English

Postmodernism is a philosophical-cultural movement of the late twentieth century that permeated many fields. This course defines postmodernism and discusses its characteristics, focusing on postmodernism in art and culture, literature, philosophy and history.  

The course discusses the following materials: 

1) The Beatles' "The Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band" and other musical songs and albums;  

2) John Barth's "The Lost in the Funhouse" and other postmodernist stories;  

3) Jacques Derrida's philosphical notion of Deconstruction, plus theories based on deconstruction;  

4) Holocaust films (e.g. "The Shoah" and "Schindler's List") and literature;  

5) Dinh Q. Le's installation art;  

6) Yoko Ono's experimental art;  

7) American films such as "The Truman Show" & "Edward Scissorhands";  

8) Others. 

This course gives an introduction to several subdomains of intelligent autonomous systems and robotics, and an orientation about fundamental methods and algorithms within these domains. Content covered includes three-layer architecture, Perception-Action Cycle, Robotic architectures, world models, Robot Perception, SLAM, reasoning under uncertainty, MAP-Slam, actuation, picking, placing, and reasoning and planning. 

This course introduces students to a variety of theoretical models, tools, and techniques which explore psychological well-being and their applicability in personal and professional development, and in the business world. These models are used as the basis for developing self-awareness, personal and professional strength and growth, and evaluating how these can be fostered in others, in order to achieve a positive impact on personal, professional, and organizational performance, through adaptability and change.

This course examines advanced concepts including software validation and verification, the theory of testing, and advanced design patterns. The course has a strong focus on the theoretical underpinning of software design. In the labs the theory is applied with contemporary tools with concrete examples.

This course covers three main topics: measuring the per capita income of countries; measuring inequalities; and measuring poverty. It examines key indicators, how these indicators are actually constructed using available data, and the conditions for their comparison over time and between countries.

Fermentation technology including microbial kinetics and mass balances, substrates, industrial microorganisms, sterilization, biosafety, and mass transfer are reviewed. Measurement and control. bioreactors, enzyme technology, downstream processing, and practical cultivation technology are included.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by permission of the instructor. The course provides advanced knowledge on US foreign policy from 1945 until the election of Donald Trump. Examining the role of the United States within the international system, at the end of the course students are able to: describe the different historical phases of US foreign policy; detect the multiple political, geopolitical, and economic factors that have affected the development of US foreign policy; analyze the transitional moments and the turning points in the evolution of US foreign policy; and understand the link between domestic and foreign policy. The course examines the history of United States foreign relations – broadly defined – from the end of second world war to the election of Donald Trump. Examining the US role and place in the world, specific questions are raised and discussed, including: what triggered the American hegemonic rise; how do we conceptualize the response to the deployment of America’s multifaceted global power; and how do we investigate the connection between domestic politics and foreign policy choices? The course considers the impact of the political, geopolitical, and economic transformations of the past century on the foreign policy choices and particular attention is paid to specific turning points and transition moments (i.e.: the modernization policy of the Sixties, the crisis of the Seventies, the end of the Cold War, 9/11, and the war on terrorism). After a broad introductory lecture on the origins of United States foreign policy, the course follows a chronological pattern. Historiographical debates and issues are also thoroughly discussed and examined, starting from the current debate on the end of the American century.

This course offers a study of the principles of finance. Topics include: financial economics; financial mathematics; investment appraisal; fixed income securities; risk and return; portfolio theory; capital asset pricing model; derivatives products.

Due to the constantly increasing computational power and the rise of density functional theory (DFT) and artificial intelligence (AI), computational approaches to chemistry are booming. We are now able to simulate almost every chemical process at multiple times and size scales and discuss macroscopic thermodynamic and kinetic trends from a quantum chemical perspective. This course enters this exciting field by first introducing computational chemistry, then learning about DFT and how to use it to calculate reaction energies, MO diagrams, kinetic barriers, etc., run molecular dynamics simulations, and basic machine learning. 

Recommended Prerequisite: The lecture requires basic physical chemistry and mathematics lecture background. Quantum chemistry background will make things easier to understand, but it is not a prerequisite. The course teaches programming and revisits quantum chemistry.