English

Darwin's idea of evolution by means of natural selection has united the biological disciplines in the previous century and is currently recognized as a very fruitful concept for Humanities and Social Sciences as well. This course on evolution offers a synthetic view and understanding of human nature, cooperation, and culture from the perspective of biological evolution. It allows students of different departments to be acquainted with the evolutionary theory and its manifold implications as well as to practice evolutionary thinking. Evolutionary thinking refers to analyzing complex topics from an evolutionary point of view, applying the concept of evolution to understand what has shaped the human being over millions of years into its current appearance, behavior, and cultural expressions. A large part of the course deals with different aspects of cooperation, including altruism and reciprocity, and its biological and social relevance. Through this course, students combine their knowledge from different departments and disciplines, and construct a fresh and interdisciplinary look at broader scientific, social and cultural issues, all aimed to foster an improved understanding of human nature. Although Darwin's theory of evolution through natural selection has been recognized as one of the great achievements of human kind and as the most profound shift in conceptual thinking in the last millennium, the evolutionary theory nevertheless is also notoriously controversial. Not only in society (i.e. creationism, intelligent design, and eugenics), but also within the academic world, groups of scientists question the relevance and applicability of evolutionary thinking to human affairs. Attention is also given to the arguments and counterarguments that are often used which still lead to debates.

Activism and Resistance: Latin American Art and Performance in the Global Context The turn of the 20th century in Latin America has seen the emergence of diverse artistic expressions as powerful political and social instruments. This course inscribes such movements in the transformations of global politics, aiming at two moves. First, explore the main fronts of activism emerging from local artists and political actors in Latin America in the 20th century. Such manifestations of collective or individual resistance transform art on a crucial way of conveying demands, struggles and the identities constructed by the act of resisting oppression. From hip-hop and street dance to folkloric music, graffiti to contemporary paintings, video art to street performances, art becomes more than ever an instrument of political expression. Second, the course discusses the position of global powers as a reference – either through mimesis or confrontation – to artistic expressions in Latin America, as well as their political effects in the region. By doing so, the discipline confronts the usual narrative according to which Latin American art is presented as derivative of European or North American art, or simply treated as different from the artistic mainstream. Contrastingly, the course sessions invite students to investigate the many ways that artists appropriated, rather than imitated, these external influences, and explore the reciprocal character —rather than unilateral, as it is usually presented —of these forms of artistic effervescence.

This course explores the varied field of strategic management with particular focus on how strategic analysis, strategy formulation, and strategy implementation contribute to organizational performance and success. The course explores topics such as the assessment and evaluation of a firm's internal and external environment, competitive positioning, creating and maintaining competitive advantage, strategy formulation, and strategy implementation. Students assess the work of a "contemporary strategist" by looking at relevant ideas and frameworks that facilitate strategy design and formulation. Students use case studies throughout the course.

This course offers and introduction to the processing and interpretation of images. It examines image sensing, sampling, and filtering. Topics include: algorithms for color analysis; texture description; stereo imaging; motion interpretation; 3D shape recover; recognition.

This course builds on student knowledge of the biological bases of human behavior to examine the biological basis of depression, anxiety and aggression, stress, and sexual behavior and to explore how the changes in biology at different life stages (e.g. puberty, menopause, older age) are associated with behavior and health.

This course studies three of the core topics of psychology: perception, cognition, and intelligence. The perception component covers how our sensory systems influence our ability to act in the world and the conditions and consequences of perceptual errors. The cognition component focuses on the theoretical and methodological issues that arise in how we attend to, remember, think, problem solve, and make decisions, and considers the consequences of how biases and heuristics influence our choices. The intelligence component explores the historical evolution of the concept of intelligence, issues in its measurement, the relationship to concepts of creativity, emotional intelligence, and the influence of the environment. The course includes inquiry-led tutorials that reinforce and expand on concepts, and develop broad thinking skills to relate evidence to rational arguments and choices that can be applied to any problem solving domain.

The course is divided into three sections. The first provides the student an understanding of the key dynamics related to bringing technical products to the markets. The second provides students with a practical guide on how to start up a company, including invited talks given by entrepreneurs and representatives of funding bodies. Finally, in the third section, a number of case studies are discussed, concerning among others innovative product development in integrated software systems and aspects of entering emerging markets. The course is practice-based and project-oriented. Students form small groups and are asked to develop their own product development plan based on their product idea.

This course explores concepts, strategies, and processes of social innovation and social change. It examines the state of the world from a social-economic perspective and focuses on how social innovation can help solve existing and future problems. This course also discusses social entrepreneurship as the vehicle for social innovation and its accompanying challenges and opportunities.