Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST)

Originated from Stanford University’s Life Design Lab (Bill Burnett and Dave Evans), this course employs a method called “design thinking” to help students from any program develop a constructive and effective approach to finding and designing their vocation after university. Through small group discussions, in-class activities, personal reflections and individual coaching, this course teaches students to use design thinking to explore many of life’s major challenges, such as pursuing careers they love and finding personal fulfillment. Topics include the integration of work and worldviews, ideation techniques, a portfolio approach to thriving, designing to increase balance and energy, and how to prototype all aspects of life. The course touches on the realities of engaging the workplace, and practices that support vocation formation throughout the career of students. The capstone assignment is the creation of an “Odyssey Plan” focusing on taking actions in the 3-5 years following their graduation. For Engineering students only. Graded P or F.

This special topics course covers everything from TikTok trends to influencer politics, this course examines social media as both technological systems and cultural forces that reshape how people communicate, form identities, build communities, and engage in public life. The course explores the interplay between platform design, user behavior, and broader social structures, developing critical frameworks to analyze digital culture's impact on contemporary society.

This course introduces the fundamental themes of intercultural communication by drawing on current language and intercultural communication theory, research, and practice, to better understand communication between culturally diverse individuals. Through experiential projects and personal reflections, students explore what it means to be an interculturally competent communicator or mediator and the competencies necessary for interacting more appropriately and effectively in intercultural encounters. By engaging with readings, project and reflections, students are encouraged to become more actively engaged with intercultural interactions and to foster an ethno-relative mindset with greater curiosity and open-mindedness. Topics include conceptions of culture and multiculturalism, the relationship between language, communication, power and context, language and cultural socialization, identity and belonging, ‘othering’, prejudice and stereotypes, facework and conflict management, intercultural transition, intercultural relationship-building, social justice and global citizenship.

This course provides an overview of the various forms of popular culture in East Asia. It focuses on the question of how the rise of East Asian popular culture reflects the desire for "modernity" and "modernization" in each East Asian country and affects the interactions among them. The course explores numerous popular cultural forms such as music, film, TV drama, manga/anime, novels, entertainment, food, fashion and design in Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. The course also examines the increasing global fascination of or craze for East Asian popular culture and how such East Asian "soft power" has inspired and transformed the global aesthetics and popular imagination or understanding of East Asia. 

This course introduces key concepts and theories in organizational behavior (OB), examining human behavior and behavioral issues in organizations from both individual and organizational perspectives. Topics include perception and decision-making, motivation, team dynamics, leadership, power and influence, and organizational culture. Through application of OB theories, the course develops the ability to critically and creatively analyze management issues at the individual, team, and organizational levels, evaluate risks and benefits of alternative solutions, and apply concepts to real-world business problems. Emphasis is placed on clear and professional communication, effective functioning in multicultural organizational settings, and reflection on personal strengths and areas for development within organizational contexts.

This course helps students enhance their communication skills through practical scenarios focused on job-seeking and early-career business communication. Students learn how to communicate effectively to accomplish written and oral tasks in the workplace and be able to develop a useful business communication toolkit targeted at external and internal audiences. The course is designed and structured to address students’ learning needs in job-seeking and in their early careers. The course introduces students to strategies for handling the communication challenges which fresh graduates can expect in diverse work environments. They will have opportunities to learn and practice how to succeed in business writing, presentations, interviews, meetings, and collaborative assignments with the essential interpersonal communication skills such as active listening, cogent argumentation, and clear expression in writing and speaking. 

Health psychology is the scientific study of how biological, psychological, and social factors affect health promotion as well as the prevention and treatment of illness. The course looks at how people stay healthy, why they become ill, and how they cope and recover when they are ill. This course introduces students to the theoretical models, research methodology, empirical findings, and current issues in health psychology.

This course covers the derivation and analysis of fundamental partial differential equations, including Laplace’s equation, the wave equation, and the diffusion equation. Emphasis is placed on analytical solution techniques such as separation of variables, Fourier series and integrals, and the method of characteristics. Additional topics include maximum principles and the use of Green’s functions for solving boundary value problems.

This course develops students' appreciation of various types of electronic music via an open, creative environment for its composition. It explores the nature of sound and approaches to its organization, listening deeply to music and the world around us, and covers theory and practice in digital audio signal processing. The course works with 'concrete sound' and thus no prior experience in music notation or composition is required. The course culminates in an open concert-presentation of final works that students develop over the semester.