University of Bologna

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 examines: the conceptual and theoretical foundations of cybercrime research; the cutting edge empirical research on cybercrimes; the main tools and practices related to the prevention and countering of cybercrimes, and to their harm mitigation; the social challenges and implications of digitalization and datafication in the context of cybercrime research and investigations; and develops an approach to cybercrimes that recognizes the cross-disciplinary nature of the area. The course discusses topics including approaching and researching crime in cyberspace; crimes against devices; crime against persons; crimes of deception and coercion; intellectual property infringement; market-based crimes; political offences; cyberterrorism and radicalization; information pollution; disrupting and preventing cybercrimes; crimes of the present, crimes of the future; and researching crime in cyberspace.

The course introduces students to pivotal and methodological issues in the field of cultural anthropology. Topics change on a yearly basis. The Spring 2023 topic was: The Gift in the Greek and Roman World: Economy, Society, and Religion. The course includes a series of guest lectures. The course is graded pass/no pass only.

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 provides knowledge on process and Quaternary geomorphology, with a focus on mountain environments. The course examines aspects of sediment supply and sediment transfer, including hillslope-channel interactions, the role of hydro-meteorogical forcing on the intensity and typology geomorphic transport processes. It also deals with sediment management in the Anthropocene, including the impacts of in-channel engineering infrastructures and landcover changes. Sediment yield and sediment storage in natural and regulated systems are also discussed, as well as the role of Pleistocene glaciations on the present spatial organization of geomorphic processes and sediment fluxes. In this context, the course further examines dating landforms and constraining denudation rates at millennial time scales. The lab-based component introduces students to expert-based mapping of sediment sources and channel changes, as well as glacial and periglacial landforms on remotely-sensed images to build georeferenced databases for geo-hazard assessment. The field-based component illustrates techniques for field-based mapping, characterizing channel bed texture, as well as monitoring water and sediment fluxes. The discussion is fostered by a literature review on selected topics that vary from year to year. Finally, analysis of data collected in the field is performed by groups of students, in preparation of a short technical report.

The course focuses on basic knowledge of the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics and simple integrable models. Students are trained to write the Lagrangian and the Hamiltonian function for mechanical systems, to analyze the phase space and the stability of fixed points, to integrate the equation of a central field and a rigid body with rotational symmetry, and to use variational principles and canonical transformations. Course topics including dynamical systems; the definition of Equilibrium and study of its linear and non-linear stability; Lagrangian mechanics; symmetries; Noether's theorem; mechanical models; rotation group and rigid body; dynamics in a rotating frame; and Hamiltonian mechanics.

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 introduces the analysis of conflicts and international interventions providing an overview of major theoretical approaches and empirical applications in those fields. The course deals with the conceptual and methodological tools provided by academic literature and applies such concepts and methods to analysis of major conflicts and experiences of international interventions. The course starts by introducing the major strands of research that analyzed conflict onset and dynamics. Then, an overview of scholarship on interventions is presented and discussed. Finally, 6 seminars are devoted to the application of theories to the analysis of wars (and interventions) in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Cambodia, Colombia, the Sahel region, and Syria.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. The objective of the course is to present the most effective techniques for the solution of complex decisional problems arising in the optimal planning and management of large-scale systems concerning both the public and the private sectors. Mathematical models and heuristic algorithms for the practical solution of the corresponding optimization problems are described. Particular attention is given to the algorithmic and implementation aspects. Applications of the proposed techniques to real-world problems are presented and analyzed. The course discusses topics including: basic integer programming optimization: integer programming models, formulations, relaxations; basic heuristic approaches: constructive algorithms and local search procedures, examples for KP01 and TSP; worst-case performance analysis; metaheuristics: Multistart, Tabu Search, Simulated Annealing, Genetic Algorithms, Iterated Local Search, Variable Neighborhood Search, Large Neighborhood Search, Ruin and Recreate, and Ant Systems; optimization on graphs: shortest path, minimum spanning tree, and maximum flow; heuristic and metaheuristic algorithms for difficult combinatorial optimization problems; and real-world applications. Prerequisites for this course are: basic knowledge of Operations Research, as well as the implementation of computer codes and complexity theory.

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 is a survey of the history of the concepts and practice of war and peace from the Renaissance to the beginning of the nineteenth century. It primarily explores the main ideas, events, aspects, and trends related to the topics of the classes. First, the course examines the period traditionally known as the Renaissance. The course then focuses on ideas on human nature, war, and peace in early-modern Europe. The course demonstrates how the medieval cultural attitude towards war and peace was replaced during this period by a new concept, based around novel ideas on the nature of man shaped by social and political tensions caused by unprecedented challenges which threatened early-modern European societies. Finally, the course addresses questions concerning modernity such as why European cultures increasingly relied on science and reason instead of religion.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. This course provides theoretical concepts and managerial tools to (a) understand and analyze the main models underlying organizational behavior and people management; (b) develop and increase critical skills in decision making through the analysis of the impact of theories; c) identify problem solving approaches through discussion of case studies. Furthermore, this course intends to develop and practice teamwork skills by examining complex situations, identifying common action plans, and coming up with solution during projects. The course consists of three main subjects. The first subject is on the individual in organizations. Topics in this section include: individual differences: personalities and skills; definition of personality; the big five model; the most relevant personality traits; personality assessment; the nature and relationship of values, attitudes, moods, and emotions; job satisfaction and potential consequences; motivation at work, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation; why people act the way they act, motivational theories; and goal setting, performance assessment, compensation, and career management as motivational tools. The second subject is on group and team processes. Topics in this section include: work groups; different kinds of work teams and the 5-stage development model; team characteristics and effectiveness; how to measure team effectiveness; team dysfunctional processes; and virtual teams. The last subject is on power, politics, and conflicts. Topics in this section include: sources of individual formal and informal power; politics as the exercise of power in organizations; conflict in organizations; sources of conflict in organizations; Pondy's model of organizational conflict; and tactics to handle conflict in organizations.

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 aim of this course is to obtain a general understanding of physical properties of stars and galaxies. At the end of the lectures the student is familiar with the equations that regulate the internal structure of the stars, the sources of energy production, the structure of stellar atmosphere, and the formation theory of the spectral lines. Students acquire a general knowledge of morphological, structural, and dynamical properties of stellar systems (stellar clusters, galaxies). Hence, students acquire the necessary bases to understand the structural and evolutionary properties of stars and galaxies. The course discusses topics including :astronomical data and tools; celestial mechanics and the solar system; radiative processes; classification of stars and stellar atmospheres; stellar interiors; stellar evolution; fate of massive stars and stellar remnants; the interstellar medium; star formation; origin of the solar system and extra-solar planets; galaxies and galaxy clusters; and cosmology and large scale structure.

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 is divided in two modules. The aim of the first module is to provide knowledge about vehicle dynamics. Theoretical and numerical approaches are discussed to this end, as tools that allow students to predict the performance of cars in terms of longitudinal dynamics, lateral dynamics, handling, comfort, and stability. The aim of the second module is to provide the theoretical basis and the practical skills required to design embedded hardware and firmware compliant with industrial standards (safety, interoperability, maintainability). In addition, model-based design and automatic code generation using Matlab/Simulink is considered.