University of Bologna

This course is part of the LM degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment s by consent of the instructor. This course discusses theoretical foundations, computational properties, and use cases for some of the most popular supervised and unsupervised machine learning techniques. In particular, the course addresses tasks such as classification, clustering, and discovery of rules by using modern machine learning methods and libraries.

This intensive language and culture course is conducted in Italian and is designed for students who have generally completed 1 year of Italian or have an entrance test that places them at the A2.1 or A2.2 level according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). The course is designed to help students perfect their language skills by reviewing and deepening their knowledge of vocabulary and grammar structures and focuses on the history and culture of the city of Bologna - from antiquity to the present - as a microcosm for Italian history and culture itself. Emphasis is placed on four historical periods: Antiquity (Etruscans and Romans), the Middle Ages (Guelphs and Ghibellines), the Renaissance (Bologna and the Papal State), and Modern times: Fascism, the Resistance, Neo-fascisms, and left and right-wing terrorism. Students continue to build on knowledge acquired in previous courses striving for a higher level of fluency especially in oral production in light of the goal of reaching a sophisticated level of communication with Italian university students and local residents. At the end of the course, students are able to talk about the city of Bologna, its history, and culture, and to offer their ideas and opinions using the subjunctive tense in both present and past forms. Readings are from per le vie e le piazza di Bologna as well as other sources including newspapers, novels, weekly magazines, comics, songs, and poems. The course includes a major field trip. Students select the number of quarter units from a minimum of 3 to a maximum of 6.

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 focuses on relevant research themes related to peer-to-peer systems, blockchain technologies, cryptocurrencies and novel applications that can be built over the blockchain. Nowadays, the most prominent peer-to-peer systems are related to the blockchain and distributed ledgers. Thus, the main part of this course is devoted to these topics. Bitcoin and novel cryptocurrencies gathered momentum in the last months. More and more investors look with interest to these technologies, while others label them as a dangerous speculative bubble. The truth is that the blockchain, and the alternative implementations of a distributed ledger, represent very interesting technologies, that can be exploited to build novel distributed applications. The underlying building blocks are related to many concepts and research areas of computer science in general. This course illustrates the main principles and conceptual foundations of the blockchain and the Bitcoin network. Topics covered: Introduction to peer-to-peer systems; Overlay topologies and decentralization; Introduction to Crypto and Cryptocurrencies; The blockchain: how to achieve decentralization; Transactions and transaction scripting languages; Mining; Attacks to the blockchain; Anonymity; Smart contracts.

This is a graduate level course that is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. At the end of the course, students will have acquired knowledge on the main morphological, physiological and molecular responses of higher plants to environmental cues and the basic mechanisms of tolerance and adaptation to adverse conditions. They learn about how plants contribute to air quality by the release of biotic particulates and by interfering with air pollutants derived from anthropogenic activities. Due to changes in plant distribution in relation to climate change, students become acquainted with the contribution of alien species to the release of such biotic particulates. Students also learn about methods employed in aerobiology for the quantitative and qualitative assessment of pollen and other air-borne allergens. They gain the capacity to interpret data and critically read scientific literature relating to this topic. Course contents Module 1: role of native and alien plants on air quality synthetic description of plant anatomy and cytology; the adaptive strategies of plants to different environmental conditions; alien plants; aerobiology; pollen and pollination; main airborne bio-allergens: pollens and fungi; food allergens of plant origin and respiratory allergens of pollen origin; role of plants as organisms able to monitor the environmental quality and to influence it through the release of aero-dispersed biological material such as pollens; possible use of plants in environmental phytoremediation. Course contents Module 2: plant resilience to environmental stress; the course will deal with the main responses of higher plants to environmental cues and basic mechanisms of tolerance and adaptation to adverse conditions; introduction to plants and abiotic stress factors associated with climate change; overview of abiotic stress responses in plants at various levels: morphological, physiological, biochemical, and molecular; the role of compatible solutes in preventing damage under stress conditions; oxidative stress, ROS homeostasis, and the importance of enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants; responses and management of salinity stress in plants; symbiotic interactions between plants and soil microorganisms under environmental stress; plant hormones: definition, classes, modes of action and involvement in abiotic stress; gene expression and environmental changes; involvement of microRNAs, transcription factors, and epigenetic changes in stress responses; abiotic stress and secondary metabolites, including VOCs.

The course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by permission of the instructor. Through the critical review of classical theories of capitalism, students discuss both fixed and invariant elements in the development of modern capitalism and what makes peculiar its contemporary forms. Students examine some of the most important concepts in present intellectual and political debate, such as globalization, financialization, etc. The course begins with a historical and theoretical framing of the question regarding the peculiarity of contemporary capitalism, briefly considering some of the most influential classical approaches to the study of capitalism. The course subsequently focuses on more recent debates and examines several proposals to conceptually grasp the specific capitalist formation that began to take shape in the early 1970s. Such concepts as flexible accumulation and late capitalism, the knowledge economy and neoliberalism, cognitive and postcolonial capitalism, Empire and postfordism, "racial capitalism" and feminist critique of political economy are critically discussed. The course then focuses on the so-called "platform capitalism." Taking platforms both as emerging business model and as a political form the course investigates their origins in the intertwined domains of logistics and digitization. It then focuses on the operations of some of the most important platforms - from Uber to Amazon, from Deliveroo to Airbnb - and discusses their implications both for the transformation of urban spaces and for labor (introducing such notions as "algorithmic management" and "digital labor"). In general, platforms are taken both as a specific research object and as a lens that allows discerning wider tendencies in the development of contemporary capitalism.

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 discusses the main lines of development of English Literature and drama, in relation to European culture. The course topic changes each term. The fall 2021 topic focuses on the development of the myth of Hamlet, from its pre-Shakespearian Scandinavian origins, to earlier Elizabethan versions of the drama, to the three Shakespeare texts of HAMLET and beyond, to later adaptations, rewritings and film versions. Refer to the University of Bologna course catalog for the topic and description for the specific term this course is taken in.

The course focuses on twentieth century Italian literature. This course examines wide areas of twentieth-century literary history, with special emphasis on the relation between literature and historical, social, anthropological, and more broadly cultural phenomena. Study is assisted by secondary literature and face-to-face instruction and covers close reading of the text as well as problems of form, structure, composition, and reception. Specific course topics vary from year to year. There are three different sections of the course offered each year, taught by three different professors, each course with different topics, reading lists, and syllabi. UNIBO students are assigned to sections based on their last name: A-D, E-M, N-Z; however, UCEAP students are free to choose the section they prefer. Refer to the UNIBO website for the course description for each section.

This is a special studies course involving an internship with a corporate, public, governmental, or private organization, arranged with the Study Center Director or Liaison Officer. Specific internships vary each term and are described on a special study project form for each student. A substantial paper or series of reports is required. Units vary depending on the contact hours and method of assessment. The internship may be taken during one or more terms but the units cannot exceed a total of 12.0 for the year.

The course focuses on issues in applied ethics, the distinction between individual and public ethics, as well as the main debates in the field. Special attention is placed on the relationship between different approaches in moral philosophy (normative, virtue, and care ethics) and the multiple connections between moral reflection and cultural studies, political science, and humanities. Students are introduced to relevant literature in the field and the proper terminology in the field. The Spring 2022 topic is on Aristotle’s ethics, moral psychology, and, in particular, the physiology of moral development, the difference between natural and moral virtues, and the role of emotions in character formation.