English

This course explores mental health issues, relational conflicts, and environmental challenges in modern society while emphasizing resilience as one of the key factors in prevention and recovery. Students learn and apply strategies to strengthen resilience and navigate life’s challenges. Through discussions and activities, students develop inner strengths, build healthier relationships, and promote mental health for themselves and others. 

Topics include Depression, Anxiety, Perfectionism, Attention-related issues, Relationships, Society and culture, Digital world, Connections, Perseverance, Self-regulation, Postivity, Self-care, Resilience and community. 

This course offers an introduction to the history of modern Eastern Europe, with a focus on the region’s politics, society, and culture, from the late 19th century to the present. It traces the collapse of the Ottoman, Habsburg, and Russian empires; the rise of nationalism and creation of nation-states; the impact of the world wars; the establishment and evolution of communist regimes; and the region’s transition to democracy after the fall of communism in 1989. Through engagement with primary sources, memoirs, literature, artistic works, and major historiographical debates, the course explores how the countries of the region continue to grapple with the questions of identity, memory, power, and belonging raised during Europe’s tumultuous twentieth century.

This seminar explores Plato’s views on akrasia and its reception in the Platonic tradition, especially by Plotinus. The exploration begins with a close reading and discussion of several key passages in Plato’s dialogues before moving on to equally careful readings of key passages in the later tradition. Students discuss various versions of akrasia (synchronic, diachronic, knowledge-based, belief-based, etc.) and some views found in the secondary literature. No knowledge of Ancient Greek is required, but at times the Greek text is discussed in a manner accessible to all.

This course is a shared exploration of the history of relations between the United States and China from the 1770s to the present.  The course begins with the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), through the Republican period (1911-1949), and through the current era (1949-present).  

The course also explores cultural history – examining the dominant national mythologies of the United States and China, and how these have developed since the respective nations’ beginnings, including mythologies in popular culture and more official national mythologies. It examines the layers of national narratives in different periods both in terms of how the two powers perceived and depicted themselves, and how they perceived and depicted each other. This theme concludes with an exploration of the most recent national narratives, incorporating popular and official voices in Beijing and Taipei, Hollywood and Washington, and more. 

This course covers fundamental stochastic models of probabilistic phenomena, including conditional probability, stochastic processes, Markov chains, properties and applications of Markov chains, Poisson processes, renewal processes, and martingales. Topics include Conditional Expectation, Martingales in Discrete Time, Optional Stopping Theorem, Martingale Inequalities, Convergence and Uniform Integrability, Markov Chains, Long-Time Behavior of Markov Chains, Poisson Process, Brownian Motion, and Stochastic Differential Equations.

This course develops an understanding of the causes and motivations of personal travel, the means by which movement takes place, as well as the impact personal travel, freight and transport infrastructure have on the environment, economy, and society. This is done by providing a grounding in techniques for modelling, analyzing and assessing (multi-modal) transport systems and their impacts. Transport policy and appraisal and fundamentals of data collection, as well as professional communication (presentation skills) are included. Course entry requirements: None. Co-requisites: None. 

This course covers the principles of relationship marketing. Students are introduced to strategic and tactical issues involved in building and managing relationships with customers. The course also deals with analytical methods for identifying customer needs, calculating customer lifetime value, making targeting decisions, and evaluating the impacts of marketing activities. Emphasis is placed on the implementation of the methods using software tools. Topics include Marketing math, Analyzing customer data, Identifying customer needs & segmentation, Evaluating the impacts of marketing activities, Utilizing transaction data, Making targeting decisions, Customer retention, Customer lifetime value, and Relationship marketing in digital environments.

This course prepares students to enter the ever-evolving 'world of work' by exploring the dynamics that influence current and future employment trends and how to respond to these evolutions through self-adaptation. Students explore the socio-economic and business environment that futurists anticipate for the next decade and develop career strategies to address the challenges posed by the rapidly evolving work environment. Students acquire the necessary skills in interpersonal communication, relationships, group discussions, and presentations to effectively respond to the demands of a more fluid and dynamic global work environment. 

The course is more than a language course as it also explores socio-pragmatic competence in professional settings through development of discourse analysis and strategies, identification of both general and specific needs and requirements in given and ever-evolving situations and development of constructive approaches to satisfying those needs based in part on multicultural perspective and sensitivity. 

The course aims at in-depth studies within some area of materials technology. A practical or theoretical study in the area in which the student wishes to deepen their knowledge.

This course covers the key institutions, actors, and issues shaping Taiwan’s contemporary politics. The class introduces how Taiwan’s democracy operates, how it manages its complex relationship with China, and how it positions itself globally. The first half covers the structure and everyday workings of Taiwan’s political system, while the second half examines current political debates and challenges through weekly topics and guest speakers. Students gain a clear understanding of how Taiwan’s vibrant democracy functions and why it matters in today’s world.