English

This course provides an intermediate level of game theory. Game theory considers rational decision-making in interactive situations. This course defines what these interactive situations are, and the rationality under these situations. In particular, the class uses a new approach to analyze experimental data of people’s decisions in economic/interactive environments. This new approach quantitates the degree of people’s rationality while the standard game theory and economic theory assume ‘super-rational decision-makers.’

This course focuses on the mechanism of cancer generation and progression and on the most advanced treatments. Starting with a background integrating genetic, cellular, and molecular aspects, it covers recent cancer research leading to a general conceptual framework for the development of this disease. The course also provides insights and illustrations from specific cancer types and concludes with a variety of established and emerging treatments. 

The course focuses on the changes which occurred in urban communities in connections with the birth of universities that drew students from a broad geographical territory and employed a plurality of masters. The course discusses topics including: the meaning of urban communities through the transformations that have taken place over time; comparative view between Italian and European cities through specific examples; how to make use of satellite images of urban settlements to identify the phases of their development from Ancient times to the present day; and recognize the reasons for the formation of the cultural identity of Europe and the connective tissue of which cities are an important part.

This course introduces perspectives on language. It starts with very fundamental questions and assumptions about the nature of language itself and proceed by analyzing basic linguistic structures of the languages course participants know. The course aims to discover that the comparison of languages leads us to linguistic categories some consider universal (same categories in all languages no matter how different they appear to be on the surface), asking the questions: If all languages are more or less alike than why is it so hard to learn a foreign language?  This course considers perspectives from the fields of psychology or anthropology gives us clues, thereby looking at some of the findings the science of language owes to other sciences.

This course introduces students to political data analysis using domestic and international data. The course covers core substantive topics in politics and international relations, typically exploring one major research question from Politics and one major research question from IR. It explores how to access relevant data and assesses the appropriateness of data. It provides key skills in quantitative data analysis, including descriptive statistics, cross-tab/contingency tables, measures of association, correlation, and regression. 

This course introduces the issues of digital ethics and AI faced by individuals and organizations. It covers the ethical principles governing the behaviors and beliefs about how we use technology, and how we collect and process personal information in a manner that aligns with individual and organizational expectations for security and confidentiality. It addresses challenges in balancing technological desirability with social desirability while developing digital products and services. Key topics include Professional Ethics, Artificial Intelligence Ethics and Governance, Automation and Autonomous Systems, Digital Ethics by Design, Data Protection in ICT, Human Machine Interaction, Computing for Social Good, Digital Intellectual Property Rights, and Digital Divide, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion.

This course introduces the mathematical formalism of quantum information theory. Topics include a review of probability theory and classical information theory (random variables, Shannon entropy, coding); formalism of quantum information theory (quantum states, density matrices, quantum channels, measurement); quantum versus classical correlations (entanglement, Bell inequalities, Tsirelson's bound); basic tools (distance measures, fidelity, quantum entropy); basic results (quantum teleportation, quantum error correction, Schumacher data compression); and quantum resource theory (quantum coding theory, entanglement theory, application: quantum cryptography). 

This course covers basic concepts of database management systems, including relational and other types of database management systems. The topics covered include basic concepts of the relational model, creating and modifying relations using Structured Query Language (SQL), basic SQL queries using SELECT operator, nested queries, aggregate operators such as GROUP BY, integrity constraints and relations, views, application development using JDBC, Internet protocols such as HTTP and XML, storage and indexing, tree-structured indexing using B+ trees, hash-based indexing, query evaluation and algorithms for relational operations, external sorting, transaction management and concurrency, database schema and normal forms, and overview of NoSQL databases such as key-value stores, document, and graph databases. The course demonstrates how various theoretical principles are implemented in practice in a database management system, such as MySQL, SQLite and PostgreSQL.

Media affects how we perceive the world and people. With media becoming so prevalent and powerful in our society, and with student access to computers and the Internet expanding so fast in homes and schools, "media literacy" is becoming the basic form of literacy to provide lifelong empowerment to both the student and the citizen. This course provides students with the opportunity to learn a variety of analytical approaches they can use to understand and interpret media, including traditional media (e.g., TV, radio, print, billboard, etc.) and social media (e.g.,video sharing platforms), in the context of education. Your products may be shared to a certain audience for feedback. Participation in class such as asserting your ideas and presenting in English in front of the class is mandatory.

The question of the nature of the mind and its relation to the body (e.g. the brain) is discussed at length, with attention given to dualism, behaviorism, physicalism, and functionalism. Other topics include the nature of action, free will, and determinism and the problem of personal identity. DP requirements: Regular attendance at lectures and tutorials; completion of all tests, submission of all essays and assignments by due dates, and an average mark of at least 35% for the coursework. Assessment: Coursework counts 40%; one 3-hour examination in June counts 60%. Course entry requirements: At least second year status.