English

This course introduces students to the history, development, and institutions of the American political system. It provides a deeper understanding of contemporary US politics by exploring the historical origins of American political and economic development. The course examines the operation of the main branches of the US government (Congress, Presidency, Supreme Court), and the nature of political ideology and the rise of modern political parties. It also analyzes the development of the federal government, bureaucracy and regulation, and explains the importance of voting and elections in shaping the scope and breadth of public policy in the US today. 

Course Description

The module aims to provide students with a new perspective in understanding the making of the People’s Republic of China’s foreign policy. The “third world” and “internationalism” will be the key concepts of discussion for this course. It will address key issues such as the Afro-Asian national independence movement in the mid-20th century, Chinese revolution, the Korean War, the Bandung conference, the Sino-Arab relations, and the P.R. China’s admission into the UN. In addition to the linear historical narrative of major events in P. R. China during the Cold War period, this course will also allow students to understand from an analytical perspective the relations between Chinese foreign policy and its domestic nation building concern, between the aim of national salvation and the ideal of international solidarity. The primary materials discussed in this course will include political documents/writings, historical archives, posters, music, literature, and films.

Course Objective

1. Delineate a broader historical and socio-political landscape in which the Chinese foreign policy in the Cold War period was formed;
2. Enable students to engage with multidisciplinary primary and secondary sources in both English and Chinese languages for studying IR.
3. Familiarize key discussions and debates on the issue of internationalism, modernization, national independence, nation-building, and international cooperation in the 20th century in China, and other Third World countries.
4. Develop transferable skills in data collection, synthesizing information, critical thinking, and English academic writing.

The course familiarizes students with the issues involved in designing, implementing, and applying parallel programming systems. Initial motivation is provided by consideration of a number of typical high performance applications and parallel architectures. This highlights the role of parallel software systems as a means of bridging the gap between these and allows abstraction of the issues which must be addressed by any such system (partitioning, communication, agglomeration, scheduling). It explores the ways in which these challenges have been addressed by a range of systems, including both de facto standards and more adventurous research projects.

This course takes students on the path to understanding of how religious ideas, movements, and institutions shape and are shaped by individuals, groups, and societies. Students engage with ideas and theories of classical thinkers, such as Durkheim, Marx, and Weber, and with innovative and often provocative views and concepts of contemporary sociologists. Among the questions for discussion are whether religion serves as "social cement" or causes conflict; why and how it can reinforce the existing social order or encourage change; and how we can explain why people stay in conventional faiths or choose new, even exotic, religions – or maybe they are brainwashed into them? Students discuss methods and approaches that sociologists use to study religion – and why their methodology often leads them to discoveries that challenge common assumptions about certain religious beliefs, practices, and groups.

Private and public sector firms increasingly use marketing strategies to engage their customers and stakeholders around social impact. To do so, managers need to understand how best to engage and influence customers to behave in ways that have positive social effects. This course focuses on social marketing strategies for changing the behavior of a target segment of consumers on key issues in the public interest (e.g., health behaviors, energy efficiency, poverty reduction, fundraising for social causes). In addition, it examines the growing role of social enterprises and benefit corporation (B corp) play in today’s marketplace. This class also offers students an opportunity to work on a real business problem that are tied to social initiatives.

This is an introduction to quantum computer science, intended primarily for computer scientists, physicists, electrical engineers, and mathematicians. It introduces a large number of ideas with an emphasis on building familiarity with the main concepts, and some general knowledge of terminology and methods. Mathematical methods are employed in a practical way, on a "need-to-know" basis. 

This course provides a rigorous treatment of the core concepts and skills in security investments and portfolio management. The main focus is on the trade-off between risk and return, which is analyzed in a mean variance framework. Along this line, two main theories of asset pricing are explained: the Capital Asset Pricing Model and Arbitrage Pricing Theory. The empirical tests of these two theories are discussed. A team based project asks students to exercise skills of security analysis, portfolio construction, and management. 

This course provides an overview of the history, current status, and mitigation strategies for atmospheric environment. It covers the following contents: Formation of the atmosphere Urban atmospheric environment and environmental regulations Human activity and ozone hole After taking the course, you will be able to answer the following questions. Why do we have oxygen in the atmosphere? How does PM2.5 in Beijing form? How did ozone hole form? How have we been resolving these environmental issues in the atmosphere? 

This course examines through three case studies how we should develop legal responses to the challenge of AI. Today AI is used by the police, other law enforcement agencies, and even by private citizens to build smart surveillance networks through the use of live facial recognition cameras and so-called “hot spot” policing. This has the potential to impact our privacy and personal data and risks bias and error in design and deployment. The use of AI in law enforcement is the first case study. The second, the deployment of AI in medical practice and treatment, raises questions of autonomy, consent, confidentiality, and liability. The third case study looks at how public authorities deploy AI in ways which impact all, including digital transformation of public administrative systems, the use of AI in the legal profession and the courts, and the deployment of AI at borders and to manage immigration.