Germany

This course reviews and analyzes various aspects of economic inequality. Household heterogeneities related to credit restrictions, indebtedness, or marginal propensities to consume out of different sources of income or wealth are important to explain aggregate consumption behavior. Measures that directly aim to affect inequality at the aggregate level, such as wealth taxes, inheritance taxes etc., are often perceived as detrimental to economic efficiency. The course discusses key concepts of the economics discipline such as economic efficiency and welfare as they often are building blocks for economic advice on policy measures. This course sheds light on the trade-offs and distributional consequences of macroeconomic policies and trains students to explicitly articulate the underlying value assumptions. Students should have introductory knowledge in economics and statistics.

This German language course addresses the needs of beginners. The content of the course follows the standards of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) for level A1 (beginners with no prior knowledge). Equal emphasis is given to five language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and culture. The course covers language topics including how to deal with everyday situations in a German-speaking environment and conduct simple conversations (e.g. at the grocery store, in a restaurant, at a public office); how to understand discussions on familiar topics; how to develop reading strategies that allow students to understand very simple newspaper articles as well as other very short texts; and how to write, revise, and proofread sentences in German. This course is designed to provide students with ample opportunities in the classroom and on a course-related excursion to practice German communication.

This course is designed for the beginner student with no previous knowledge of German. Students develop basic competences in listening, speaking, reading, and writing as well as a basic knowledge of the German culture. By the end of the course students are able to deal with everyday situations in a German-speaking environment and to conduct simple conversations. Students develop reading strategies that allow them to understand simple newspaper and magazine articles as well as short literary texts. In addition, students write, revise, and proofread short texts in German, and understand the main features of conversations and lectures dealing with familiar topics.

This course includes electrophysiological recordings (patch-clamp recordings) of neurons in acute brain slices from mice. The basic properties of neurons and their synaptic connections are analyzed. The patch-clamp technique (current and voltage-clamp), neuropharmacology, and stimulation protocols for long-term changes in synapses are taught as methods. Programs such as IGOR are used for the quantitative analysis of the data. In the accompanying seminar, the students present their own project and other relevant publications.

Cities around the world face rapid changes in their transportation systems with the advances in ICTs. Recent trends include on-demand and shared mobility modes and automation in public and private transportation systems; these new solutions impact the transport industry, infrastructures management, as well as political agenda. Focusing on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), a new “Smart Mobility” system and real-time network management have been developed as potential solutions to mitigate congestion issues and improve network efficiency.
This course brings a general overview of sustainable and smart transportation in the future smart cities in terms of i) industry trends, business models, technical, and urban design aspects. Based on different European case studies especially in Germany, this program explores innovative methods which Smart cities are currently dealing with as well as future solutions. The course combines theoretical and practical learning materials for transportation modeling and simulation techniques, with a focus on Smart Mobility and ITS solutions and real-world applications. Students review the most well-known traffic simulation models, learn about demand forecasting methods, business, social, and political issues and related analytical techniques. The course examines the concept of smart mobilities and how their business models could grow by analyzing case studies and companies. The course requires students to have basic knowledge of the fundamentals of mathematics and statistics as a prerequisite.

The course explores gaming and virtual and augmented reality. The course discusses topics including what are extended, augmented, virtual, and mixed reality; what tools are used to develop MR applications and how can they be set up; practical deployment of an app on students' devices; introduction to programming for extended reality with Unity (scene setup, interactions); what is User Experience (UX), what is UX design; UX Design and important influencing factors (human/context/system); what is user testing, why is it needed, and what method can be used for testing; and how to perform a usability test and use the gathered result during the development. Students engage in creating use case design, scenarios, prototyping, and developing an app. Students perform a user test and analyze/incorporate the results into a next app version. The course recommends students have programming knowledge and the ability to write and run small programs in the language of their choice (e.g., C#), and basic understanding of mobile builds (Xcode / ADB), as a prerequisite.

This course is designed for students who have successfully completed the basic level and the first part of the intermediate level of German and who have a sound knowledge of German. This course is intensive and is intended for dedicated, highly self-motivated students who will take responsibility for their learning. This course helps students expand their competences in speaking and writing, while emphasizing self-correction. Furthermore, the course helps to increase vocabulary, to deepen grammar usage, and develop effective reading and listening strategies. In addition, students analyze and interpret cultural, political, and historical topics in German-speaking countries and compare them with the varying cultural backgrounds of each student. Through this course students develop and regularly use new strategies for language acquisition. Students are able to engage in detailed discussions on above mentioned topics. Furthermore, students develop reading strategies that allow for the understanding of different text types in detail. In addition, students improve their essay writing skills, are able to write short texts on different topics, revise, and proofread them.