English

This course draws on contemporary moral philosophy to shed light on some of the most pressing practical, ethical questions of our time, including euthanasia, abortion, surrogacy, censorship, animal rights, genetic testing and cloning and environmental ethics. 

Global interaction and exchange have increased on a dramatic level since the 1970s. This course offers the opportunity to examine the real life of globalization by treating it as a historical phenomena, helping us to think precisely about what was globalized when, and how understandings of it have changed through time. Students trace the emergence of technologies and practices which facilitate global interaction, from the container ship to the internet. Students examine the emergence of the idea of globalization, and trace the history of arguments about what it is and whether it is a good thing or not. Finally, students study its political consequences, charting debates about the effects of global interaction on the choices available to publics and their leaders, and how far institutions and individuals are able to shape phenomena which occurs on such a large scale. In taking course, students develop a crucial set of tools for understanding one of the major issues of our age.

The course providers the knowledge, skills, and experience from taking part in an industrially based mechatronic development project, which is conducted up to a working prototype. The principal design of the product has been formed in the course Applied Mechatronics. It is essential that the work is done in a team with competences from various fields. The project is done during two study periods. The course participants should develop the mechatronic parts of those projects or other purely mechatronic products. The development process starts with extensive information search, brainstorming, and evaluation, activities which often encompass 30-40% of the total workload. This has been done in the course EIEN65 Applied Mechatronics. Then follows in this course selection of concept, constructive design of the product idea, ordering of components, building, testing, and adjustments. The course concludes with the official presentation of the designed products, where representatives from industry, course leaders, and the press take part. Assumed prior knowledge: Applied Mechatronics.

Educational inequalities are often explained through individual factors such as talent, effort, or motivation. This course shows instead that achievement is socially patterned and rooted in unequal resources, expectations, and institutional structures. It reviews major sociological approaches—cultural reproduction, rational-choice models, tracking and maintained inequality, and out-of-school effects. Sessions combine theory with hands-on analyses of a simplified PISA dataset in Jamovi. Students learn to read research articles, build hypotheses, and conduct basic descriptive and multivariate analyses to understand how social background shapes school outcomes.

The origins of this rich and complicated genre lie in the Middle Ages, when romance was the most popular form of secular literature and the particular narrative form in which women characters developed agency and subjectivity. Medieval romance has a profound influence on later literature, and, as students explore, on the novel, making it one of the most important genres to English literary history. Despite this, romance is a peculiarly discredited genre – a bit of an embarrassment to write, and to be seen reading. The course asks why the discrediting of romance in later periods is bound up with its association with women readers, and, indeed, with women writers. This course introduces students to the history of romance, to feminist scholarship on it, as well as to a history of women as readers and writers, and the ways in which male writers thought about and adapted a genre that was assumed to be feminine.

This course examines contemporary trends in socio-economic inequalities across Western countries and explores their political implications. It analyzes inequalities in social mobility, income, and wealth; poverty and labor market integration, urban segregation, as well as health inequalities. Particular attention is given to the mediating role of educational systems, labor market institutions, and welfare states. The course contrasts institutionalist approaches to inequality with structural explanations that emphasize the impact of globalization and technological change. Finally, it discusses how these empirical patterns relate to evolving political attitudes and preferences, including the decline of traditional class voting and the rise of populist parties.

This course examines the diverse and exciting study of neuroscience. Students will build from a foundation of the structures and functions of the nervous system to the integration of the study of anatomy, pharmacology, psychology and genetics to enable a holistic understanding of the major issues in the neuroscience field. 

This course offers students the opportunity to critically analyze contemporary societal issues in depth, with reference to current psychological and neuroscientific theory and evidence. It brings together topics in the related fields of political psychology, media psychology, and social cognition. Familiarity with major theories, perspectives, and methods in Psychology is assumed, along with competency in psychological statistics (e.g., Psychology as major or substantive subject for visiting exchange program students.) 

The course covers how solar cells and photovoltaic systems technology work in different applications, especially when integrated into the built environment. In developing countries where many live outside the electric grid, standalone PV systems are also of great interest. The ability to design and optimize the performance of PV systems through computer simulations is an important part of the course. The course covers: energy knowledge and the problems connected to the use of energy; radiation physics, the annual irradiance distribution and the climatic conditions for using solar energy in Sweden; calculation of solar angels and the irradiance on different surfaces; the PN-junction and Solar cell physics and construction and function of a PV-module; function and performance of the components in the PV-system; batteries, power point tracker, DC-AC inverter, charge regulator; system design of standalone and grid connected systems; building integration of PV-system; hand calculation of economic profitability of PV-systems; calculations of climate impact of solar cells in carbon dioxide emissions; use of simulation programs; laborations and computer simulations; and studievisits to PV installations.  Assumed prior knowledge: Basic courses in electricity and electronics. Experience from the use of calculation program like Matlab and Excel.

This course examines the theory and practice of machine learning, including conceptual, computational, mathematical and statistical frameworks. Topics include: classification, regression, optimization, neural networks, deep learning, unsupervised learning, semi-supervised learning, clustering, dimensionality reduction and generative models. The implementation of machine learning techniques, experimentation and practical application are a central theme of the course.