English

Hydrological systems such as river catchments represent a fundamental component of our landscapes. The environmental and hydrological processes which operate in river catchments influence important ecosystem services such as water supply, the provision of high water quality, and high (flood) and low flow regulation. The effective management of these systems is dependent on our scientific understanding of these processes and their dynamics. This course covers the key principles of hydrology and catchment systems and introduces key principles for monitoring and managing catchment systems.

The course provides an up-to-date survey of the rapidly changing field of stem cell research, from fundamental principles to the practicalities of regenerative medicine. Students learn about the basic biology of stem cells and how it differs in various tissues, how stem cells are involved in disease from genetic disorders to ageing, how stem cells can be harnessed to regenerate tissues, what challenges regenerative medicine faces, and the approaches taken by researchers to overcome them.

This course introduces students to contemporary Chinese foreign policy. It examines how historical and geographical legacies, domestic institutions, political leadership, and societal forces shape China’s foreign policy decisions. The course also explores China’s relations with major countries and regions, including the United States, Russia, Japan, and the Korean Peninsula, as well as China’s growing role in global governance in areas such as the economy, technology, and the environment. By the end of the course, students will be able to critically analyze China’s foreign policy in a changing global context.  

This course provides an overview of microbiology and immunology, ranging from microbes in diverse environments to the cells and molecules that make up the immune system, and how these act in health and disease. Students have the opportunity to explore the wider context in which microorganisms exist as microbial communities, followed by a focus on core molecular and cellular principles of both microbiology and immunology. Students learn how infectious agents combat host immune defenses and how aberrations in the immune response can lead to disease.

Students explore quantitative mathematical methods for taking decisions in the presence of constraints or finite resources; learn about linear programming, integer linear programming, robust optimization, and game theory and their application; classify mathematical programs on the basis of the number and types of their solutions; implement solution techniques for linear programs with both real and integer-valued variables; and become familiar with fundamental notions of duality, degeneracy, and sensitivity.

This course examines a variety of organisms, including Australian invertebrates, vertebrates, and plants. It covers fundamental aspects of evolution such as adaptation, sexual selection, symbiosis, and the origins of life. 

Monte Carlo simulations are a powerful computational technique for probabilistic and deterministic problems with applications to various fields including computer science, finance, economics, engineering, mathematics, and physics. The initial part of the course is about computer-simulated randomness and begins with pseudo-random generators and simulating one-dimensional random variables. From the moment that we can simulate one random variable, we can simulate a whole discrete process, such as Markov chains and use the simulations to extract statistical results of their equilibria. The course also explores applications in Physics via the Ising model and in Statistics via the goodness of fit tests. The course is a mixture of coding with probability theory, and students use the R software for the simulations.

This course provides the fundamental keys to understand the new place occupied by the Arab monarchies of the Persian Gulf on the international scene. It offers a panoramic study that is twofold: how are these Arab monarchies deploying regional policies to consolidate their influence in the Middle East; and how have these Arab monarchies become a new global epicenter of international relations? The course also includes a simulation module for international negotiations. It provides a more practical approach of the subject and its stakes, but also to practice international negotiations, public speaking and to solicit the knowledge acquired in the course. In view of the breadth of the theme and the area covered, the teaching involves many disciplines, such as history, geography, economics and international law, with a predominance of international relations and strategic studies.

This course provides a broad overview of neural engineering concepts and principles for recording outgoing (efferent) and generating ingoing (afferent) neural signals. These concepts form the basis for neural interfaces or human-machine interfaces. This area is interdisciplinary and encompasses the fields of neuroscience, physiology, signal processing, machine learning, and robotics. The course provides insights into existing and future neural interfaces, neural prostheses, and neurorobotics. The course introduces principles and technologies of neuroengineering applications including basic human neurophysiology and -anatomy, brain stimulator, spinal cord stimulation, functional electrical stimulation (FES), neural-machine interface for motor prosthesis control, artificial visual, and auditory devices for augmented sensory perception. Assumed prior knowledge: Mathematics, Physics and Physiology (eg. EXTG50).

This course gives students the opportunity to explore in greater depth the cell and molecular basis for much of cell behaviour that often fails in disease processes.