English

Students will embark on an exploration of riverbanks, lake environments, coastal regions, and island communities, seeking to capture the myriad ways they access and inhabit these areas in the 21st century. In the growing wave of island and coastal studies, students will also consider how coastal societies offer important examples of behavioral and cultural evolution, with religious icons, cultural ideas, linguistic patterns, and stories told and retold, featuring connections to water. Students will learn how these regions serve as natural conduits for migration, fostering cultural exchanges, and the flourishing of innovation and social networks. These include the fishing First Nations and Inuit communities in northern Canada and Greenland, the societies living in the depths of the jungle along the Congo River, and even Hong Kong’s coasts and communities such as those in Mui Wo, Tai O, Lei Yue Mun, Aberdeen, and Sai Kung.

This course considers specific cognitive functions and properties of the human mind. The material covers perception, attentional processes, language and knowledge representation, memory mechanisms, problem-solving and expertise, and the relationships and links between processes. Studies from classical and modern cognitive psychology are provided throughout.

The course develops an understanding of visual perception and its functions. Focus is on the integration of findings from physiology, neuropsychology, anatomy, and experimental psychology. Topic areas include theories of human vision and their application to understanding our ability to perceive distinct visual properties, for example the shape, size, location, and identity of objects. 

This course introduces quantum computing from a computer science perspective, focusing on mathematical and algorithmic foundations. Quantum computers have the potential to solve difficult computational problems for which no efficient classical algorithms exist. Writing quantum algorithms is radically different from programming classical computers and requires an understanding of quantum principles and the mathematical foundations behind them. Course participants will gain practical experience by developing quantum programs in Qiskit and their simulation and execution on quantum processing units(QPUs) of the IBM Quantum Platform, particularly the Yonsei University Eagle QPU. 

Course goals: (1) Acquire a firm understanding of the quantum-mechanical foundations of qubit superposition, entanglement, and interference at the heart of all quantum computations. (2) Understand the early quantum algorithms such as Deutsch’s Problem, Bernstein-Vazirani, and Quantum FFT, and be able to code and execute them on a QPU. (3) Know recent near-term quantum algorithms like the quantum simulation of Hamiltonian dynamics. (4) Understand and control, in principle, the quantum circuit compilation pipeline and error mitigation techniques to execute near-term quantum workloads on QPUs. 

Prerequisites: An introductory programming class, e.g., CAS1100-01, is strictly required. A course in linear algebra is strictly required. 

This course examines the evolving realities of the various media industries in Hong Kong, China, and beyond. The overarching questions to be discussed in the class include: How can one characterize the configuration of the contemporary media industries? What are the key trends underlying the transformation of the media industries? What are the implications of these transformations for “media workers”? What does it mean by working as a journalist, a creative content producer, an advertiser, etc. in the contemporary world and in the future? What are the communication practices involved in the various industries? What are the broader social, cultural, and political implications of the transformation of media work and media industries?

This course is an introductory survey of architectural history in a range of global settings between c. 1775 and 2000. It is not just about buildings and designs, but seeks to place architecture in its historical contexts. What can architecture tell us about wider developments in social, political, cultural, and urban history? How did those contexts inform design and practice? The idea of "modernity" appears throughout the course. How has this idea informed architectural debate and production? The course begins with the stylistic revivals that dominated western architecture in the early 19th century. It also discusses the 19th century development of new typologies along with the new materials and technologies that made them possible. In the second part of the course, students turn to 20th-century Modernism in global contexts, including Europe, Africa, and Latin America. They explore how architects and their clients sought to invent new architectures, and the ways in which the results balanced international agendas with local and national concerns. The course concludes with the revision of Modernism in the 1950's and 60's and the emergence of a Post-modern consciousness.

The understanding we have of our nature as reasoning beings is a fascinating topic which has captivated thinkers for thousands of years. In this course we will chart its history and focus on the developments in the recent past.

This course provides a broad outline for the processes of change which led from the introduction of farming to the metal producing societies of the Bronze Age in Europe. Students discuss the different explanatory frameworks offered for the introduction and spread of the Neolithic economy and the formation of early stratified societies. The course discusses the changing definitions of the Neolithic, looks at the Mesolithic background, follows the introduction of farming in the Aegean, the Balkans, the Mediterranean, central and Northern Europe, the lake shore settlements of Central Europe, Megalithic monuments, the Tells of Southern Europe, the settlement of the steppe, the first metals, the inventions of charts, and the Bell Beaker network.

This course discusses game theory for economic analysis at the undergraduate level. For undergraduate students, the course, Intro to Game Theory, is a prerequisite. Students are also expected to have a basic knowledge of mathematics such as basic differentiation and basic probability theory.

The course aims to teach formal concepts in game theory and provide hands on experience in solving games with different solution concepts.

This course comprises the Semester 1 material, including laboratory and course work, of the Chemistry 2 course. The course consists of the following lecture courses: Carbonyl Chemistry; Transition Metal Organometallic Chemistry 1; Heterocyclic Chemistry; Quantum Theory; Reaction Kinetics; Separation Techniques & Mass Spectrometry. The course includes six weeks of inorganic chemistry and three weeks of physical chemistry laboratory sessions.