing many benefit programs designed to reduce economic uncertainty, including social security, health insurance, workers' compensation, unemployment compensation, and disability insurance. We discuss principles, features, and policy issues related to social insurance and public assistance programs.

This course offers a study of strategies and tools for drafting and presenting any type of text or oral speech in the academic environment.

This course focuses on past diets, adopting archaeological, ethnographic, historical, literary, linguistic, anthropological, and heritage studies perspectives. It discusses what diet did we evolve to eat, how technological development changed our dietary habits, what role food played in past cultures, how food-related decisions affected societies, what effects food globalization had on traditional diets, when subsistence activities started impacting environments, and what is human food and the omnivore’s dilemma. Teaching introduces how we study food consumption in the past. The core of the course overviews the prehistory and history of foodstuffs and diets, as well as the issues arising from them. The concluding sessions focus on ongoing debates on food and diet, conducted in the light of the interdisciplinary approaches adopted in the course and through an understanding of dietary history.

The course covers two or three of the following main topics: Dynamical systems, Group Theory, or Complex Analysts. Dynamical systems include ordinary differential equations, phase plane analysis, stability analysis, linearization, limit cycles, Poincaré-Benedixson Theorem. Group theory is a natural setting in which to learn styles of proof-writing and abstract thought characteristic of much of modern mathematics. Complex analysis includes the calculus of complex-valued functions and power series, geometric properties of analytic functions, the Cauchy-Riemann equations, topological properties of integration in the complex plane, Cauchy’s Theorem, Cauchy’s Formula. Which of the above topics are covered may vary from year to year. This course replaces the former Math labs UCSCIMATL5, UCSCIMATL3, and UCSCIMATL6.

This course examines the origin of the concept of sustainable development in public policy discourses with particular focus on the implications this concept has for the operation of business organizations. The course examines the difficulties of applying notions of sustainable development to single organizations as well as the challenges which conventional economic systems present to sustainable development. The course examines the theory and practice of managing for sustainable development, drawing on examples which are found in business. In addition, selected topics in managing for sustainable development are examined.