English

This course opens the door to higher mathematics, science and technology, as well as economics and social science. This course emphasizes skills, theory, and applications. The course presents the core of the linear algebra as an axiomatic development of the most important elements of finite-dimensional linear algebra and progresses into more abstract areas as we add structure to our knowledge: Fields and Vector spaces, Linear Operators, Determinants and eigenvalues, The Jordan canonical form, Orthogonality and its most important application of best approximation, spectral theory of symmetric matrices and Hermitian matrices, The singular value decomposition, Matrix factorizations and numerical linear algebra, Infinite dimensional vector spaces and Analysis in vector spaces. Linear algebra forms the basis for much of modern mathematics-theoretical, applied, and computational. 

This course takes you through the history of the Greek world during one of its most significant periods. It examines the relationships between Greek cities, and in particular the Peloponnesian War between Athens and its allies, and Sparta and its allies. It also looks at the importance of the Persian empire in this period, and examines social issues including democracy, slavery, and gender roles and relations.

The twelfth century was a period of rapid change in Ireland as the English conquest and the resulting foundation of an English colony remade the political, social and economic landscape of the island. This development, and in particular the presence of a significant population of colonists, led to major shifts in the way that the Irish envisioned themselves as a group and the way in which they were described by their English neighbors. This course traces the ways in which the ethnic identities of Irishness and of Englishness (to which it was so often opposed in contemporary sources) evolved through the high and later middle ages. Students analyze primary sources from the period to reflect on questions of identity, the terminology of ‘race’ and ‘ethnicity’, and what it meant to be ‘Irish’ in the middle ages.

World War I and World War II were the key events in twentieth-century history, shaping the contemporary world. Societies mobilized for “total war” and aimed for unconditional victory, sacrificing unprecedented amounts of blood and treasure. Through lectures and tutorials using primary and secondary sources encompassing the latest scholarly perspectives, this course analyzes these formative events. Through these wars, the contemporary world came into being, and this course helps to understand the wars as interrelated processes of social transformation.

This course introduces computer programming in C++. The course covers the functional elements of a computer system, object-oriented programming concepts, problem solving and creation of computer applications. Students apply these computing skills in various disciplines. This course provides a foundation to further study in advanced computing topics.

The Internet is having a profound effect on the conduct of marketing as we move towards the new millennium. The Internet presents a fundamentally different environment for marketing, and new paradigms have to be developed to take account for marketing activities in the electronic age. This course focuses primarily on the impact of the Internet on marketing, marketing research with Internet, consumer behavior on the Internet, and marketing strategies in the Internet age.

The rise of China has significant impacts on the world economy. This course examines the major economic issues in the rise of China, the challenges of China to the global economic order, and the effects of Mainland-Hong Kong economic integration on both parties. Well-known research economists and experts from the finance sector and public organizations are invited to discuss and analyze major issues in the economic cooperation between Hong Kong and the Mainland, e.g. Hong Kong’s integration with the Pearl River Delta and the Mainland, the status of Hong Kong as China’s trading, financial, and services hub, and the impacts on the global economy of the Hong Kong-Mainland economic nexus. Students are advised to take ECON2011 and 2021 before taking this course.

This topical Genre Studies course covers reading and writing genre fiction. The Spring 2026 offering of the course explores the genres of fairytales and folktales, science fiction (speculative fiction, from fantasy and dystopian fiction to its cousin, post-apocalyptic fiction), and ends with the horror genre.  

The course discusses the elements and possibilities of each genre, and students spend the majority of the semester studying works of literature in both their conformity to and departure from the genre.  

The goals are to read and write like a writer, with discipline, over the course of the semester; to be imaginative and bold with your stories but also pay equal attention to language, character, and world building; and to try different genres and forms of writing and take risks 

Recommended (but not required): a basic knowledge of fiction/creative nonfiction writing or previous course experience. 

This course offers an advanced introduction into web recommender systems. The goal is to understand and model Web Information and to design and evaluate some of the major technologies operating in the area of web recommender systems through applied projects. Topics include basics of recommender systems (collaborative filtering and content based); evaluation of recommender systems; advanced recommender systems (knowledge-based, ensembled based, hybrid); exploiting additional sources of information for recommendation, e.g., context, location and time.

This course examines climatic conditions on Earth and their interaction with the environment and human society. It focuses on climate change and deals sensibly with questions raised concerning future climatic conditions and evaluation of their impact on environment and society as essential to understand the nature of the climate system and what causes it to change. In particular, the impact of human activities on the climate system are set in perspective alongside the background of natural changes in the climate of our planet. Issues associated with societal decisions taken today and their potential impact on climate over the next century are also discussed.