An examination of the legal issues and challenges confronting today’s technology executives. The course covers copyright, patent infringement, outsourcing contracts, electronic commerce law, intellectual property, and methods of establishing and monitoring legal policies as they relate to the use and security of current and emerging technologies. Course content may be amended at any time in response to changes in legislation as well as developments in the industry.
This seminar introduces graduate students to central concepts and approaches from linguistic anthropology and related socio-linguistic fields to analyze the dynamism of gender, sexuality and race in a cross-cultural and global context. In this course we probe the intricacies of how language and other embodied forms of communication are key to socializing and practices ways of being, performing and embodying gender, sexuality, and culture, with particular attention to the intersections with racial formation, indigeneity, coloniality and nationalism.
Strategic advocacy is defined as establishing personal and functional influence by means of cultivating alliances and defining opportunities adding value to the revenues and profits of any organization. This course focuses on the processes and competencies necessary for initiating strategically focused technology-related business conversations. Particular attention is given to the transitions in focus and mindsets necessary for moving from a technical/functional to a business model orientation. Conceptual frameworks, research, and practical applications are part of the design. Topics include: the political economy of exercising executive influence; expert and strategic mindsets; strategic learning and planning; and mapping the political territory. Students will apply theory to their own career related challenges.
Since Mbembe's influential 2003 article 'Necropolitics', there has been a realignment of analytical concern in the study of biopower and its operations, toward a more attentive tracing of the full extent of sovereign violence, the politics of the dead and their continuing postmortem circulation. What were the historical conditions that underwrote this shift in concern, and what have been the effects on how the relations of the dead and the living are imagined and understood? We'll start the class with Mbembe's recent book 'Necropolitics' and will trace its genealogy and the responses to it. We'll read work by Foucault and Agamben on biopolitics, but we'll also look at more recent interventions including texts by Alexander Weheliye and Christen A. Smith, searching in this way to approach the necropolitics of ongoing and historical political violence, as well as ways to take account of the perduring lives of the dead.
This course will lead participants through a series of case studies of environmental contamination of water and soil, both natural and man-made, from a perspective of their contribution to the global burden of disease. Participants will critically examine datasets documenting toxic exposure in developing countries and around New York City. Participants will have the opportunity to deploy some field kits and compare their results to laboratory measurements. An emphasis on empowerment through measurement, mapping, and sharing of information will lead to a discussion of regulation, policies, and mitigation.
Energy Management is the cornerstone of any sustainability initiative. The generation, distribution, and use of energy has a profound, continuous, and global impact on natural resources, societal structure, and geopolitics. How energy is used has significant repercussions on an organizations cash flow and profitability. For these reasons, energy issues tend to be the fulcrum upon which sustainability programs hinge. The ability to identify and articulate organizational benefits from energy savings tied to efficiency improvements and renewable energy projects is a requisite skill set for all sustainability managers. This course will provide real-world information on energy management issues from a practitioner's perspective. Through lectures, problem sets, and readings students will learn how to manage energy audits, analyze building energy performance, and evaluate the energy use and financial impacts of potential capital and operations improvements to building systems. The class will focus on understanding energy issues from a building owner’s perspective, with discussions also examining energy issues from the perspective of utility companies, energy generators, and policy makers. Best practice in energy management will always involve some level of complex engineering to survey existing conditions and predict energy savings from various improvement options. Sustainability managers need to understand how to manage and quality control these analyses and to translate to decision makers the opportunity they reveal. This course seeks to empower students to do that by providing an understanding of building systems and methods for quantitatively analyzing the potential benefit of various energy improvements.
This course provides students with a solid hands-on foundation in BIM (Building Information Modeling) and other technologies that are revolutionizing the way 21st century construction projects are delivered. Starting from the Owner’s perspective, the class sessions will explore the benefits of BIM tools/methods as used by design teams, construction managers and sub-contractors. Students work with actual industry tools to create BIM Models that extract quantities for estimation purposes, link models to construction schedules (4D simulations), generate clash reports, and effectively communicate 3D site logistics plans. Once a BIM backbone is established, discussions will lead into and highlight: advanced applications, integration opportunities, responsibilities/contractual theories and the introduction of other 3rd Party Software. This course is a recommended companion course to CNAD PS5500, the Capstone Project. Students enrolling in the course are required to have their own notebook PC meeting the noted specifications.
Prerequisites: at least four semesters of Latin, or the equivalent. Intensive review of Latin syntax with translation of English sentences and paragraphs into Latin.
This course will familiarize each student with the knowledge that is required to effectively utilize the contract as a tool to manage a construction project. Through a series of lectures, different topics as they relate to contract management and administration will be discussed each week. The focus of the course will be understanding key contract terms and how to apply them when managing an active construction project. Additionally, the course will focus on understanding how to manage claims and disputes, concentrating on claims related to schedule delay and productivity losses.
Whatever its size, scope, or funding, every nonprofit organization has a governing body authorized to exercise power on behalf of the community it serves, in furtherance of its nonprofit mission. In today’s environment of rapidly increasing transparency combined with the growth of the nonprofit sector, it is critical for nonprofit managers to understand how to lead and govern effectively. This Nonprofit Governance course is designed to prepare students to develop, manage, and work effectively with governing boards of directors and trustees, all of whom have the shared goal of meeting the mission of an organization. Topics include: (1) the work of the board, including legal, ethical and fiduciary oversight; strategic thinking and planning; ensuring resources; (2) the stakeholders involved in governance of an organization, including the board (composition and structure) and shared leadership with other staff and management; and (3) board culture, including board development, board dynamics, meetings, and board engagement.
Whatever its size, scope, or funding, every nonprofit organization has a governing body authorized to exercise power on behalf of the community it serves, in furtherance of its nonprofit mission. In today’s environment of rapidly increasing transparency combined with the growth of the nonprofit sector, it is critical for nonprofit managers to understand how to lead and govern effectively. This Nonprofit Governance course is designed to prepare students to develop, manage, and work effectively with governing boards of directors and trustees, all of whom have the shared goal of meeting the mission of an organization. Topics include: (1) the work of the board, including legal, ethical and fiduciary oversight; strategic thinking and planning; ensuring resources; (2) the stakeholders involved in governance of an organization, including the board (composition and structure) and shared leadership with other staff and management; and (3) board culture, including board development, board dynamics, meetings, and board engagement.
TBA
Students in the MA in Biotechnology Program at Columbia commonly go on to pursue careers in the biopharmaceutical industry. The departmental training focus is technical. However, a basic understanding of management principles can be highly beneficial for optimizing job performance as well as for job advancement, and is commonly a challenging new skill to be mastered by new technical hires in the biopharmaceutical industry. This course has two components: 1) a survey of the basic elements of management education and 2) a series of actual cases taken from the biopharmaceutical industry which will allow students to see how the basic management principles they have learned are applied. The cases cover a range of business areas with an emphasis on the effects of business decisions on R&D operations and productivity. Cases will involve strategies for R&D management, strategies for business operation/expansion, issues of licensing /acquisition versus in house discovery of new products, generics versus brand name proprietary drug businesses, managing mergers and acquisitions and entrepreneurship. Cases will be rigorously discussed and debated in class. There is no single route to good management practice or corporate success, so in many instances diametrically opposed opinions will both have merit. As some students will have had workplace exposure, students should bring such experience and knowledge to case discussions. The course will thus be in good part taught using the Socratic Method.
This is an interdisciplinary workshop for scientists, future NGO workers and journalists seeking skills in communicating 21st-century global science to the public. Scientists will be given journalism skills; journalists will learn how to use science as the basis of their story-telling. The course is designed to give students exercises and real-world experiences in producing feature stories on global science topics. While most scientists and international affairs professionals have been trained to write in the style of peer-reviewed journals, we will focus on journalism techniques, learning how to translate global science into accessible true stories that reach wide audiences. Science is performed by passionate individuals who use their intelligence and determination to seek answers from nature. By telling their histories and uncovering the drama of discovery, we believe that there are ways for science to be successfully communicated to readers who might otherwise fear it.
This course enables students to understand the impact of IT on an organization’s transformative objectives. Students learn how to integrate IT as the key driver for business process change and for continuous improvement in incremental gains and for selective reengineering to effectuate substantial breakthroughs in process performance. Students will develop an in-depth understanding of how technology can have a push-effect on an organization’s processes and of the factors that must be in-synch to facilitate such an effect, e.g., organizational desire for change, corporate culture, and the strategic role that IT leaders must play in working together with the lines of business to effectuate this change.
Prerequisites: three semesters of Biology or the instructors permission. The course examines current knowledge and potential medical applications of pluripotent stem cells (embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells), direct conversions between cell types and adult, tissue-specific stem cells (concentrating mainly on hematopoietic and gut stem cells as leading paradigms). A basic lecture format will be supplemented by presentations and discussions of research papers. Recent reviews and research papers, together with extensive instructor notes, will be used in place of a textbook. SCE and TC students may register for this course, but they must first obtain the written permission of the instructor, by filling out a paper Registration Adjustment Form (Add/Drop form). The form can be downloaded at the URL below, but must be signed by the instructor and returned to the office of the registrar.
http://registrar.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/content/reg-adjustment.pdf
APPLIED ANALYTICS FRAMEWORKS & METHODS I
APPLIED ANALYTICS FRAMEWORKS & METHODS I
TBA
TBA
TBA
A multitude of approaches guide the practitioner when faced with a problem. In conflict resolution, these approaches stem from a range of disciplines, whether from psychology, social psychology, political science, international relations, clinical psychology or even from quantum theory and the latest advances in neuroscience. From this palette of theories, frameworks, and models, the avid and adequately equipped practitioner is able to engage with the conflicts arising from various situations. Ideally, he/she is able to prevent, reduce, mitigate or to de-escalate the conflict to such a degree that actors are able to constructively engage in handling their issues. The competence to understand the drivers and triggers of conflict, and the motives that actors have to engage in conflict is derived from the practitioner’s capacity and capability to be flexible, adaptable, and critical in deploying the knowledge and tools appropriate to resolve any conflict, whether international, communal, organizational or interpersonal. Using a combination of analysis and case studies, this course explores the intersection of theory and analysis, covering the various concepts and frameworks available in the field and applying them to current situations. The critical engagement with the discipline allows students to improve their critical thinking skills, asking a range of questions to appraise the validity of each introduced concept and model, thereby reflecting proactively on whether or not a theory is useful and applicable in explaining the myriad phenomena emerging from a conflict. Knowing when a theory is advantageous to allow for the investigation into what drives, triggers, and motivates the behaviors, attitudes, or emotions of conflict parties immerses students into the reality and practicality of dealing with complex issues and the pitfalls of making recommendations short of viable entry points for leveraging peace and bringing a potentially protracted conflict to a different pathway. The acquired competences are applicable not only towards the program, but also beyond the program as students will be empowered to reflect critically on a text, understand the internal and external validity of a theory, circumvent logical errors, focus on concise and cohesive line of argumentation, and apply results-based recommendations. These skills and competences are applicable to any position requiring analytical, writing, and presentation skills. This course builds on and expands the learnings from PS5101. It is a core course, allo
Prerequisites: At least one semester of calculus. A calculus-based introduction to probability theory. Topics covered include random variables, conditional probability, expectation, independence, Bayes rule, important distributions, joint distributions, moment generating functions, central limit theorem, laws of large numbers and Markovs inequality.
Prerequisites: STAT GR5203 or the equivalent, and two semesters of calculus. Calculus-based introduction to the theory of statistics. Useful distributions, law of large numbers and central limit theorem, point estimation, hypothesis testing, confidence intervals, maximum likelihood, likelihood ratio tests, nonparametric procedures, theory of least squares and analysis of variance.