National Taiwan University

This course is an introduction to the theory and practice of econometrics. It provides students with knowledge of statistical and econometric theory to make them an effective consumer and producer of empirical research in economics. Emphasis is placed on intuitive understanding rather than on rigorous arguments. Throughout the course, concepts are illustrated with applications in economics.

This course focuses on integrating software and hardware and building working computer systems. The course covers building touchpads; wearable devices; motion tracking; haptic devices, and autonomous vehicles. 

Taiwan is an island country rich in biodiversity. It is located between the Eurasian Plate and Philippine Sea Plate, and its geological structure is quite young. The orogeny in Taiwan form many towering mountains, so even though Taiwan is in the tropical and subtropical zone, a temperate climate is still found at high altitudes. Taiwan is also known for a high percentage of endemic species, because in the Ice Age, Taiwan was connected to Eurasia. After the Ice Age, Taiwan was isolated by the ocean, and many lives gradually evolved into endemic species on the island. Now, the proportion of endemic species in Taiwan is about 71% mammals, 17% birds, 22% reptiles, 31% amphibians, 19% freshwater fish, 25% plants, and 60% insects. Although the land area of Taiwan is only 0.027% of the total of the world, the number of species is as high as 3.8%, which is 150 times the global average. Furthermore, the marine species around Taiwan are about 10% of the world, which is 361 times the average. Taiwan is not a country with large territory, but has rich biological resources. This course invites guest speakers in different fields to talk about the geography, wildlife, ecosystem, and culture of Taiwan. The course studies the natural environment of Taiwan through lectures and field trips.

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.