English

Domestic and global financial systems are comprised of a variety of interlinked institutions whose interactions create the form and structure of the financial system. These institutions range from central banks, commercial and investment banks, institutional investors, and financial markets for stock, bond and other assets to currency regimes, the global balance of payments, and fiscal and regulatory policies that affect monetary conditions. The main objective of this class is to help construct a conceptual framework of the financial markets for finance students and to ensure that they are able to develop for themselves a context in which to place their more specialized finance classes. In this class we will attempt to outline and develop a “geography” of China’s financial system and its links to the global system in order to develop a framework within which to understand the Chinese financial system, its future development, and its role within the current global crisis. We will consider the purpose of a well-functioning financial market, the necessary components of such a market, the role of financial balance sheets in the way the system responds to shocks, and the implementation of monetary policy. We will examine the different kinds of financial markets and their inter-relationships.

The course has a practical focus and introduces students to a range of basic and more advanced network analysis methods through hands-on computer work. Through lectures and readings, students learn key concepts and measures of social network research. In labs, students apply this knowledge through exercises with real-world network datasets using the statistical environment R. The course first covers exploratory Social Network Analysis (SNA) before progressing into more advanced statistical methods.

The course is an introductory course to comparative democratization, ONLY open for the Mater students of Department of International Relation. Designed to introduce students to the study of democratization and assist students to developing research topics in democratization. The course is divided into three parts. First, we will review and basic concepts and theories of de- mocratization. Secondly, we will explore the determinants and consequences of democratiza- tion. Thirdly, we will put China into scrutiny and examine its democratic politics constructions. We will survey through a range of methodological approaches and explores key elements – eco- nomic development, political institutions, international factors as well as domestic structures, state-society relations, and elites decision making process, supplement with contemporary read- ing on democratization.

Apple, background, commutativity—underlying each of these words is a concept, which a language learner must identify and learn to decode and encode for parsing and constructing sentences. How do young children acquire words and know how to use their grammar correctly? Is learning apple just as easy as learning background? This class surveys classic and current views on cognitive underpinnings for language acquisition and how acquiring language impacts cognition.

An understanding of economic history lends clarity to many questions in economics. Among these are: The extent and impact of globalization; the determinants of the wealth of nations; the occurrence and impact of financial crisis; and the importance of economic institutions. Each of these putatively modern questions have long historical antecedents. Students treat these questions with a modern rigor, studying work that uses theoretical and econometric analysis.

This course explores modern numerical algorithms through three connected tasks: large scale linear algebra, optimization for data science, and deep learning.  The first six lectures discuss how to approximately solve massive scale linear algebra tasks using techniques not covered in linear algebra courses. The second six lectures discuss optimization algorithms with a focus on large data science tasks. Numerical optimization is one of the most useful skills as so many tasks from science to business can be cast as optimization problems. The six seminars focus on deep learning, the key algorithmic advance driving the recent advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence. The lectures on numerical linear algebra and optimization ground this course in well understood numerical algorithms which students can study in detail, while the deep learning seminars give students the opportunity to explore the excitement driving the AI revolution. 

This course offers a comprehensive exploration into the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), specifically designed for students with diverse backgrounds. Spanning a period of three weeks, participants are introduced to fundamental AI concepts and techniques, ranging from basic machine learning principles to advanced neural networks and ethical considerations. Through a mix of interactive lectures, hands-on coding exercises, and practical case studies, students not only acquire a theoretical understanding of AI but also develop practical skills in data pre-processing, model implementation, and ethical decision-making. The course serves as a platform for students to delve into AI's potential and ethical dimensions, cultivating insights into its applications across industries and nurturing a curiosity for further AI study.

This course situates an early Chinese understanding of the body within a cross-cultural and inter-disciplinary perspective. It trains analytical thinking and academic writing through bodily discussions. It introduces classical texts with contemporary theories from the fields of social epistemology, communication studies, social anthropology, disabled studies, and phenomenology. It shows students different ways of asking questions, finding evidence, forms of reasoning, and perspectives of discussions. Active and ethical engagement with AI reading and writing is also essential to this course.

The interwar years (1918-1939), while dealing with the aftermath of hitherto unknown mass destruction and the advent of totalitarian systems, were nevertheless characterized by an exceptional vibrancy across various fields of cultural activity - music, theatre, and the fine arts. This course discusses and evaluates these practices in various national contexts and in relation to a number of critical approaches. 

The course focuses on human skeletal morphology, and the study of physical evidence as a means to resolving issues involving criminal investigations, environment analyses, and assessment. How to identify skeletal remains, both whole and fragmentary, and how to estimate the age, sex, ancestry, and stature of an individual using laboratory and imaging techniques are learned.