English

This course explores arguably the most popular of secular literary forms from late medieval and early modern Europe. The course explores a range of chivalric romances alongside a variety of other literary, textual, and material productions that testify to a cultural fascination with the ideals of knighthood and with courtly values more generally. The course pays particular attention to the rise of romance literature in the late medieval period, with narratives that were repeatedly translated into English for socially diverse audiences. It explores particular tropes within romance literature and courtly lyric poetry, particularly in respect of the portrayal of women. It has long been recognized that romance literature was often read by mixed gender audiences and the course explores how the genre functioned to guide female behavior against patriarchal and social norms.

This course provides an understanding of the challenges associated with the transition from fossil-based fuels to renewable energy, considering both the supply and demand side of energy markets. This includes the technological challenges of introducing renewable energy in the energy system and the regulatory challenges of designing optimal policies to facilitate the transition. While the course generally deals with the several energy markets, special emphasis is placed on electricity markets due to the significant role of electricity in a carbon neutral energy system. The course applies theory and analytical tools from microeconomics, macroeconomics, and econometrics. A large part of the course is also based on numerical structural models of the energy system.

Students complete a total of 100-120 hours of research and meet regularly with an advisor to complete an academically rigorous, ethically sound, and culturally appropriate research project and final research paper. The course provides an opportunity to conduct ethical research; analyze primary and secondary source materials; extrapolate relevant content; make contributions to current research; exchange ideas with professionals in prospective fields; develop a scholarly research paper with a defensible argument, supported by evidence and accurate citations; and suggest additional research to be conducted in prospective fields. The research project must be approved by the CIEE Center Director and the student's home school IRB committee. Assessment is based on a research paper that evidences the proposed project, including a literature review, an explanation of the methodology, and suggestions for future research. In addition, students present their findings in a presentation to a panel of academics for feedback and keep a well-documented journal of field notes and findings. 

This course introduces the underlying molecular basis of cellular and sub-cellular processes in cells, with special emphasis for engineers. The course introduces students to some of the physiological concepts and systems that are important application areas for technology in the field of bioengineering and develops the practical laboratory skills to use the technologies introduced in the lectures.

This course introduces the time series models used to analyze time series data with a special emphasis on applications in macroeconomics and international finance. The course has two specific objective: the first is to equip students with the tools they need for empirical research, while the second is to provide Eviews skills to conduct empirical analysis with an emphasis on practical implications and interpretations. The course is built so that the time series model is presented first for each topic, followed by the relevant computer exercises using Eviews.

This course provides an introduction to the cell, its structure and functioning. Also the basis of genetics and inheritance are explored. Topics include (1) an overview of cell biology; (2) cellular organelles and the cytoskeleton; (3) how cells work- cellular respiration and photosynthesis; (4) the cell cycle and the key roles of cell division; (5) how meiosis and sexual life cycles provide biological variation; (6) an introduction into genes and inheritance from a Mendelian perspective; (6) the link between chromosomes, genes, and inheritance; (7) DNA and the molecular basis of inheritance; (8) how proteins are made from genes; (9) how genomes can inform our understanding of life's diversity; and (10) a brief introduction into basic genetic molecular techniques. 

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. The course provides information, in the fields of Indology, history, religious studies, and anthropology, indispensable for critically analyzing South Asian intellectual history in colonial and post-colonial times. The course provides in-depth analysis to the following themes: Discourse on religion and religious conflicts in colonial and postcolonial India; the debate on historiography in post-colonial India; the criticism of "secularism" in postcolonial India; representations of social marginality in contemporary South Asia. The course also provides high-level knowledge of intellectual transformations and history of thought in modern and contemporary South Asia, specifically during the colonial and post-colonial period. The course covers in depth the issue of religious and social reforms and the main theoretical positions emerged in the current debate on the historiographical and anthropological representation of the development of South Asian society. 

Participants learn basic concepts, their theoretical foundation, and the most common algorithms used in machine learning and artificial intelligence. After completing the module, participants understand strengths and limitations of the different paradigms, are able to correctly and successfully apply methods and algorithms to real world problems, are aware of performance criteria, and are able to critically evaluate results obtained with those methods. More specifically, participants are able to demonstrate: 1) Understanding regarding basic concepts of neural information processing 2) Knowledge of unsupervised machine learning methods 3) Application to problems of statistical modeling, explorative data analysis, and visualization. Topics include 

1) Principal Component Analysis, Kernel-PCA 

2) Independent Component Analysis (Infomax, FastICA, Second Order Blind Source Separation) 

3) Stochastic Optimization 

4) Clustering, Embedding, and Visualisation (Central and Pairwise Clustering, Self-Organizing Maps, Locally Linear Embedding) 

5) Density Estimation, Mixture Models, Expectation-Maximization Algorithm, Hidden Markov Model 

6) Estimation Theory, Maximum Likelihood Estimation, Bayesian Model Comparison

This course teaches students to acquire the knowledge and ability to design and analyze complex mechanical systems. This teaches students about the design process, product design specification, computer-aided design, design for manufacturing, equivalent stresses and failure criteria, transmissions and machine elements, prototyping, fatigue, shaft design, practical workshop skills, conceptual design, motors and batteries, design in plastics, ergonomics, and intellectual property.

This course covers the key concepts of the different modes of heat transfer (conduction, convection and radiation) and principles of heat exchangers. It develops proficiency in applying these heat transfer concepts and principles, to analyze and solve practical engineering problems involving heat transfer processes. Topics include introduction to heat transfer; steady state heat conduction; transient heat conduction; lumped capacitance; introduction to convective heat transfer; external forced convection; internal forced convection; natural/free convection; blackbody radiation and radiative properties; radiative exchange between surfaces; introduction to heat exchangers and basic calculation of overall heat transfer coefficient. The course requires students to take prerequisites.