English

This course is an introduction to history and theory in architecture and landscape architecture. To understand the making of built places, from the scale of the house to that of the city, the course is built around three questions: what is the built environment and how is it formed and transformed; how do we analyze built places and how might we imagine and create better social and environmental outcomes in our built places through design. Using a contemporary city as its key case study, location for student fieldwork and the mapping of places, the course is organized into four parts, addressing in turn: infrastructures, housing, health, and knowledge institutions.

This course examines geographical information systems (GIS) using basic statistical methods and spatial analysis. It focus on various spatial analysis and modelling techniquesﾠand geo-visualization for applications relating to the natural and built environments and human activities.

The context and behaviors of computer usage have been rapidly changing as the shift of computer use environments moved from desktop computers to mobile devices to the Internet of Things, leading to the remarkable appearance of Web 3.0 technologies including XR/AI/Sensor/Blockchain which have been called new design frameworks of NPD processes that may support the big step from “interacting with computers” to “interacting with AI.”  

Now advanced enterprise architectures are rapidly adopting the “Cognitive Internet of Things.” This drastic shift signifies a fundamental game changer for the UX matters.  

This course converts the initiative in the design management strategy into the study of new HCI/UX design and analysis methods in relation to cognitive science theories and design methodologies, bridging contemporary and in-depth academic interests and approaches in the field. 

Students will explore the theoretical framework of human-computer interaction (HCI) and will build an understanding of HCI-based UX research methodology, the user research process, and practical methodologies, and will engage with the current topics of HCI/UX research and the practical use of convergence studies. 

This introductory Python algorithms course is designed for beginners in Python programming. Conducted online, this course excludes difficult mathematics and complex code, allowing students to directly code and debug basic algorithms. The course will be conducted slowly and in detail to accommodate coding novices. 

This course examines the impact of digital technologies on our health and wellbeing and includes consideration of how these devices and software interact with the healthcare system, affect attitudes towards health and healthcare providers, and change the discussions about health ethics, and health equity. 

This course explores the concept and process of design thinking. Students will gain awareness of their own process, develop research skills and methods necessary for any design project, both in academia and in the commercial world, and examine methods for projecting plausible futures based on current trends. 

The course introduces the history and development of thoughts on design as a discipline and important concepts that have significantly contributed to design research and studies. Students will encounter curated design thoughts and assignments to help develop their own perspectives on design and produce useful/usable work pieces for their career.  

This course primarily focuses on economic analysis in terms of welfare. Topics include how to evaluate market allocations based on efficiency, how to achieve efficient allocations through the market, and when the market fails in achieving efficient allocations.  

Students will study market structures besides the competitive market such as standard monopoly (uniform pricing), monopoly behavior (price discrimination) and oligopoly (basic concepts in game theory are also covered).  

Additionally, the course will consider exchange, production, welfare, social choice (e.g., an investigation of voting rules), and externalities (If time allows).  

This course emphasizes the development of microeconomic models to analyze economic decision-making of agents and provides students with the basic toolkit of microeconomic theory in preparation for advanced further coursework.  

Prerequisites: Principles of Microeconomics, Basic calculus 

This course applies a critical lens to representations of gender and identity in contemporary media. Taking gender and sexuality as a critical starting point, students examine the construction of identities under the simultaneous influence of race, class, and nationality. By focusing on popular representations in both the US and the country where the course is taking place, students gain a deeper understanding of identities as both culturally specific and influenced by global media. Instead of suggesting that contemporary identities are determined by what is on TV screens, computers, and in local movie theaters, the course seeks to describe the complex interactions between national audiences and concrete media productions. It analyzes how different audiences reproduce or challenge traditional concepts and stereotypes of gender, race, sexuality, and class. By combining the study of theoretical texts with examples from the advertisement industry, television, movies, and other forms of contemporary cultural expression, it offers a comprehensive and thorough introduction to contemporary studies of the media and identity.