Singapore

This course introduces students to taxonomy and systematics, i.e., the science of grouping biodiversity into species, describing the species, and classifying this diversity into higher-level taxa that reflect evolutionary history. The course has two main goals: (1) It introduces the main concepts and goals of taxonomy and systematics. (2) It teaches the qualitative and quantitative techniques that are used to describe/identify species and higher-level taxa based on the analysis of morphological and DNA sequence evidence. The course equips environmental as well as other biologists with an understanding of taxonomic/systematic units and the tools needed for evaluating and quantifying diversity in samples of plant and animal specimens.

This course examines the historical evolution of Singapore as a global city-state against the contexts of global changes and developments from the 14th to the 21st century. The course is open to all students interested in Singapore studies.

This course is an interdisciplinary study of how societies and different generations respond to the invention of the piano. Students learn the social history of the piano throughout the past three centuries, canvassing a wide array of performers, composers, supporters, manufacturers, heroes, politicians, teachers and students. Various expressions of ideologies from differing periods eventually revolutionized and effectuated the versatility of the piano, shaping a legacy which led to the globalization of the piano, including China. Students learn through lectures, readings, discussions, listening, playing, and attend piano recitals and masterclasses.

This course examines key logistics activities. It includes total cost concept, the supply chain system, shipping value chain, just-in-time concept, risk pooling, and logistical strategic partnerships. Students study the bullwhip effect, global logistics, current trends in shipping logistics, and logistics arms of shipping-related companies. 

This course explores the various genres of keyboard music throughout history and the composers who have gained widespread popularity, and also examines the works of those who have received less attention. Topics include variation sets, preludes, fugues, suites, studies, and single-movement works. Students think critically about the significance and evolution of each genre over time. This course is for students who can read Western Classical music notation fluently (particularly in bass and treble clefs). Students may contact the instructor and state their prior experience with music to ascertain if this course will be feasible for them.

This course introduces cutting-edge concepts, frameworks and practices that are current in social entrepreneurship, as well as critical issues in business ethics as a knowledge foundation for analyzing and practicing social entrepreneurship. The course considers how social entrepreneurship plays out in organizations ranging from conventional companies seeking to adopt corporate social responsibility practices to double-bottom-line businesses and social enterprises. The course specifies strategic and implementation tensions inherent in aligning business and social/environmental values, and provides frameworks with which to analyze and resolve the tensions at play. Students learn to be a quasi-expert of social entrepreneurship by applying frameworks to make tough decisions in real business contexts. The course includes four modules: strategic corporate social responsibility (SCSR); double-bottom-line business (DBL), social enterprise (SE) and business ethics (BE). It begins by analyzing and making decisions on the cases of conventional companies conducting social innovation initiatives through SCSR and DBL. Students then explore the cases of social enterprises and observe both the common and distinctive challenges facing conventional companies and social enterprises. The modules of SCSR, DBL and SE are followed by an Entrepreneur Panel where social entrepreneurs introduce their initiatives and engage in a highly interactive conversation with students. The course concludes by analyzing business ethics theories and issues of social entrepreneurship.

This course provides a strong foundation in the study of protein structure and function. Topics include structures and structural complexity of proteins and methods used to determine their primary, secondary and tertiary structures; biological functions of proteins in terms of their regulatory, structural, protective and transport roles; the catalytic action of enzymes, their mechanism of action and regulation; and various approaches used in studying the structure-function relationships of proteins. The course has a prerequisite of Biochemistry.

This course focuses on corporate entrepreneurship with a special emphasis on the role of venture capital and spin-offs, including managerial efforts aimed at the identification, development and exploitation of technical and organizational innovations and on effective new venture management in the context of large corporations. Students evaluate business models and appropriateness for development in a corporate setting. As an advanced course, students improve analytical, creative and communication skills. The course requires students to take prerequisites.

The course covers several current and advanced topics in optimization, with an emphasis on efficient algorithms for solving large scale data-driven inference problems. Topics include first and second order methods, stochastic gradient type approaches and duality principles. Many relevant examples in statistical learning and machine learning are covered in detail. The algorithms uses the Python programming language. The course requires students to take prerequisites.

This course examines white collar crimes in Singapore by analyzing real case studies of major crimes. Students learn the investigation methodology in the detection of fraud and the use of information technology forensics and social media tracing to examine documents and evidence within the Singapore legal, regulatory and professional rule-based environment. Students examine various fraudulent schemes including financial statements, cash receipt, cash disbursement, defalcation and cybercrimes. The course teaches students effective interviewing and interrogation techniques, and the role of an expert witness. The course requires students to take prerequisites.