National University of Singapore

This course highlights how luck has influenced and still influences several aspects of the world. From the beginning of the universe, to present-day lives, to the end of the universe, random events beyond anyone's control continue to shape fate. By exploring the various fields that luck manifests itself in, the course ultimately delves into the intriguingly precarious nature of existence.

This course introduces the field of parallel computing with hands-on parallel programming experience on real parallel machines. The course consists of four parts: parallel computation models and parallelism, parallel architectures, parallel algorithm design and programming, and new parallel computing models. Topics include: theory of parallelism and models; shared-memory architectures; distributed-memory architectures; data parallel architectures; interconnection networks, topologies and basic of communication operations; principles of parallel algorithm design; performance and scalability of parallel programs, overview of new parallel computing models such as grid, cloud, and GPGPU. The course requires students to take prerequisites.

Public health nutrition is concerned with the promotion and maintenance of nutrition-related health and wellbeing of populations through the organized efforts and informed choices of society. Such approaches are required to solve many of the complex nutritional challenges, such as obesity, type-2 diabetes, micronutrient deficiencies, and hunger, which we face today. This class examines the fundamental concepts related to nutrition, frameworks used to examine public health issues, and key historical and current public health nutrition challenges and policies.

From low frequency minute vibrations to infrasonic and ultrasonic frequencies, from waterborne to air-transmitted sounds, this course introduces what sound is (i.e. fundamentals of sound, how sound travels etc.), how and why it matters to animals (i.e. mechanisms and adaptive functions of sound production and reception) in both terrestrial and marine habitats, bioacoustic instrumentation and software, industrial applications, and how environmental issues involving sounds such as terrestrial and ocean noise pollution are affecting animals and humans.

According to conventional wisdom, Chinese women in history were particularly oppressed. It was only in the modern period that the patriarchal system started to break down and gender equality was finally realized. Such a simplistic view of dividing Chinese women’s experiences into two mutually exclusive categories of “traditional” and “modern” is misleading. This course sets out to provide a more complex and nuanced picture of the life of Chinese women over time in China and elsewhere. Topics cover include marriage, women’s education, works and property rights, ideas about the female body and chastity and so on.

The course highlights the impact of habitat loss on biodiversity and the basis for formulation of effective conservation management strategies. It also introduces the theory of current conservation biology as illustrated by applications in tropical areas, species conservation issues, ecological challenges, role of zoological gardens, legal challenges etc. The course also covers conservation of tropical biota, management of local and regional environmental problems, appreciation and consideration of the socio-economic issues. Conservation priorities and developmental needs at the national level are also be discussed, with emphasis on Singapore and SE Asia.