Singapore

This course introduces the workings of politics from the perspective of citizenship. Topic questions include: What constitutes citizenship? What are the roles, duties and obligations of being a Singapore citizen? How do citizens interact and impact politics and decision making in Singapore? How have changes over the years, including perspective of Singapore's political history, imperatives shaping national politics, the political system, its key structures and approaches to nation building, affected national politics and in turn, led to the political elites responding to changing demands of citizens? The course also discusses the role of civic and civil society.

The course introduces the various ways of looking at and discussing works of art. The focus is chiefly on painting and sculpture; the emphasis is on analyzing the composition or design of art works and in constructing meanings for them. This course enables students to acquire critical skills for interpreting and connecting with works of art. Topics include Asian art traditions; Indian sculpture; Chinese landscape painting; Islamic calligraphy. The second part of the course surveys ideas and movements from the Renaissance in Italy to the end of the 20th century in Europe.

This course provides a comprehensive training of both experimental and data analytical skills in mechanics, electronics, magnetism, nuclear physics, semiconductors, optics and lasers. In particular, emphasis is placed on the basic measurement skills in physics experiments, familiarization of the commonly used experimental apparatus, as well as the collection, handling, and analysis of real world data. While this course is mainly for physics majors, it is also suitable for science and engineering students interested in a career in the industries of semiconductors, optical communications, and life sciences.

This course calls attention to the fundamental importance of thinking not only in learning per se but also in shaping who we are. It examines the nature of thinking, as well as its mechanisms. It aims to help students experience the excitement of thinking as they try to understand what thinking is; students are thus compelled to critique and re-examine their own assumptions about what they think they know and about themselves as psychosomatic learners and persons.

This is a first course on the theory and applications of numerical approximation techniques. It looks at how in practice mathematically formulated problems are solved using computers, and how computational errors are analyzed and tackled. Major topics covered include computational errors, direct method for systems of linear equations, interpolation and approximation, numerical integration, and use of MATLAB software.

This course introduces the scientific and comparative study of religion, with emphasis on South Asian religions. For each tradition a survey of the relevant original literature is provided. Other topics include the co-existence of different religious traditions, and the social and psychological implications of religious values, beliefs, and rituals.