Ireland

In this course, students are introduced to current philosophical debates about the nature of mind and its place in the natural world. Prominent theories of the mind are considered with particular attention paid to their capacity to capture the first-personal, the apparently private, and experientially rich nature of mental life.

This courses explores the nature and impacts of globalization in Africa. It focuses on the geography of HIV/AIDS, gender and development, China’s rising role in the continent, oil politics and the so called “resource curse” or paradox of plenty that Africa is the most resource rich continent in the world but also the poorest. Other topics covered included gender and the mobile phone revolution. 

The course covers aspects of physics including atoms, lasers, nuclear, and light in agriculture science. The course uses online lectures, while assessment contains lab-based experimental work and tutorials support learning.

The issue of market provision and/or state provision provides a central and recurring theme in this course. Within each policy area covered, the course investigates market failure and government failure, via for example consideration of externalities, informational problems, and an examination of the public choice perspective with respect to possible government failure. Specific topics to be covered include but are not limited to a subset of the following: resource allocation (regulated markets and/or state); taxation; distribution, inequality, and poverty; economic growth, employment, and unemployment; regulation; care (formal/paid and informal/unpaid); competition; education; health; housing; aging; agriculture; and energy. 

Social innovation has been described as the process of developing and deploying effective solutions to challenging and often systemic societal and environmental issues. This course examines patterns of social innovation against a backdrop of the great climate and biodiversity crises of our times, with cases drawn from climate justice, the circular economy, nature-based enterprise and food systems. The course critically assesses the evidence in support of social innovation and examines theory and practice – local and international - in social innovation, social purpose scaling, social value creation, and impact measurement.  Students consider the organizational settings that social innovators adopt, including social and solidarity enterprises. Students work with theory, case studies, and their own projects to identify how social innovation can respond to and even drive social-economic-political change in the current context. 

This course gives an overview of contemporary approaches to tissue and cell engineering, including stem cells, cellular signaling, biomaterial scaffolds, use of bioreactors in tissue engineering, and controlled release strategies. Students explore ethical considerations related to clinical application of tissue and cell engineering technology. Topics include stem cells, embryogenesis, cellular signaling, extracellular matrix as a scaffold, degradable biomaterials for tissue engineering, cell-material interactions, scaffold design and fabrication, controlled drug release in tissue engineering, bioreactors in tissue engineering, production of mesenchymal stem cells, industrial tissue engineering manufacturing, cartilage tissue engineering, bone tissue engineering, cardiovascular tissue engineering, corneal tissue engineering and replacement, tissue engineering of the intervertebral disc (IVD). 

This course explores, for students with and without a science background, the linkages between forests, climate (change), and carbon (as well as other greenhouse gases). Topics include forest types, tree species; environmental factors determining tree growth/health; impacts of forests on climate and ecosystems; climate predictions, expected consequences and dendro-climatology; mitigation: carbon sequestration, biomass, renewable energy, product lifecycle, conservation of existing forests and forest expansion, land-use change and context of forestry among other land-use types e.g. agricultural systems; adaptation: forest management and sustainability, forest conversion/transformation, species selection, silvicultural systems; carbon trading: reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD); international cooperation (Kyoto, Copenhagen, Madrid, Cancun, Paris etc.) and current position for Ireland. Course includes a compulsory one-day fieldtrip.

The course offers an overview of Western philosophy and analyses the questions treated in its main branches. This course studies the Greeks as the founders of the Western philosophical tradition, key texts, and ideas relating to Presocratic philosophers, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, emphasizing on metaphysical questions about the nature of reality and of the soul.  The course covers the medieval era through the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, emphasizing on his use of an Aristotelian approach to metaphysical notions of substance and soul, as well as his arguments for the existence of God. The study of modern philosophy focuses on Descartes, Hume, Kant, and Wittgenstein. In this part of the course, students explore the views of these thinkers on questions like: What is knowledge, and is it possible? How is the mind related to the body? What is meant by virtue ethics? What is the relation between language and the world?

This course provides an overview of Islamic history. It presents and discusses Islamic scriptures, doctrines, and rituals. The course demonstrates the significance and development within Islam of concepts such as prophethood, revelation, jihad, theology, law, and gender. Students develop an understanding of the contribution of Islamic civilization to human culture and examine various scholarly approaches to the study of Islam. 

The course provides instruction in agile development methodologies and promotes close collaboration between team members. The development of the project is structured as two product releases as part of the development cycle. Each week, the current state of progress is reported and discussed, both in the lectures and in the group meetings. A project mentor meets with each team weekly and will advise on setting up the team structure including the assignment of roles and responsibilities within the team and on reporting systems both internally and externally. Weekly peer code and design reviews are a core component of the delivery of the course. These are to encourage a team approach to learning and introduce the practicalities of software quality control.