English

This course examines the food experiences and practices and their ideological effects that shape diners and their city. It shows how in every gulp, we are allowing a bit of the external world, in the form of food, to gain access to our bodily, cultural and social existence and change us in ways we do not always know. The feelings, emotions and memory we involuntarily but actively produced are being inscribed, in return, onto the individual and collective foodscape of the city through our everyday food choices and continuous habits and practices. The course also traces the crystallization of a conscious distinction of Hong Kong food and their influences among the residents of the city and overseas. This course explores how the exercise of the right to the city follows not only our hearts’ but also our stomachs’ desire, and the food for the stomach is always and simultaneously the food for thought. 

In this course, students examine new aesthetic forms of expression that seek innovation, differentiation and novelty. Students analyze the expressive forms of each medium and propose suitable alternatives to each audience. Topics include the processes for preparing and analyzing advertising messages and their codes; understanding how creative departments work: writing, art direction and production; create, design and develop graphic elements, images, symbols and text; and learn the resources and skills needed to design commercial and non-commercial campaigns and promotional activities.

Tracing the development of modernity in western architecture, this course examines a series of movements and cities from the mid-18th century to the present. Major examples include Neoclassicism in Washington, D.C., Haussmann’s renovation of Paris, colonialism in Hong Kong and Shanghai, skyscrapers in Chicago and New York, and the international spread of Modernism and the diverse movements that have followed it. Emphasis is placed on construction technology, architectural theory, and the way buildings express institutional ideologies. Tutorials include visits to local buildings.

This course is an introduction to the study of leadership with a focus on research in the international literature. Emphasis is placed on advancing the understanding of leadership through a focus on the rich complexities of human behavior and social interactions. The focus is on leadership theory and research within and across formal organizational settings and societal contexts, leadership, effectiveness, and ethics.

Students are shown how to use Electroencephalography (EEG) equipment to record and analyze data from the brain in real experimental situations. Students also investigate the manipulation of brain responses through Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) and analyze data from functional magnetic resonance imaging. All teaching takes place in the form of practical sessions, allowing students to learn these approaches through real-life experience. This course is ideal for students seeking to take their first steps into psychological research using state of the art technology.

Standard economic theory assumes that individuals make choices to maximize their utility, using the information available, and acting in their own self-interest. However, experiments in both the psychology and economics literature show that individuals are time-inconsistent, care about others, form “irrational” expectations, and use heuristics to solve complex problems. These deviations can be systematic, mathematically modelled, empirically tested, and incorporated into economics. This course explores the implications of these new assumptions for economic analysis and understanding.

This course offers a study of English-language literature and culture from the second half of the nineteenth century with a focus on marginal and non-canonical work including poetry, fiction, drama, and visual culture. It is divided into four modules: Avant-garde movements of Victorian modernity such as Pre-Raphaelitism, Aestheticism, and Decadence; popular fiction with a focus on genre literature including adventure, detective, horror, and children's narratives; cultural particularities of the fin de siecle, examining the shift in cultural paradigms towards twentieth-century modernity; critical reception of Victorian culture in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including Neo-Victorianism and other contemporary versions of Victoriana. This course explores significant aesthetic, cultural, and ideological aspects of each module.

Pre-requisite: Nineteenth-Century English Fiction 

This course introduces basic ideas and techniques for designing computer systems with intelligence (systems collecting intelligence from public data and making statistical inferences to make an informed decision). This course provides formal language and automata theory examining fundamental knowledge on computation and computability. Topics include finite-state automata (regular languages), pushdown automata (context-free languages) and Turing machines (unrestricted languages).  

The course covers how to design intelligent search and inference; how to aggregate data-driven intelligence; and how to build intelligence into systems. Text: Hopcroft, Motwani and Ullman, INTRODUCTION TO AUTOMATA THEORY, LANGUAGES AND COMPUTATION. Assessment: Exams (75%), quiz and homework (20%), class participation (5%). 

This course introduces critical issues and dynamics of international relations in South East Asia(SEA) and Oceania since the end of World War II.  

Students explore regionalism and regional cooperation in SEA and identify how the ASEAN and its individual members have dealt with various issues and managed regional order and stability. In addition, this course seeks to understand how SEA and Oceania copes with great power competition. 

The course examines the following topics: Regionalism in SEA and ASEAN; ASEAN and US-China Competition; Oceania and China's Rise; ASEAN and Australia/New Zealand. Topics include Is SEA a coherent region? What are key cultural, political, economic, or geostrategic patterns and variations that exist across the region?; How does ASEAN compare with earlier efforts at regionalization? How stable/rigid are regional norms and institutions in SEA?; How do the great powers influence regional affairs in SEA? How do the great powers influence regional affairs in SEA?; International Conflict in Southeast Asia; What are cross-border security threats in SEA? How have SEA nations and ASEAN dealt with such security threats? How do SEA nations cope with environmental challenges?; and China’s Rise and Australia’s Indo-Pacific Strategy. 

This course examines clothing development within the context of the apparel production process. Topics include performance criteria, cost and quality relationships, anthropometrics and sizing, garment fit, trims and findings, stitches and seams, structural treatments, and garment assembly. Students analyze how design features and construction details influence garment quality, functionality, and production outcomes. Course goals are to analyze and clearly communicate garment components in relation to product cost, quality, and performance; to demonstrate understanding of apparel manufacturing processes and terminology used in sewn product development; to evaluate stitches, seams, and construction methods in terms of production efficiency, cost, durability, and quality; to assess support materials, closures, threads, and trims based on their functions, characteristics, and impact on apparel quality and performance; and to understand the elements of good fit and indications of poor fit in RTW apparel.