University College Dublin

The course is intended to be a (non-exhaustive) survey of regression techniques from both a theoretical and applied perspective. Time permitting, the methods students study include: exploratory data analysis, simple linear regression; multiple linear regression; regression with categorical variables; regression with interaction terms; polynomial regression; model selection for multiple linear models; and regression diagnostics.

The course familiarizes students with core concepts and techniques used in farm financial management. It teaches students concepts that assist with appraisal of farm financial management performance and enable informed business decision making. Students study techniques and principles of farm business financial analysis, planning, and strategic decision-making. Topics include operational and strategic principles of farm business management; preparation and analysis of basic farm management accounts; application of farm planning techniques: enterprise, partial and whole farm budgets; farm financial control and cash flow budgeting; and assessment and management of risk in farm decision-making.

This course equips students with basic research and analytical skills that are needed to understand and respond to social policy problems. Its main focus is on statistical data available in online databases that are widely used to describe such problems and design policy solutions to them. Students learn about major relevant databases for Ireland and the EU and receive guidance and hands-on experience on how to access those databases, search through them for data on specific social policy topics, select and extract particular relevant indicators into Excel spreadsheets, present the data in graphs and tables, and write brief descriptive commentaries on what the data reveal. For illustrative purposes, the course focuses on unemployment as a representative social problem and concentrates on analyzing that problem and policy responses to it in Ireland and in the EU. A special focus is on the impact of Covid-19 on the labor market and its effects on employment and unemployment among younger cohorts in particular.

This course is for engineering students intending to focus in the area of environmental engineering. The course lays a foundation for more intensive courses in later stages by introducing concepts about, among other things, environmental ethics, engineering calculations, and the fundamental biological, chemical, and physical processes used in environmental engineering. Applications of these concepts to developing engineering solutions for several contemporary environmental problems are also examined.

In this course, students review the major groups of invertebrates which, apart from arthropods, account for most of the animal species on the planet. The course provides the tools for describing and understanding biodiversity and many of the species discussed play key ecological and economic roles. Students review classification of invertebrates into major groups and examine some of the extraordinary solutions they have developed to movement, feeding, sensing, and reproduction. Practical sessions illustrate the variety of invertebrate life and include a field trip to search for specimens on the shore. Key skills include scientific drawing and dissection and, above all, the skill of species identification, including classification, use of keys and guidebooks and taxonomic conventions. 

A knowledge of the past and the long reach of historical processes is vital to an understanding of the modern world in terms of both physical landscapes and the evolution of economic, social and cultural landscapes. Past imperial and colonial practices and their legacies are key to understanding contemporary global inequalities (e.g. uneven economic development, resource access, population structures) and the societal challenges facing developing countries. Historical geography focuses on the dynamic relationship between space and time offering a geographical analysis of the past and an historical analysis of geographic patterns. This course charts the evolution of human society across the globe examining the emergence of regions and places with distinctive identities and characteristics in an increasingly globalizing world. In doing so it introduces key concepts in historical geography that illuminate processes of continuity and change, linkages, and ruptures and the intersections between power and society.

This course draws on a range of political science research on European integration and European Union politics to analyze the development of the EU and how it operates today. The course addresses one of the most important questions in the study of European politics and international organization's: why did a diverse group of states construct what is currently the world’s most extensive example of international integration? This course provides an extensive overview of the contemporary EU, including its institutions and policy-making processes using approaches from modern political science. Students also assess how the EU has influenced both public opinion and party competition, and the debate concerning whether the EU suffers from a democratic deficit. 

The course includes lectures on different media and techniques involved in painting, sculpture, printmaking, performance, and time-based works of art. It also examines how the analysis of a work of art is structured and written; and reflects on changing theories of art history, viewership, and the object.
 

This is a course for all students interested in using and understanding computers. Students learn the practical skill of how to program a computer to make it do what they want it to do. Students learn how to write simple computer programs that can solve problems; how to write simple programs that can process different sorts of information; and how to write programs that can respond differently to different situations. 

This course introduces students to the fundamental principles of biomass feedstock supply for the bioeconomy, with a focus on both dedicated production of biomass and recovery of residues/wastes. The physical characterization and chemistry of biorenewable feedstocks such as bioenergy crops, algae, forestry, and agricultural residues are examined. The course examines the varying supply chains (collection, storage, transport) for different biomass sources for further processing to bioenergy and bioproducts via biorefining. The focus of the course is on the application of engineering science to develop integrated biomass feedstock management systems with an emphasis on sustainability.