University of Edinburgh

The first part of this course covers fundamental topics in discrete mathematics that underlie many areas of computer science and presents standard mathematical reasoning and proof techniques such as proof by induction. The second part of this course covers discrete and continuous probability theory, including standard definitions and commonly used distributions and their applications.

The course introduces students to the major theoretical traditions and conceptual frameworks used to make sense of international politics, including relations between states and interstate institutions as well as a range of global political processes. It shows how to use theory to make sense of the complex issues, developments, and events. The key objective of the course is to introduce students to the rich diversity of theoretical approaches - from orthodox to critical - within international relations and to offer them key analytical skills to compare and engage with theories and to use theories in their further research and studies. 

This course introduces students to the concepts and methodology needed to implement and analyze computational models of cognition. It considers the fundamental issues of using a computational approach to explore and model cognition. In particular, this course explores the way that computational models relate to, are tested against, and illuminate psychological theories and data. The course introduces both symbolic and subsymbolic modelling methodologies, and provides practical experience with implementing models. The symbolic part focuses on cognitive architectures, while the subsymbolic part introduces probabilistic models. 

An introduction to the physical processes occurring in the Earth's atmosphere. Interpretation of weather maps and satellite images, cloud types and formation, atmospheric structure, thermodynamic processes, rain formation, solar and terrestrial radiation, energy balance at the surface, cumulus and cumulonimbus convection, and air pollution.

This course introduces students to the synergies and challenges across anthropological and psychoanalytic theory. It encourages students to think across methodologies and conceptual toolkits in their analysis of subjectivity, the psyche, and human experience.

The first part of the course helps students to understand how Korea and Japan, existing in a region where politics and culture revolved around the vicissitudes of Chinese power, built quite unique early modern political systems that ensured centuries of peace and stability. The damage caused by 19th century European and American expansion is explored through political, economic, social, and cultural lenses. Analyzing fascism, democratization, nationalism, and communism, including the era of 'total war' (1931-1945), helps students to understand how early 20th century East Asia was part of global trends at a time when populism and mass movements reshaped the old world order. The course covers the Cold War "peace," which included the Korean War and massive social protest in Japan, to understand how much American and Soviet interests influenced the region. Finally, only through a close examination of the normalization of international relations, particularly with China, and dramatic changes in the Japanese and Korean economies at the end of the last century, can we come to understand how East Asia became one of the centers of global production, security crises, and cultural output.

This course is a foundation course for all Earth scientists, as well as students from other disciplines like biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering who wish to understand how our planet operates. The course is taught through the concept of connectivity between the evolution of life, and the physical Earth over time, plate tectonics and the rock cycle, and climate and elemental cycles. It conveys the relevant spatial and temporal length scales involved in Earth processes. Through lectures, innovative hands-on practicals, museum visits and geological tours of Edinburgh, and a field trip, students come to understand how the Earth works as an integrated system of physical processes, life, and climate, and appreciate how our modern world has emerged.

The principles of classical dynamics, in the Newtonian formulation, are expressed in terms of (vectorial) equations of motion. These principles are recapitulated and extended to cover systems of many particles. The laws of dynamics are then reformulated in the Lagrangian framework, in which a scalar quantity (the Lagrangian) takes center stage. The equations of motion then follow by differentiation, and can be obtained directly in terms of whatever generalized coordinates suit the problem at hand. These ideas are encapsulated in Hamilton's principle, a statement that the motion of any classical system is such as to extremise the value of a certain integral. The laws of mechanics are then obtained by a method known as the calculus of variations. As a problem-solving tool, the Lagrangian approach is especially useful in dealing with constrained systems, including (for example) rotating rigid bodies, and one aim of the course is to gain proficiency in such methods. At the same time, students examine the conceptual content of the theory, which reveals the deep connection between symmetries and conservation laws in physics. Hamilton's formulation of classical dynamics (Hamiltonian Dynamics) is introduced, and some of its consequences and applications are explored.

The course introduces students to Chaucer's THE CANTERBURY TALES, a key text of the English middle ages and one of the most accessible yet challenging works of medieval literature in English. It explores the range of individual tales, and the social and pilgrimage frameworks, that unite the whole. Topics considered include the different narrative kinds and modes employed in the tales, the focus on issues of gender, desire and marriage, and the playful yet sophisticated reflection upon the act of storytelling itself.

This course introduces students to different methods of reading literature historically. In order to learn how to place specific textual representations in their wider social and intellectual contexts, students examine a range of literary genres, encompassing both canonical and non-canonical texts from the medieval period to the late 18th century. The texts have been selected to encourage critical engagement with the global dimensions of "English Literature." Students must have passed Literary Studies 1A and 1B (or equivalent if visiting student).