Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST)

As the extreme weather events emerge as one of the most prominent global risks, climate change and the accompanying natural disasters are no longer a side agenda, but play a critical role in maintaining sustainable societies and economies. This course offers a broader perspective on environmental issues, in addition to advancing the scientific knowledge of climate change and extreme weather. The course introduces the case studies that emphasize the huge implications of extreme events (e.g. drought, flood, heat waves, typhoon) and their linkage with the warming due to greenhouse gases. This course also assesses the potential impacts of climate changes and extremes on social, economic and environmental sustainability through a multidisciplinary approach.

This course introduces the basics of electronics and information technology and their applications to daily-life consumer electronics and communication devices. Contents include the representation of signals in the time and frequency domains; digitization of information; coding for data compression and error protection; transmission of signals; cellular mobile phone and wireless communications; and the internet. The course examines the key technological developments of electronic and information technology and the fundamental principles related to electronic and information technology.

Analysis of the environment and competitive market space; value analysis, creation, and development of value proposition; strategic options for the creation of a sustainable competitive advantage; attack, counter-attack, and defensive marketing strategies; direct-competitive marketing simulation used as a medium for exposure to the competitive nature of the marketing environment.

This course provides a solid foundation in the principles and current practices of management. The focus of the course is about the interaction between individuals (managers) and the organization. The course explores what managers do through discussion of the four fundamental functions of managers, namely planning, organizing, leading and controlling. Topics include: evolution of management theories, environmental influences on management, organizational culture, strategic management, organizational design, change management, organizational control and human resources management.

The course consists of three parts. The first part covers mathematical background, multivariable calculus, and basic probability. The second part teaches equilibrium thermodynamics, covering the laws of thermodynamics and thermodynamics functions, with applications to various problems in phase equilibrium, chemical and electrochemical equilibrium. The third part teaches equilibrium statistical thermodynamics, covering the Boltzmann distribution, statistical ensembles and partition functions and their relations to thermodynamics functions.

This is an introductory course to macroeconomics. It covers business cycles in a closed economy, aggregate fluctuation in an open economy, and economic growth (if time permits). This course deals with theory, data, and economic policies to develop a balanced perspective on the real-world economic environment. We begin with defining major macroeconomic variables such as gross domestic product, price level, and unemployment rate. Then we investigate how the goods and money markets move in the short run (IS-LM). Building on the IS-LM model, we include the labor market in the analysis to derive the AS-AD model for the medium run. We further extend the model to an open economy by bringing trade and exchange rates into the framework. Finally, we study the long run trends in output, i.e., economic growth.

The course starts from 6/17 to 8/10, 8 weeks in total, each week conduct about 25-30 hours independent work. Assisting a postgraduate student under the supervision of Prof. Pan HUI at HKUST. The project topic is about the Study of nationalist behavior during crisis under mainly Python environment. Since the summer period is too short, no specific outcome is required, and only 1 HKUST credit is assigned, with P/NP grading.

This course introduces selective Western and Chinese literary novels, and provides a forum for extended practice in the art of creative writing. It is designed for students who have little or no previous experience writing literary texts in a particular genre. Introductory workshops cover a variety of technical and imaginative concerns through exercises, readings, and discussions. In addition to weekly reading literary classics, this course focuses on writing literary novels in Chinese or cross the boundaries of the genre.

Housing, unlike other goods, has its unique characteristics in terms of heterogeneity, durability, spatial fixity, and high purchase price relative to income. These suggest that conventional economic concepts need to be readdressed in order to analyze the microeconomic issues of housing. Besides, a significant number of households own residential properties by borrowing mortgages. A substantial collapse in housing prices might lead to negative equity for those households, and reduce their consumption and investment thereafter. Therefore, the macroeconomic implication of housing market dynamics cannot be overstated. The US subprime mortgage crisis during 2007-09 suggests that a sharp downturn in the housing market can cause negative spillovers to the aggregate economy. The first part of this course focuses on microeconomic issues like housing demand and supply analysis, models of housing market, rationales and effects of government's housing policies. The second part emphasizes the macroeconomic issues such as the stylized facts on housing market dynamics, causes of housing market fluctuations, and housing market spillovers. Applications to the subprime mortgage crisis of 2007-2009 and housing markets in Hong Kong and China are addressed. The objective of this course is to develop analytical frameworks by which students can address both the microeconomic and macroeconomic issues of housing.

This course introduces general topics in physics employing a calculus-based approach. Key course topics include: motions and Newton's laws, work and energy, conservation of energy and momentum, rotation, rigid body, simple harmonic and damped oscillations, forced oscillations, standing waves and sound waves, kinetic theory and the laws of thermodynamics. Prerequisite: single-variable calculus. Text: Young and Freedman, UNIVERSITY PHYSICS. Assessment: homework (10%), quizzes (40%), final exam (50%)