Ireland

This course is designed to give an in-depth knowledge of structure and function of neurons, neuronal communication and muscle. Major topics include a) The detailed structure of neurones and muscle cells, b) The biophysical membrane properties of these cells, c) Ion fluxes and permeabilities, d) Synaptic transmission, e) Excitation/contraction coupling and cell signalling. Parallel computer simulated assignments complement the lecture material in addition to an assignment on muscle function and EMG measurements.

This course explores the evolution of the Great American Songbook, a loosely defined canon of influential American popular songs from the early 20th century. These songs, many originating from Tin Pan Alley, Broadway, and Hollywood, have shaped the foundation of American popular music. Students examine the craft of songwriting, the business of music publishing, and the cultural contexts that influenced the work of composers such as Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Richard Rodgers. Through musical and lyrical analysis, historical inquiry, and engagement with primary sources, students develop a critical understanding of the enduring legacy of these songs and their impact on jazz, musical theatre, and contemporary popular music.

This course examines a selection of twentieth-century Spanish films, using cinema as a lens to explore the complex and ever-evolving concept of Spanish national identity. From the veiled satire in the early years of Franco's dictatorship to the vibrant self-expression of the post-Franco era, we will explore how filmmakers have grappled with themes of identity, tradition, regionality, gender, and social change.

This course introduces students to a variety of methods to interpret, analyze, and understand popular music and its impact on society. Each week focuses on a selected genre or thread in modern popular music, from rock and roll to hip-hop to underground and dance music. By examining these genres and threads, students are encouraged to use theoretical frameworks that help reveal the cultural and musical significance of the chosen examples. These frameworks include media theory, gender and performativity, and the critical examination of race and identity. It also focuses more broadly on how popular music propagates itself over time via its relationship to technology, cultural and subcultural movements, and political currents. Although the course does introduce and employ a few musical-analytical concepts, it is an elective course and has no prerequisites.

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is a distinctive branch of computer science dedicated to understanding the relationship between people and computers. It provides a set of techniques that enable software engineers to develop computing applications that better respond to the needs, abilities and interests of customers, clients and end-users. This course provides theoretical grounding, practical knowledge, and hands on experience of key skills needed to design and build better interfaces for computing systems.

This course introduces students to the field of Development Economics. The object of the course is to equip students with a greater understanding of the process of economic development and the challenges faced by nations and individuals to transit out of poverty. The course covers a range of economic problems in developing countries and discusses - both from a theoretical and an empirical perspective - possible strategies to overcome these problems. Topics include inequality, and poverty reduction; nutrition and poverty traps; markets for land, credit, and insurance; agricultural transformation; and evaluation of development programs and international trade.

This course introduces parallel programming and covers the following main topics: 1) Vector and superscalar processors: architecture and programming model, optimizing compilers (dependency analysis and code generation), array libraries (BLAS), parallel languages (Fortran 90). 2) Shared-memory multi-processors and multicore CPUs: architecture and programming models, optimizing compilers, thread libraries (Pthreads), parallel languages (OpenMP). 3) Distributed-memory multi-processors: architecture and programming model, performance models, message-passing libraries (MPI), parallel languages (HPF). 4) Hybrid parallel programming for clusters of mutlicore CPUs with MPI+OpenMP.

This course enables students to apply key areas of psychology in the understanding and practice of post-primary education and specifically provides a clear, reflective, and critical knowledge of areas such as adolescent development, identity development through adolescence, bully/victim problems, growth mindset, intelligence, and applied issues pertinent to bereavement, separation, and divorce.