Yonsei University

Food biochemistry is concerned with the principles of biochemistry which underlie the structure and behavior of substance and matter in food. This course provides an overview of Food biochemistry leaving out the complex microbial derivations which usually accompany the one-semester course. The course covers updated information on fundamental topics such as sugars, polysaccharide, lipids, proteins, colors, flavors, preservatives, enzymes, functional foods, and dietary supplements. Each of these areas is directly related to the current effort of commercializing food products and adding new value to them. The successful application of this knowledge is ultimately essential to the development and growth of major aspects of food science, including production, processing, preservation, distribution, safety, and engineering and technology.  

As a result of this course students obtain in-depth knowledge of the major macro-nutrients and micro-nutrients in food. Students also gain deeper insights into consumer perspectives and preferences regarding issues such as genetically modified foods, nano-materials in foods, functional foods and nutraceuticals, and food safety. Assessment: Midterm exam (30%), final exam (30%), presentation (20%), participation (20%). 

Please note: This course is non-calculus-based survey of food biochemistry designed for B.S. degree students with a major in Chemistry, Nutrition, Biology, Biochemistry, Microbiology, pre-professional studies, or students in general. A fair amount of chemical and biochemical background is required to understand food biochemistry. 

This course cultivates social innovation capacity by approaching K-content as a single bowl of bibimbap. Just as bibimbap blends diverse ingredients while preserving their distinct flavors, this course places classical and contemporary Korean literature, web novels and webtoons, dramas and games into one bowl and reads them together. K-content is treated not merely as a collection of stories but as an experimental apparatus for thinking about and testing future societies. 

In this process, students examine the tensions and collisions produced as generation and class, gender and region, and platform cultures intertwine, and to treat this hybridity not as proof of “Koreanness,” but as a starting point for social innovation. Through the course, students discover social problems that have not yet been named and learn to nurture them as both citizens and creators who can articulate those problems through new narrative forms. 

By observing specific idol, drama, game, or webtoon fandoms, recording their voluntary care practices, informal rules, and conflict mediation methods, and translating these organizational forms into prototypes for small-scale civic projects or public campaigns, students approach fandom not as a mere consumer group but as a hybrid governance model capable of experimenting with social innovation 

Furthermore, this course does not stop at reading K-content as an object of cultural consumption. It operates as an “imagination workshop” that uses SF imagination and speculative social design to experimentally envision future societies. Students analyze narrative worlds while also engaging in creative practices that design possible social institutions, technologies, and forms of community.  

Topics include What does Science Fiction imagine, Worldbuilding and reading worlds, Speculative imagination, Korean SF and K-content, Transitioning social problems into SF, K-webtoons and platform SF, K-movies and future societies, K-pop and narrative universes. 

This course covers major issues and historical backgrounds of contemporary East Asian politics, with a particular focus on Northeast Asia.  

Students explore regional politics and the unique development paths and key issues shaping East Asia today. Upon completion of the course, students may be better prepared for careers in East Asia-related fields, including government, diplomacy, defense, the private sector, and academia.  

The course covers a range of topics, including the early 20th-century historical background, postwar decolonization, political transformation and democratization in East Asia, China’s assertive foreign policy and its challenges to the current regional order, the reemergence of nationalism and historical disputes, the US–China rivalry and its regional impact, and territorial disputes in East Asia. 

This course is structured in three parts. First, it introduces the key concepts, structures, and historical backgrounds that underpin contemporary East Asian dynamics. Second, it examines various issues and case studies related to the politics, defense, and diplomacy of South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and China, as well as their bilateral and multilateral relations. Third, it explores the future of East Asia in terms of regional power dynamics. Students are expected to develop a foundational yet comprehensive understanding of contemporary East Asian power dynamics, the policies of major countries (South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and China), and their historical contexts.  

Additionally, the course addresses the historical roots of current territorial and diplomatic disputes among major East Asian powers, political transformations in East Asian democracies, and China’s assertive challenge to the existing regional order. Through this course, students develop the ability to form their own perspectives on East Asian regional dynamics and political systems, as well as their implications for both East Asia and global politics. 

This course explores the development of modern British drama from the late 19th century to the present, focusing on major playwrights and their works. We approach the history of British drama in three parts: the emergence of modern drama (Oscar Wilde & Bernard Shaw) at the turn of the twentieth century, two major trends in postwar Britain (John Osborne & Samuel Beckett), and the political and experimental theatre of the late 20th century onwards (Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, Sarah Kane, Caryl Churchill). Keeping in mind that dramatic texts are realized on stage, we pay attention to theatrical elements and genres, including melodrama, social realist drama, the theatre of the absurd, the comedy of menace, the play of ideas, in-yer-face theatre, and political theatre. Films and other visual materials are used to enhance students’ understanding and engagement with the plays.

This course is intended primarily for students majoring in Korean Language and Literature, therefore full fluency in Korean is required as the course focuses on structural and analytical understanding rather than pronunciation practice.  

This course introduces the study of Korean speech sounds, covering the phonetic characteristics of Korean using scientific methods, including acoustic analysis with Praat. Students analyze and explore how these sounds differ from those in other languages, especially English. Students also identify and describe the articulatory and acoustic properties of Korean vowels and consonants. Students gain both practical analysis skills and insights into cross-linguistic sound patterns.  

Public Economics (also known as Public Finance) studies various issues related to governments. Governments collect taxes (revenue or taxation side) and spend them on a variety of areas in the economy (expenditure side). This course first discusses important issues in the expenditure side such as public goods and governments' intervention on markets with externalities.  

The course then examines the taxation side and tries to answer the following questions: what are the goals that governments want to or have to achieve in taxation and how they should tax in order to attain such goals. Additional  topics like government debts and pension systems are analyzed if time permits.  

Assessments: Midterm exam (40%), final exam (40%), quiz (15%). 

In the modern world, most of us make investments in expectation of the future, which means we must consider time span, growth potential, availability of investible money, and the future value of money in relation to both upside and downside risks. 

This course builds an understanding of what we invest in and what must be considered, which can produce better investment decisions and management. Starting from fixed income, we navigate through the money market, which is essential for investment funding, to equity, paying increasing attention to mean estimations and variations of the estimations.  

We extend these estimations and variations to investment portfolios and then to a portfolio optimization scheme. After introducing the concept of the market, we study the Capital Asset Pricing Model and then incorporate this model into the above portfolio optimization scheme.  

We also touch on the concept of tail risk through Value at Risk. When time allows, the course introduces the world of hedge fund-style investments and private equity investments. Since topics addressing investment and financial instruments cover a very broad scope, the course contents are modified and adjusted according to class participants’ progress. 

This course begins with an understanding of the concept of distance in mathematics, and introduces the fundamental concepts and various properties of topological structures. It provides a theoretical foundation for topics previously used in calculus, including the real number system, limits, continuous functions, the extreme value theorem, the mean value theorem, the existence of definite integrals, the fundamental theorem of calculus, and the intermediate value theorem. In addition, the course explores the geometric properties of topological concepts. Topics include Set Theory and Logic, Topological Spaces and Continuous Functions, Connectedness and Compactness, Countability and Separation Axioms, The Tychonoff Theorem, Metrization Theorems and Paracompactness, and Complete Metric Spaces and Function Spaces.

In modern society, where uncertainty is increasing, the importance and necessity of intimate relationships—such as romantic partnerships, marriage, and family—are being increasingly emphasized. In particular, phenomena related to love, marriage, and family are changing more rapidly than ever before. A broad examination and understanding of these intimate relationships not only help individuals respond flexibly to such changes, but also contribute to the formation of healthy values regarding love, marriage, and family. Ultimately, this fosters individual happiness and promotes the well-being of families and society as a whole.

This course introduces the basic theories, design, and evaluation techniques required in future architectural practice, focusing on thermal environmental factors.   

The field of architectural environment refers to the technical area that deals with the physical performance of buildings, which must be considered throughout the process of producing architectural structures. The physical performance of a building depends on the spatial elements, thermal/light/sound environment factors, indoor air quality factors, and the architect's knowledge and experience related to the integration of these elements. 

The course prepares students to create comfortable indoor environments, as well as to design environmentally friendly and energy-efficient buildings. This course covers architectural sustainability, environmental control and passive design in architecture, and the basic principles and performance evaluation methods for building environmental systems: heating, cooling, lighting, and energy.