English

The lecture series brings together thirteen fellows from Humboldt University’s Käte Hamburger Kolleg for Advanced Study ­ – inherit. Heritage in Transformation, whose research spans disciplines to explore what it means to inherit. From colonial legacies and ancestral remains to genetic memory, religious ritual, and postcolonial art, the lectures probe how inheritance shapes belonging, identity, and knowledge itself. Through these diverse projects, the lecture series asks what can be passed on and how, and in what ways does inheritance invite us to rethink the ethics and possibilities of living with the past in the present. The contributors to the lecture series include artists of various media as well as researchers from a wide range of humanities and social sciences, such as anthropology, art history, history, literature, philosophy, political science and sociology. The lecture series introduces trans- and multi-disciplinary humanities approaches with a particular focus on the following three strands of ongoing transformation: decentering of the West (Europe/Global North); decentering of the human; and transformation of value.

This is an etymology course that aims to improve the vocabulary, especially academic vocabulary. The course consists of two components: focus on concepts associated with the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations of the Mediterranean and key words in English derived from Greek and Latin; knowledge of English word-formation and evolution from the lexical resources of the Greek and Latin languages, as well as other languages, particularly as this knowledge enhances word-building skills and increases confidence in the use of English of an academic register. As an introductory course to the study of language, content that engages the diversity of students’ own lexicons and is cognizant of our African location is used. The course employs innovative teaching and delivery methods, including multilingual pedagogies and digital literacy, that allow more time for active engagement and the development of critical reading and writing skills in the Humanities. DP requirements: Students must attend all tutorials, submit all tutorial assignments, and write all tests. Assessment: One two-hour examination at the end of the semester counts for 50% of the final mark; coursework counts for 50%.

In the scope of a project, students build radio astronomy components or perform radio astronomy measurements and data processing within interdisciplinary teams. They gain basic knowledge in high frequency technology and signal processing as well as electrical, mechanical, and software engineering. Students learn to understand the working principles of hardware and software related to radio astronomy. Using the knowledge and skills gained in other courses in electrical and computer engineering, participants are able to set up a a simple radio telescope. They document and present their work at the end of the project. After successful completion of this module, students are able to work in an interdisciplinary project team, understand general structure and components of radio telescopes, organize small interdisciplinary engineering projects, and use open source soft- and hardware tools for management and development. This course covers applied technical know-how regarding radio astronomy: e.g. characteristics of electromagnetic waves, components for transmitter and receiver circuits, antennas, transmission path, electronics, mechanics, programming, networking and other IT components etc.It discusses practical hardware, software and/or system design as well as manufacturing and implementation Students use electrical and RF measuring instruments and/or troubleshooting tools. They also study methods for planning and organizing projects and learn the technical and project documentation and presentation of the practical work.

This course offers a study of the most relevant properties of finite dimensional inner product spaces, its related applications (with special emphasis on least squares problems), and the classes and factorizations of matrices related to them. It also discusses general bilinear forms in finite dimensional vector spaces. Specific topics include: orthogonality; unitary matrices; QR factorization; bilinear and quadratic forms; Schur triangularization theorem; Spectral Theorem; singular value decomposition (SVD). 

Pre-requisites: Linear Algebra; Calculus; Fundamentals of Mathematics 

This course examines ideas regarding the scope of what engineering actually is, considerations regarding engineering in the Australian context, and the broad impacts engineering decisions have on people, community and the environment. 

In this course, students explore the questions of do conventional rules, rules that exist as a matter of social fact, truly bind people? People often feel as if they do. But how could it be that whether one is obligated to, say, greet one's neighbors, depends on whether one lives in a small town or a big city? It also does not seem as if one's obligations are dependent on contingent facts about where one resides. This course explores both attempts to reduce these obligations to general moral obligations and attempts to argue that some obligations are genuinely social.

This course covers the general theory of vector spaces as a continuation of Linear Algebra I. The course discusses general vector spaces (including complex vector spaces); linear independence; linear transformations and their matrix representations, and metric vector spaces.

Required course prerequisite: Linear Algebra I.
 

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. The course requires a background knowledge of cell biology and animal physiology from Bachelor of Science courses of Biology. The course content includes:

• Temperature: biochemical and physiological effects on animals; regulation of thermal biology; molecular basis of thermal adaptation.
• Ocean Acidification: biochemical and physiological effects of pH variations on animals; molecular basis of pH adaptation
• Drought and salinity: animal water balance and osmoregulation; adaptation in terrestrial and aquatic environments; molecular basis of osmotic adaptation.
• Physiological and molecular limits of adaptation; climate change adverse effects on animal and human health.
• Biological effects of emerging pollutants

At the end of the course, students demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the physiological mechanisms (at the molecular, cellular and systemic levels) through which animals - including humans - can adapt to changes in temperature, pH, osmolarity, water scarcity, etc. in the surrounding environment. On the other hand, students know the limits of adaptation, thus being able to evaluate the risks related to climate changes. Students have the ability to integrate knowledge and formulate hypothesis, and clearly communicate their achievements.

A course for undergraduate and graduate students majoring in math and statistics, covering Martingale, stationary processes and the Brownian motion.

This course examines classical electromagnetism. It covers electrostatic fields in free space and in dielectrics; magnetic fields due to steady and varying currents; electromagnetic induction; magnetic materials and Maxwell's equations.