National Taiwan University

This course analyzes the impact of money, the banking system, and financial markets on modern economic activity and their interaction, helping students understand the financial sector's linkage to overall economic volatility. Students conduct rigorous analysis with simplified models, so that they can understand the mechanism of the operation of economic models such as asset pricing, bank runs, and secured lending restrictions, and explain them in clear logical steps. This course analyzes the changing face of financial intermediation in recent years, the rise of the shadow banking system, and its relationship to the global financial tsunami. It also addresses important topics such as non-traditional monetary policy, quantitative easing, Basel III, leverage cycles, systemic risk, central banks and financial stability, and overall prudential supervision policies. In addition, this course also analyzes issues such as digital currency (virtual currency), fintech and blockchain, shadow banking (supervision arbitrage and systemic risk) and supervision, the exit of quantitative easing, the issue of nominal interest rate "zero lower bound" and the latest topics such as negative interest rate policy, as well as the latest developments in the regulation and prudential supervision of the global financial system and financial institutions.

This course provides a general introduction to entomology, including the main research areas of entomology. Topics include insect morphology, internal anatomy, physiology, classification, and ecology, as well as the methods of field collection and research.

This course introduces the general situation of the tea industry in Taiwan. The course also addresses the history and production of tea; tea drinking, and the relationship between tea drinking and human health. 

"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.