Italy

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. This course addresses topics and texts in moral philosophy at an advanced level. At the end of the course students are expected to possess the main abilities required from a professional moral philosopher. These include being able to: appraise theories and justify one's own position about them; critically analyze philosophical texts, both from classical and recent authors; elaborate on them; and in an original manner, provide fresh points of view and good working hypotheses to address them. Students are expected to be able to analyze knowledge received in the ethical and meta-ethical field, and to reconstruct it on an original basis. Moreover, they are expected to be able to write on moral topics in a professional, opinionated, and thorough way, and to effectively communicate their views to an audience. The topic for the course varies each term. For the most up to date topic, access the University of Bologna Online Course Catalog. The topic for fall 2023 is: J.M. COETZEE’S FICTION. The course explores the philosophical significance of novelist and essayist John Maxwell Coetzee’s oeuvre, especially in connection with his ethical stance on the treatment of animals. Students have the opportunity to discuss, more generally, his critical attitude toward philosophical argument and toward reason as an exclusive tool for moral guidance and intelligent experience of our environment. After introducing, in broad outline, Coetzee’s personality and published work, the course devotes a few lessons to the philosophical subfield of animal ethics. The main philosophical approaches are outlined. Once equipped with some conceptual and historical background, the course turns to analyzing some of the key texts in this connection, especially Coetzee’s 1999 “novella of ideas” THE LIVES OF ANIMALS, and his subsequent and related novel ELIZABETH COSTELLO. Secondary literature is reviewed and put to use.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. The course deals with the analysis of the models of public intervention in the financing, commissioning and supply of welfare services–such as the health care and social care services–that are facing deep demographic, technological and socio-economic changes. The course follows a comparative perspective and focuses on the transformation from a setting in which financing, commissioning, and supply of services are all performed by vertically integrated public organizations, to a setting in which governmental bodies limit themselves to the financing, allowing other private or public bodies to manage the services under a regulatory framework. Using a case-study approach, students are led to investigate the distributive and allocative implications of adopting tools to imitate the working of markets (vouchers, auctions, contracting-out) or of other competitive frameworks (pay for performance schemes, incentives, information disclosure mechanisms). At the end of the course, students are able to critically evaluate the aforesaid mechanisms not only in terms of their distributive and allocative effects or their long term financial sustainability, but also with regards to the coherence of such effects with their institutional objectives. Course topics: the rationale for public intervention in the financing and supply of welfare services; classic models of financing and supply; recent problems of financial and political sustainability for the welfare services; new public management tools: public reporting, evaluation and incentives; private provision of publicly financed services: regulation of quasi markets, contestability, and freedom of choice.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. At the end of the course students know the basic principles of computer vision and image processing algorithms. Thus, they are able to understand and apply a variety of algorithms and operators aimed at either extracting relevant semantic information from digital images or improving image quality. They also understand the diverse challenges and design choices characterizing the main applications and acquire familiarity with software tools widely adopted in these scenarios. Course topics: Basic definitions related to image processing and computer vision–an overview across major application domains: Image Formation and Acquisition–geometry of image formation, pinhole camera and perspective projection, geometry of stereopsis, using lenses, field of view and depth of field, projective coordinates and perspective projection matrix; Camera calibration: intrinsic and extrinsic parameters, lens distortion, camera calibration based on planar targets and homography estimation (Zhang's algorithm); Image rectification and stereo calibration, basic notions on image sensing, sampling, and quantization; Intensity Transformations–image histogram, linear and non-linear contrast stretching, histogram equalization; Spatial Filtering– linear shift-invariant operators, convolution, and correlation; mean and Gaussian filtering, median filtering, bilateral filtering, non-local means; Image Segmentation–binarization by global thresholding, automatic threshold estimation, spatially adaptive binarization, color-based segmentation; Binary Morphology–dilation and erosion, opening and closing- hit-and-miss; Blob Analysis–distances on the image plane and connectivity, labeling of connected components, basic descriptors: area, perimeter, compactness, circularity, orientation and bounding-box, form factor and related descriptors, Euler number, image moments, invariant moments; Edge Detection–image gradient. smooth derivatives: Prewitt, Sobel, Frei-Chen, non-maxima suppression, Laplacian of Gaussion, canny edge detector; Local Invariant Features–detectors and descriptors, Harris Corners, scale invariant features, SIFT features, efficient feature matching by kd-trees; Object Detection–pattern matching by SSD, SAD, NCC and ZNCC, fast pattern matching, shape-based matching, Hough Transform for analytic shapes, Generalized Hough Transform, object detection by local invariant features, Hough-based voting, least-squares similarity estimation. The theoretical part of the course is complemented with assisted hands-on lab sessions based on Python and the OpenCV library. Lab sessions cover selected topics such as intensity transformations, spatial filtering, camera calibration, motion estimation and local invariant features.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. The course focuses on the location and design of wastewater treatment plants together with main rules of outfall discipline. Special attention is placed on the preliminary designs for main urban wastewater treatment plants and their outfall effects on water volumes. The course is split into three parts. Part one discusses wastewater; sewage characteristics; technical laws; industrial, agriculture, and domestic discharge; Hygiene Municipal Regulation; water outfall discipline; wastewater reuse regulations; variations in flowrate and characteristics of domestic and industrial wastewater; and treatability in rainy weather conditions. Part two discusses wastewater treatment: Kinetics and biochemistry of bacterial and algal biomass; growth and death in suspended and attached biomasses; septic tanks and Imhoff tanks design; the project of a full-scale domestic wastewater treatment plant operating in steady state; choice and location; raw and fine screens; sand removal; primary sedimentation; biodegradability and biological phases for secondary treatment; secondary sedimentation; active sludge plants upgrading to obtain phosphorous and nitrogen removal; separate scheme; Wuhrmann scheme; Ludzack-Ettinger scheme; Bardenpho scheme; A2/O process; Phoredox process; trickling filters; granular settling biofilters; wastewater disinfection; treatment and disposal of sludge; active sludge models.; sequencing batch reactors; natural system design for wastewater treatment or finishing; biological ponds. FWS and SFS phytotreatment; “on site” treatment for domestic wastewater coming from small communities; building and managing costs; and functional test. The third part of the course discusses outfalls in water volumes: water volumes protection and sanitary reclamation plans; wastewater discharge in rivers; effects of natural and domestic organic loadings on low exchange basin; ocean and river disposal of treated and untreated wastewater; offshore pipes.; diffusers; and aquatic ecosystem modeling criteria. The course includes lectures and practical exercises. The exercises focus on different real-scale biologic wastewater treatment plant projects based on attached and suspended biomass and natural appropriate treatment systems. The course requires students to have basic understanding of hydraulics and chemistry as well as a basic course in environmental sanitation engineering as a prerequisite.

This is an advanced level course in the second year of the LM degree program in Fashion Design at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna. The course is intended for Art Studio majors, Design majors, and Fashion Design majors. Principles of design are applied specifically to jewelry  Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. Students work on specific projects under the direction of the course instructor from the initial planning stage through development to execution of the final project. Evaluation is based on the number of projects completed and objectives attained.

This is a graduate level course that is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. The course focuses on basic notions of complexity and network sciences and the identification, formulation, modelling, and analysis of new problems that arise in modern computing systems. The course requires basic notions of computer system architecture, computer networks, operating systems, and probability theory as a prerequisite. Modern information systems and services often rely on large numbers of independent interacting components to provide their functions. Under certain conditions, the behavior that results from these interactions can be unexpected and surprising. Complexity Science is an interdisciplinary field for studying global behaviors resulting from many simple local interactions in an effort to characterize and control them. Networks allow us to formalize the structure of interactions. They play a central role in the transmission of information, transportation of goods, spread of diseases, diffusion of innovation, formation of opinions and adoption of new technologies. Network Science is an interdisciplinary field for studying the interconnectedness of modern life by exploring fundamental properties that govern the structure and dynamic evolution of networks. The course discusses topics including: Complex systems: definitions, methodologies; Dynamical systems, Nonlinear dynamics; Chaos, Bifurcations and Feigenbaum constant, Predictability, Randomness and Chaos; Models of complex systems, Cellular automata, Wolfram's classification, Game of life; Autonomous agents, Flocking, Schooling, Synchronization, Formation creation; Cooperation and Competition, Game theory basics, Nash equilibrium; Game theory: Prisoner's Dilemma, Coordination games, Mixed strategy games; Adaptation, Evolution, Genetic algorithms, Evolutionary games; Network Science: Definitions and examples; Graph theory, Basic concepts and definitions; Diameter, Path length, Clustering, Centrality metrics; Structure of real networks, Degree distribution, Power-laws, Popularity; Models of network formation; The Erdos-Renyi random model; Clustered models; Models of network growth, Preferential attachment; Small-world networks, Network navigation; Peer-to-peer systems and overlay networks; Structured overlays, DHTs, Key-based routing, Chord; Distributed network formation: Newscast, Cyclon, T-Man; Processes on networks: Aggregation; Rational dynamics: Cooperation in selfish environments, Homophily, Segregation; Diffusion, Percolation, Tipping points, Peer-effects, Cascades.

The course focuses on 20th century Italian literature with special attention to sociological, anthropological, and philosophical questions. The course highlights general notions in critical theory and textual analysis including formal, structural, and compositional elements as well as the question of reception. Special attention is placed on a selection of modern and contemporary literary texts related to Italian and European traditions. The course topics varies each term, review the University of Bologna Course Catalog for the specific topic for each term.

"Made in Italy" may have been coined in the twentieth century, but the relationship between excellence in craftsmanship and the visual, performing, and decorative arts goes back centuries. Outstanding Italian quality, style, and know-how in a range of artistic traditions from architecture and fashion, to music, and theater have long been recognized internationally. This course examines the intersection between the Arts and Italy's reputation for luxury and high quality through a series of case studies beginning with the fifteenth century. It was Renaissance culture that first fueled the prosperity of the luxury sector in a time where the production and patronage of art was trendsetting. The course investigates how trans-Mediterranean trade inspired local craft industries like metal and stone work; the development of theatre and costume design and the theatrical influence on urban spaces and architecture across European capitals, and the effect of luxury goods on politics and economy. The course provides students the opportunity to interview local artists and artisans, and investigate and present on areas of interest of local excellence in craftsmanship and its connection with the Arts. The course visits the spaces, workshops, and ateliers in Rome that bear witness to this ongoing conversation.

 At the end of this course students are aware of and understand the ethical and strategic implications, complexity, and dilemmas of corporate responsibility and sustainability. The course covers motivations in markets, ethics of individual actions, and their effect in societies and the tensions between markets and distributive justice. The course is an attempt to reclaim economics as a moral science. It argues ethics is a relevant and inseparable aspect of all levels of economic activity. Taking ethical considerations into account is needed in explaining and predicting the behavior of economic agents as well as in evaluating and designing economic policies and mechanisms. Several cases and references to major recent phenomena complement the theoretical landscape. For UNIBO students, the course is generally graded on a P/NP basis. UCEAP students who would like a LG must make special arrangements directly with the instructor.