National Taiwan University

"I believe the metaverse is the next chapter for the internet." Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg described the metaverse as an “embodied Internet” that gives one a “feeling of presence.” He believes in the metaverse so much as to change Facebook’s name to Meta Platforms on 2021/12/01. However, the dream of the coming era of Metaverse has been disappointing; the stock price of Metaverse fell more than 60% since then, and in November 2022, Zuckerberg announced a massive layoff of 11,000 jobs about 13% of the Meta workforce.

This course is an introductory course to the 3D creation for the Meta Universe or Metaverse. It teaches what the “metaverse” means and instructs basic 3D skills to create 3D objects and avatars, thereby experiencing the merging of the virtual and reality 3D world. The course is divided into three parts:
(A) 3D Foundation
Topics: Introduction to 3D Graphics and Rendering, Meta Universe (Metaverse), Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR).
(B) 3D Creation
Topics: 3D open source tool Blender, 3D Character Creation, Modeling, Unwrapping and Texturing, Rigging and Walk Cycle, Avatar, 3D scan, and Animation
(C) 3D Case Study and Project
Topics: case studies 3D applications, Metaverse platforms, and 3D team projects.
 

Other useful course information:

1. The 3D tools for this course are free, open-source, and cross-platform tools. No costs to students.
2. This course is for both information technology/management students and non-technical majors.
3. Guest speakers from 3D professional fields will share their experiences in class and help demonstrate 3D tools and advise on 3D group projects.

This course not only focuses on literature study but also serves as a critical guide to various thoughts that troubled modern people. The course explores how the industrial revolution, the World Wars, the Cold War, Feminism, Post-colonialism, gender liberation, and concurrent globalization has transformed the English-speaking world. Has the core of humanity changed? How do tradition and modernity contradict one another and in what way are they compromised? To what extent do modern arts push our tolerance of ethics further? Does the British Empire still exist in one form or another? Do globalization and modernity transform our culture fundamentally or only reshuffle it? How do intellectuals—not just creative writers—promote, manipulate, or hinder these exciting but unsettling changes?

Life history traits, e.g., growth rates, maturation schedules, and offspring size and number, are influenced by environmental and anthropogenic factors and in turn determine individual fitness and influence population growth rates. Because life history traits are heritable, variation in these traits tends to involve both evolutionary (genetic) and ecological (plastic) processes. Exploring life history variation provides an opportunity not only to understand the eco-evolutionary interactions that shape the observed patterns, but also to forecast population dynamics in changing environments. In this course, we design lectures to guide students to understand the concepts and theories of adaptive life history variation. In addition, the course project involves field sampling and laboratory experiments with mosquitofish Gambusia affinis, to gain hands-on experience on life history research. The objectives of this course are to understand the theoretical background of life history variation, and explore empirical variation in growth rates, maturation schedules, and offspring size and number based on the model species, mosquitofish.

Generally, Southeast Asian culture can be seen as a grand confluence of culture from local pre-history, India, China, Islam and Europe. These factors are complicated by geological separation between the continent and the archipelago. This course examines historical cultural change with particular focus on each art; architecture, sculpture, ceramics, textiles, performing arts (including dance and music), and archaeological remains.

This course surveys Asian North American literature and criticism. Given their similar immigration policies and cultural specificities, North America here includes Canada and the U.S.A., and Asia here is understood as East Asia as South(east) Asia has another complicated British/European colonial history. Since this is an introductory class in nature, students read the excerpts and a long novel from major works from the late 19th century to the present. While discerning the broad scope of Asian American literature as a whole, the course emphasizes the recurring themes, the bi-cultural contexts in which these writers wrote, and their literary experimentation and innovation over the time. To supplement readings of literary texts, students examine selected works of criticism, history, and social sciences. As heterogeneity is a crucial concept in defining the umbrella term “Asian American,” an important goal is to understand Asian North Americans as diverse groups and individuals given their different historical and cultural backgrounds. The course covers both East Asian (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Eurasian) and North American (American and Canadian) writers, and also attempts to cover all genres (short story, poetry, fiction, prose, graphics) to give the students a panoramic view of the “heterogeneity” in this quite established discipline.

This course is for students who have taken Advanced I of the Chinese Language Course for International Students. By the end of the course students are capable of using written language to communicate effectively in formal writing and of understanding public announcements, news, and other broadcasts. This course does not use a specific textbook, but brings up topics each class that help students develop proficiency in listening, speaking, reading and writing. Through the course, students are able to use appropriate Chinese to carry on discussions, and read newspapers and magazines to further understand Taiwanese culture and language. Assessment: assignments and presentations, quizzes and tests, attendance and participation, midterm and final exams.

This course is an in-depth survey of the traditional Chinese philosophies, mainly the “three teachings” -- Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. This survey focuses on the distinctive concepts of Humanism and Nature in these traditions, which accept “the unity of Nature and Humanity." Based on traditional Chinese ideas of "the Unity of Nature and Humanity," this survey course also explores the possibility that these traditions offer intellectual support for ethics of the environment and climate change, two major issues facing humanity today.  

This course introduces the history of the modern Middle East from the nineteenth century to the start of the Arab Spring in 2010. Since the 600s C.E., the Middle East has been the heartland of Muslim peoples and empires. Along with other religious communities (Christian, Jewish, Zoroastrian) and a variety of ethno-linguistic groups (Arab, Persian, Turkish, Kurdish, Berber, Azeri), the Middle East constituted one of humankind’s critical intersections between religions and cultures. This course addresses a number of important themes in the lives of Middle Easterners in the past and provides the vital tools and skills to conduct such an investigation. More broadly, the course examines how Middle Easterners have engaged with and contribute to modernity; how traditions and customs has helped them shape and understand the world around them; and how individuals have related to society and state. The Middle East has played vital roles in international affairs today. While the study of contemporary politics is important, this is a history class and it focuses on the past that led to the present.

As innovation is now the most important driver of competitive success, practitioners and scholars have raced to understand the nature and the process of innovation. This course provides a strategic framework for managing innovation. Specifically, attention is paid to the dynamics of innovation, formulation and implementation of technological innovation strategy, and the contexts in which innovation contributes to competitive advantage are highlighted. Texts: Melissa Schilling (2010) Strategic Management of Technological Innovation; Harvard Business School cases; and various articles. Assessment: group presentation (HBR articles) (10%); group presentation (term project) (25%), case write-ups (15%), class participation (10%), midterm and final exams (40%).

This course is for international students gain a better understanding of Taiwan. Local students also participate to reassess their understanding of local history and culture and compare it with view of students from foreign countries. The course focuses on four themes: cinema of Taiwan, history and social change in Taiwan, religious and folk culture in Taiwan, and population and gender issues in Taiwan. Through in-class lecture, video screening, seminar discussion and field trips, students go through a succinct yet thorough introduction of how the Island of Formosa became modern Taiwan, and look into some traditional beliefs, customs and local lives in Taiwan. They are led to appreciate films produced in different periods and explore how various issues or events are presented in those films, as well as study Taiwan's demographic transition, marriage transformation and stalled gender relationship.