National Taiwan University

The course develops proficiency in listening, speaking, reading and writing that builds off already existing advanced proficiency in Chinese and further hones that proficiency through weekly discussion of the class text. The textbook will cover natural dialogues that integrate pieces of Taiwan culture and society. The methods of assessment will be conducted through attendance and participation, quizzes, assignments and midterm and final exams. 

This course examines institutional dimensions of the important economic and regional international organizations and their roles in world and regional politics. lecture topics include international organizations as actors in world politics; the united nations system; the World Trade organization; rise of regionalism; Asian regionalism; European Union as a model for regionalism; NAFTA and Pan American regionalism; African regionalism; and Eurasian regionalism. Assessment: midterm exam, final report, participation and attendance.

This course focuses on understanding and communicating philosophical ideas and arguments in English. The course is designed around two series of recorded video conversations with edited published texts. The first part of the class is devoted to earlier philosophers, while the second part focuses on philosophers and philosophies in the twentieth century. Course lectures include the works of: Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Kant, Hegel and Marx, Husserl, Heidegger, and Wittgenstein. It also looks at logical positivism, linguistic philosophy, the philosophies of language and science, and free will. Texts: Magee, Bryan. MEN OF IDEAS: SOME CREATORS OF CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY; Magee, Bryan, ed., THE GREAT PHILOSOPHERS: AN INTRODUCTION TO WESTERN PHILOSOPHY. Assessment: Class Participation (20%); bibliographic assignments (10%), reviews (40%) and essay (30%).

This class provides training in experimental skills and scientific presentation for doing research in the field of neuroscience. Students perform their assigned research project, join weekly lab meeting, present up-to-date research articles and are involved in scientific discussion with the instructor and lab colleagues. Students are required to perform experiments under instructor's supervision and they also need to present their research work and scientific paper over the semester.

The course begins by writing a Python environment build while teaching the structure and use of various syntaxes. The course introduces various basic knowledge in Python one by one, arranging exercises in various situations at the same time so that students can accumulate the syntax and skills of writing Python programs while solving imaginary problems. The course content is introduced in the following order: 1. Python and authoring tools/platforms; 2. Python basic variable types, grammatical structure and package usage, and 3. Some of the most popular packages in Python. At the end of the course, students will choose a topic for a final project report (individual or group); students will be expected to introduce the problems they encountered and want to solve; how to solve these problems through Python, and present the results in visual ways.

This course explores core issues in philosophy. More specifically, it addresses the following questions:
(1) Can we have any knowledge of the external world?
(2) Can we have knowledge of other minds?
(3) What is knowledge? What are the sources of knowledge?
(4) Is mind/soul irreducible to brain events?
(5) Can there be a personal identity relationship between the current and the past “me(s)”?
(6) Do we have free will?
(7) Does God exist?
(8) Is a benevolent God incompatible with a world where evil happens?
(9) Does human life have any meaning?
(10) Is it rational to fear death?
(11) Why should I be moral?
(12) Is morality objective? Can our moral judgments be justified?
(13) What is the nature of causality?
(14) What is law of nature?
(15) How do scientists explain the observed phenomena? Does science aim to reveal the reality hidden behind the appearances? 

This course is designed to connect school students in remote areas with the international and local NTU students in Taiwan. Students demonstrate their commitment to the rural community through service and learning opportunities. Activities range from distance interactions through webcam and school visit located in Keelung City, Chaiyi, Nantou, Taitung, and Kaohsiung areas. By going to one of the 7 primary or secondary schools located at the countryside in Taiwan, students are given the opportunity to gain an in-depth understanding of Taiwanese culture and share their own culture. At the same time, teachers and students in Taiwan will acknowledge their own community values and opportunities for exchange from a global and co-existing point of view. Students participate in volunteer activity via webcam, volunteer training with reflective learning and school visit and teaching. Assessment: presentation and final report. This course is graded p/np only.

The course aims to build students' organic chemistry experimental skills and knowledge. The course outlines is as follows: Experiment 1: Melting point determination Experiment 2: Recrystallization Experiment 3: Distillation Experiment 6: Extraction Experiment 8: Chromatography (1) Experiment ten: alkenes and alkanes Experiment 12: Preparation and properties of chloroalkane Experiment Thirteen: Properties and Reactions of Alcohols Experiment Fourteen: Preparation of Ethers Experiment 16: Preparation of cyclohexanone Experiment Eighteen: Diels-Adel Reaction Experiment 20: Preparation of Aspirin and Its Properties

This course involves intensive reading on American literary masterpieces. The course begins with an introduction to American literature from 1914 to 1945. Readings include works by such authors as Edwin Arlington Robinson, Wallace Stevens, Willa Cather, Ezra Pound, Katherine Anne Porter, William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, Toni Morrison, Mazine Hong Kingston, and Alice Walker. 

Spreadsheets can be used for more than just creating tables and charts and summarizing data. Instead of just storing, summarizing, and formatting data, a financial model is used for analysis. Spreadsheets are now commonly used for creating complex mathematical models. This course explains how to build financial models in Excel by providing instructions, not templates. Students learn to develop value-added skills in spreadsheet modeling of financial applications. Course topics include: time value of money; financial ratio analysis; capital budgeting; sensitivity analysis; scenario analysis; statistics analysis and matrix operation; two-asset portfolio analysis; 3-asset portfolio analysis: matrix and VBA; optimal capital structure; dividends policy; interest rate models; bond pricing and risk management; option pricing: Black-Scholes model; option pricing: Binominal model; option trading strategy; and pivot tables . Excel functions and tools, such as Data Table, Goal seeker, Solver are used intensively. Programming a VBA macro is an important task in this course.