United Kingdom - England

We use language all the time to express our thoughts and understand others. But how does language work? Key questions covered in this course include: how do names refer to an object? Do words mean whatever we intend or use them to mean? What role does convention play in fixing meanings? Are our terms vague, or precise? Can a person have a private language? How do we communicate beyond the literal? What are speech acts and are they available to everyone in our society? All of these questions are of interest in their own right, and also have applications to further issues in philosophy and beyond.

In this course, students demonstrate independence and originality in order to plan and organize a large project over an extended period, and to put into practice prior engineering knowledge, skills, and research methods that they have learned throughout the course. Students demonstrate their ability to apply previously taught knowledge and skills to a substantial problem in computing; conduct an independent investigation and apply cutting-edge research, methods, and thinking appropriate to the problem; present complex technical material orally to a mixed audience; and exercise scientific writing skills by way of a substantial written report, summarizing their findings.

In this course, students explore ten of the “big questions”: What do I know? What is consciousness? Who am I, and do I exist? Do I have free will? Does God exist? What are space and time? What are numbers? What should I do? What is justice? What is the meaning of life? To find answers to these questions, students learn essential skills of a philosopher: first, reading philosophical texts, focusing on how to extract and present a philosophical thesis and argument in a clear, logical way; and second, practicing creative, critical thinking and impromptu discussions by participating in philosophical discourse with peers. Students also learn to write philosophical arguments of their own in essay-form.

This course equips students with the background knowledge and understanding of concepts that link atomic and molecular physical chemistry to macroscopic behavior of gasses, liquids, and solids.

This course reviews fundamental concepts in economic theory and presents some of its most successful applications. The first part of the course consists of an introduction to auction theory. Auctions have been widely used to allocate spectrum licenses, drilling rights or central bank lending against collateral; their design is therefore of immediate practical concern. The theory, drawing on mechanism design, allows us to analyze what makes auctions desirable, how different formats compare, and tackle issues such as strategic entry, collusive behavior, or allocative externalities. The course is strictly theoretical and cover fundamental issues, most importantly the revenue equivalence theorem. From here students embark on an eclectic tour, covering issues relating to competition policy and auction design, and exploring connections with competitive markets and nonlinear pricing. The second part of the course surveys concepts in non-cooperative game theory and introduces students to game theoretic modeling in economics. After setting up the primitives of the game theory framework, different solution concepts are analyzed with an emphasis on economic applications including bargaining, voting, communication, and matching.

In this course, students advance their knowledge of data-structures and algorithms to data-processing algorithms and  applications. They acquire theoretical and practical knowledge of data processing systems design and implementation for correct results and (close-to) optimal performance. Students learn how Database Management Systems (DBMSs) optimize query performance, and understand Data Processing System tuning. Finally, students explore challenges and opportunities of cloud-native Data Processing Systems, as well as the research directions such as Big Data or data management on modern hardware.

This course introduces students to Matlab, and consists of a design project and a process engineering project. Students acquire knowledge of basic engineering concepts, computation, practical laboratory skills, and design. 

The course introduces students to the fundamental principles of management accounting, financial management, and financial institutions. Students learn how accounting information can be used by managers to make crucial decisions, such as pricing of products or services, discontinuing or offering new products, and expanding the product/service range or investing in new product development.  Students are introduced to various topics in management accounting and financial management, including cost behavior, cost-volume-profit analysis, costing systems, budgeting, variance analysis, performance measurement, and capital budgeting. As the course progresses, students are introduced to some key concepts in financial management, such as the role of financial markets and financial institutions, capital structure, and risk. The course provides students with a solid foundation in management accounting and financial management, allowing them to apply their knowledge in real-world situations.

This course offers an introduction to international trade theory and develops the main tools for trade policy analysis. Students start by studying the patterns of trade distinguishing between inter-industry and intra-industry trade flows. They then proceed to an in-depth analysis of the causes and the effects of those flows based on the concepts of absolute and comparative advantage, relative factor abundance and relative factor intensity, increasing returns to scale and imperfect competition. Finally, they discuss the gains and losses from trade, their distribution among people and firms, and their implications for the debate on trade liberalization versus protectionism

Drawing upon criminological, sociological, historical, political economy, penal theory, intersectional and decolonial perspectives, this course critically examines why and how societies punish criminal wrongdoing. It provides students with a thorough understanding of the main theoretical perspectives on punishment and their application to contemporary issues in penal policy.