Prerequisites: BUSI PS5020 Introduction to Marketing/or Professor Approval is required Students will develop analytical skills used to formulate and implement marketing driven strategies for an organization. Students will develop a deeper understanding of marketing strategies and how to implement tactics to achieve desired goals. Students will work on case study projects in both individual and a team based projects. By the end of this course you will be able to develop a marketing strategy based market assessments and company needs.
This course examines the strategic role for communication in driving organizational outcomes. It covers key aspects of communication management, including how to plan, implement and measure strategic communication initiatives. Students learn to assess organizational needs, identify stakeholders and draft messaging that speaks credibly to a variety of constituencies, both internal and external. We also emphasize fundamental business skills, such as interpreting financial reports and understanding the language of business.
Life histories and narratives don’t speak for themselves. To disclose what these have to offer, we have to analyze them. This can be true even if the teller or author of a story is making a point with her history or narrative. That is, this teller or that author is not the only interpreter of the narrative. And this is so whether it is about herself, about other people, about organizations, about movements, about whatever; whether it’s “real” or “imaginary;” whether the medium is words, images, sound, or whatever senses a “text” engages. Life histories and narratives—usually told as sequences of events, sometimes temporally sequential, maybe connected in the telling but maybe not—have to be analyzed to be understood. Put another way: How are you going to make sense of your interviews? We need to think about analytic methods to do so. This course focuses on what it means to deploy some such methods, the utility of doing so, and the importance of doing so self-consciously. Because we employ methods for substantive purposes, the course focuses on using methods for thinking about the relationship between individual lives and the social structures within which those lives are lived. That is, we learn how to develop and deploy C. Wright Mills’s “sociological imagination” through methods learned.
The course tries to achieve these ends by considering ways in which scholars and writers analyze life history and narrative information. It focuses on the utility and importance ofdifferent approaches to analyzing such information, and exposes students to the mechanics of analytic tools for carrying out such analyses. In particular, we introduce approaches used in formal social science, historical and anthropological analyses of qualitative information analysis and in not so formal social science analyses, e.g., novels! These methods/approaches can be used to reveal underlying dynamics that generate life histories and/or narratives and so deepen our understanding of specific people and their relationship to larger social and historical elements.
The purpose of this course is to provide an overview of trends and best practices in corporate communications relating to sustainability, with a particular focus on global sustainability reporting frameworks and green marketing communications. It is designed for those who hold/will hold positions in organizations with responsibilities for communicating the sustainability goals, challenges and achievements, as well as accurately and honestly communicating the environmental aspects of an organization's products and services. Increasingly, large corporations are creating c-suite roles or dedicated departments to oversee this function. More typically, multiple functions contribute information such as: Corporate Communications, Marketing, Community Affairs, Public Policy, Environmental Health & Safety, R&D, Facilities, Operations and Legal. Benefits of reporting range from building trust with stakeholders, and uncovering risks and opportunities; to contributing to stronger long-term business strategy, and creating new products and services.
What is the meaning of embodiment? For most of us, it seems this is a question we only confront when our bodies “break down,” “fail,” or “betray” us. In truth, however, it is a question we are answering with every intentional movement, feeling, impulse and desire of our conscious life. In this course, we will explore various approaches to embodiment from contemporary thinkers. We will ask what these approaches might tell us about the experience of illness and how they might inform our understanding of
care
, both of ourselves and others.
This course is designed for students interested in entrepreneurship and becoming CEO/Founders or leaders in industry as innovators and operators. The class is appropriate for those with a strong interest in new ventures or innovation at the corporate level, or for those who want to develop an entrepreneurial mindset even if you have no plans to start a business. This includes potential entrepreneurs, those interested in the financing of new ventures, working in new ventures, or a portfolio company, or in broader general management of entrepreneurial firms. Entrepreneurial topics include: the entrepreneurial journey, founders & co-founders, the art of the pitch, shaping opportunities, traditional business models, business models for the greater good, the lean startup method and the hypothesis-driven approach, technology strategy, product testing, marketing strategy, entrepreneurial marketing, venture financing and emerging developments. Academic readings, analysis of case studies, class discussions, independent exercises, reading assessments, team work, guest speakers, investor panels, weekly deliverable options and a final investor pitch are the main modalities used to help you learn and assist you on your entrepreneurial path. There are no prerequisites for this course.
Field experiments have become increasingly important ways of studying the effectiveness of political interventions, be they campaign tactics for mobilizing or persuading voters, fundraising tactics for political or charitable efforts, lobbying, recruiting volunteers, or influencing administrative or judicial outcomes through direct communication. In this course, we will discuss the logic of experimentation, its strengths and weaknesses compared to other methodologies, and the ways in which experimentation has been -- and could be -- used to investigate political phenomena. We will discuss a wide array of applications. Students will learn how to interpret and design experiments. In order to better understand the nuances of experimental design and analysis, we will roll up our sleeves and reanalyze some of the data from the weekly readings.
Global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are now at a record high, and the world’s scientific community agrees that continued unabated release of greenhouse gases will have catastrophic consequences. Many efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions, both public and private, have been underway for decades, yet it is now clear that collectively these efforts are failing, and that far more concerted efforts are necessary. In December 2015, the world’s nations agreed in Paris to take actions to limit the future increase in global temperatures well below to 2°C, while pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5°C. Achieving this goal will require mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions from all sectors, both public and private. Critical to any attempt to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions is a clear, accurate understanding of the sources and levels of greenhouse gas emissions. This course will address all facets of greenhouse gas emissions accounting and reporting and will provide students with tangible skills needed to direct such efforts in the future.
Students in this course will gain hands-on experience designing and executing greenhouse gas emissions inventories for companies, financial institutions and governments employing all necessary skills including the identification of analysis boundaries, data collection, calculation of emissions levels, and reporting of results. In-class workshops and exercises will complement papers and group assignments. A key component of this course will be critical evaluation of both existing accounting and reporting standards as well as GHG emissions reduction target setting practices.
This course will introduce many of the challenges facing carbon accounting practitioners and will require students to recommend solutions to these challenges derived through critical analysis. Classes will examine current examples of greenhouse gas reporting efforts and will allow students the opportunity to recommend improved calculation and reporting methods.
Prerequisites: BUSI PS5001 Intro to Finance and BUSI PS5003 Corporate Finance or Professor Approval required. If you have not taken PS5001 or PS5003 at Columbia University, please contact the course instructor for approval. Students will learn about the valuation of publicly traded equity securities. By the end of the semester students will be able to perform fundamental analysis (bottoms-up, firm-level, business and financial analysis), prepare pro forma financial statements, estimate free cash flows and apply valuation models.
Environmental, social and governance issues (‘ESG’) are moving to center stage for corporate boards and executive teams. This elective course complements management and operations courses by focusing on the perspective and roles of the board and C-suite of corporations, financial institutions and professional firms in addressing ESG risks as well as promoting and overseeing governance aligned with ESG principles. The course focuses on the interchange between the external legal, competitive, societal, environmental and policy ‘ecosystems’ corporations face (which vary around the world) and a company’s internal structure, operations and pressures. We will use the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the UN Global Compact Principles (which incorporate all aspects of ESG) as the central frameworks to explore the concept of a corporation’s responsibility to respect and remedy human rights and environmental harms. We will also examine the Equator Principles and other frameworks that spell out good practices for project finance and other investment decisions, and reference a wide range of the myriad indices, supplier disclosure portals and benchmarks that exist in this inter-disciplinary field. Relevant regulations, corporate law regimes and court cases will be discussed from the point of view of what business managers need to know. While most of the course will deal with companies and firms serving global, regional or national markets, several examples will deal with the question of how the ESG ecosystem affects or offers opportunities to start-ups.
This course gives students visibility into the rapidly changing communication industry and the wide range of careers available. Curated site visits take us inside world-class agencies and corporate/nonprofit organizations to see how they use strategic communication in the real world. Students gain firsthand exposure to leading practitioners while learning the dynamics of collaboration between internal and external stakeholders. Relevant coursework provides additional perspective.
This course gives students two credits of academic credit for the work they perform in such an social science oriented internships.
What are urban infrastructures that promote sustainability? Such infrastructure must reduce environmental pollution at all scales, provide necessary urban services efficiently and enhance urban resilience to multiple potential crises. Sustainable infrastructure also must promote social and economic equity and environmental justice. And sustainable infrastructure must be economically feasible. This class will use these concepts to evaluate urban infrastructure and identify challenges to making urban infrastructure sustainable. Importantly, the course will use theories of urban transitions to help identify the drivers of potential change in infrastructure development and envision the emergence of sustainable infrastructure. This class will examine these notions across the energy, transportation, water supply and waste water treatment, buildings, health and open space urban sectors.
This course emphasizes the perspectives of foundational thinkers on the evolution and dynamics of social life. Readings address key sociological questions; including the configuration of communities, social control, institutions, exchange, interaction, and culture.
This practicum course is meant to offer valuable training to students. Specifically, this practicum will mimicthe typical conditions that students would face in an internship in a large data-intense institution. Thepracticum will focus on four core elements involved in most internships: (1) Developing the intuition andskills to properly scope ambiguous project ideas; (2) practicing organizing and accessing a variety oflarge-scale data sources and formats; (3) conducting basic and advanced analysis of big data; and (4)communicating and “productizing” results and findings from the earlier steps, in things like dashboards,reports, interactive graphics, or apps. The practicum will also give students time to reflect on their work, andhow it would best translate into corporate, non-profit, start-up and other contexts.
This practicum will mimic the typical conditions that students would face in an internship in a
large data-intense institution. The practicum will focus on four core elements involved in most
internships:
• developing the intuition and skills to properly scope ambiguous project ideas;
• practicing organizing and accessing a variety of large-scale data sources and formats;
• conducting basic and advanced analysis of big data; and
• communicating and “productizing” results and findings from the earlier steps, in things
like dashboards, reports, interactive graphics, or apps.
The practicum will also give students time to reflect on their work, and how it would best
translate into corporate, non-profit, start-up and other contexts.
Students enrolled in the Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences M.A. program have a number of opportunities for internships with various organizations in New York City. Over the past three years, representatives from a number of different organizations – including ABC News, Pfizer, the Manhattan Psychiatric Center, Merrill Lynch, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation – have approached students and faculty in QMSS about the possibility of having QMSS students work as interns. Many of these internships require students to receive some sort of course credit for their work. All internships will be graded on a pass/fail basis.
This practicum course is meant to offer valuable training to students. Specifically, this practicum will mimicthe typical conditions that students would face in an internship in a large data-intense institution. Thepracticum will focus on four core elements involved in most internships: (1) Developing the intuition andskills to properly scope ambiguous project ideas; (2) practicing organizing and accessing a variety oflarge-scale data sources and formats; (3) conducting basic and advanced analysis of big data; and (4)communicating and “productizing” results and findings from the earlier steps, in things like dashboards,reports, interactive graphics, or apps. The practicum will also give students time to reflect on their work, andhow it would best translate into corporate, non-profit, start-up and other contexts.
This practicum course is meant to offer valuable training to students. Specifically, this practicum will mimicthe typical conditions that students would face in an internship in a large data-intense institution. The practicum will focus on four core elements involved in most internships: (1) Developing the intuition andskills to properly scope ambiguous project ideas; (2) practicing organizing and accessing a variety oflarge-scale data sources and formats; (3) conducting basic and advanced analysis of big data; and (4)communicating and “productizing” results and findings from the earlier steps, in things like dashboards,reports, interactive graphics, or apps. The practicum will also give students time to reflect on their work, andhow it would best translate into corporate, non-profit, start-up and other contexts.
Fashion’s consistent ranking among the top 3 global polluters has become a decades old fact struggling to gain a proportionate response among the brand startup and sourcing community. With industry revenues set to exceed $1 trillion, there is an opportunity to critically address existing revenue models predicated on traditional metrics, such as constant growth, and singular bottom lines. The course attempts to create a nexus between the fashion entrepreneur and systems thinker to explore strategic solutions that address sustainability though an environmental, social and economic lens. The aim is to foster a mindful, yet critical discourse on fashion industry initiatives, past and present, and to practice various tools that help transition existing organizations and incubate new startups towards sustainable outcomes.
Students in the Master of Science in Sustainability Science will encounter a range of scientific problems throughout their Science-specific courses that require a strong foundational level of mathematical and statistical knowledge. In addition, course-work will involve computer coding to read, analyze, and visualize data sets. This course provides an overview of essential mathematical concepts, an introduction to new concepts in statistics and data analysis, and provides computer coding skills that will prepare students for coursework in the Master of Science in Sustainability Science program as well as to succeed in a career having a sustainability science component. In addition to an overview of essential mathematical concepts, the skills gained in this course include statistics, and coding applied to data analysis in the Sustainability Sciences. Many of these skills are broadly applicable to science-related professions, and will be useful to those having careers involving interaction with scientists, managing projects utilizing scientific analysis, and developing science-based policy. Students enrolled in this course will learn through lectures, class discussion, and hands-on exercises that address the following topics: Review of mathematical concepts in calculus, trigonometry, and linear algebra; Mathematical concepts related to working on a spherical coordinate system (such as that for the Earth); Probability and statistics, including use of probability density functions to calculate expectations, hypothesis testing, and the concept of experimental uncertainty; Concepts in data analysis, including linear least squares, time-series analysis, parameter uncertainties, and analysis of fit; Computer coding skills, including precision of variables, arrays and data structures, input/output, flow control, and subroutines, and coding tools to produce basic X-Y plots as well as images of data fields on a global map.
The Proseminar fulfills two separate goals within the Free-Standing Masters Program in Sociology. The first is to provide exposure, training, and support specific to the needs of Masters students preparing to move on to further graduate training or the job market. The second goal is to provide a forum for scholars and others working in qualitative reserach, public sociology, and the urban environment.
This two-semester sequence supports students through the process of finding a fieldwork site, beginning the field work required to plan for and develop a Masters thesis, and the completion of their Masters thesis.
This seminar gives you an opportunity to do original sociological research with the support of a faculty member, a teaching assistant, and your fellow classmates.
Social scientists need to engage with natural language processing (NLP) approaches that are found in computer science, engineering, AI, tech and in industry. This course will provide an overview of natural language processing as it is applied in a number of domains. The goal is to gain familiarity with a number of critical topics and techniques that use text as data, and then to see how those NLP techniques can be used to produce social science research and insights. This course will be hands-on, with several large-scale exercises. The course will start with an introduction to Python and associated key NLP packages and github. The course will then cover topics like language modeling; part of speech tagging; parsing; information extraction; tokenizing; topic modeling; machine translation; sentiment analysis; summarization; supervised machine learning; and hidden Markov models. Prerequisites are basic probability and statistics, basic linear algebra and calculus. The course will use Python, and so if students have programmed in at least one software language, that will make it easier to keep up with the course.
The ability to communicate effectively is a key competency for professionals. As emerging industry leaders, understanding the audience, framing the message, and using media channels to achieve specified objectives are critical skills, whether written or spoken. Through a variety of written and oral assignments, students learn to apply foundational communication theory to inform and engage stakeholders. The first part of the course focuses on written deliverables, emphasizing audience-framed messaging and developing simple, clear and persuasive content. The second part transitions to enhancing spoken delivery and presentation skills where students gain experience in speechwriting, storytelling and using data visualization to motivate an audience to act.
Prerequisites: Undergraduate Statistics This course introduces students to basic spatial analytic skills. It covers introductory concepts and tools in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and database management. As well, the course introduces students to the process of developing and writing an original spatial research project. Topics to be covered include: social theories involving space, place and reflexive relationships; social demography concepts and databases; visualizing social data using geographic information systems; exploratory spatial data analysis of social data and spatially weighted regression models, spatial regression models of social data, and space-time models. Use of open-source software (primarily the R software package) will be taught as well.
This course is intended to provide a detailed tour on how to access, clean, “munge” and organize data, both big and small. (It should also give students a flavor of what would be expected of them in a typical data science interview.) Each week will have simple, moderate and complex examples in class, with code to follow. Students will then practice additional exercises at home. The end point of each project would be to get the data organized and cleaned enough so that it is in a data-frame, ready for subsequent analysis and graphing. Therefore, no analysis or visualization (beyond just basic tables and plots to make sure everything was correctly organized) will be taught; and this will free up substantial time for the “nitty-gritty” of all of this data wrangling.
Prerequisites: two semesters of a rigorous, molecularly-oriented introductory biology course (such as UNC2005 and UN2006), or the instructor's permission. This course will cover the basic concepts underlying the mechanisms of innate and adaptive immunity, as well as key experimental methods currently used in the field. To keep it real, the course will include clinical correlates in such areas as infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, cancer, and transplantation. Taking this course won't turn you into an immunologist, but it may make you want to become one, as was the case for several students last year. After taking the course, you should be able to read the literature intelligently in this rapidly advancing field.
Prerequisites: basic probability and statistics, basic linear algebra, and calculus This course will provide a comprehensive overview of machine learning as it is applied in a number of domains. Comparisons and contrasts will be drawn between this machine learning approach and more traditional regression-based approaches used in the social sciences. Emphasis will also be placed on opportunities to synthesize these two approaches. The course will start with an introduction to Python, the scikit-learn package and GitHub. After that, there will be some discussion of data exploration, visualization in matplotlib, preprocessing, feature engineering, variable imputation, and feature selection. Supervised learning methods will be considered, including OLS models, linear models for classification, support vector machines, decision trees and random forests, and gradient boosting. Calibration, model evaluation and strategies for dealing with imbalanced datasets, n on-negative matrix factorization, and outlier detection will be considered next. This will be followed by unsupervised techniques: PCA, discriminant analysis, manifold learning, clustering, mixture models, cluster evaluation. Lastly, we will consider neural networks, convolutional neural networks for image classification and recurrent neural networks. This course will primarily us Python. Previous programming experience will be helpful but not requisite. Prerequisites: basic probability and statistics, basic linear algebra, and calculus.
Machine learning algorithms continue to advance in their capacity to predict outcomes and rival human judgment in a variety of settings. This course is designed to offer insight into advanced machine learning models, including Deep Learning, Recurrent Neural Networks, Adversarial Neural Networks, Time Series models and others. Students are expected to have familiarity with using Python, the scikit-learn package, and github. The other half of the course will be devoted to students working in key substantive areas, where advanced machine learning will prove helpful -- areas like computer vision and images, text and natural language processing, and tabular data. Students will be tasked to develop team projects in these areas and they will develop a public portfolio of three (or four) meaningful projects. By the end of the course, students will be able to show their work by launching their models in live REST APIs and web-applications.
This is a practice-based course designed to introduce students to ombuds work, and to help students develop the skills, knowledge, and attitudes required to succeed in the role of an organizational ombuds. Underlying theory will be explored in the context of practice. This course will emphasize the Standards of Practice and Code of Ethics put forth by the International Ombudsman Association (IOA). Upon successful completion of the course, students will be fundamentally prepared to apply for entry-level positions in the field of organizational ombuds and should have the requisite knowledge base to sit for the IOA’s Certified Organizational Ombuds Practitioner exam.
Note for NECR Students
: This course is offered as an elective in the Negotiation and Conflict Resolution (NECR) program. The course builds upon students’ negotiation and mediation skills and self-awareness as a practitioner. It is highly recommended that students complete PS5105, PS5107 and PS5124 prior to enrolling in this course.
An overview of the major developments in the art and industry of cinema in Latin America, ranging from its earliest days to the most recent works of the digital era. The interaction of Latin American filmmakers with international movements such as neorealism, modernism, cinema vérité, and postmodernism will be addressed. Among the filmmakers to be studied are Luis Buñuel, Glauber Rocha, Raúl Ruiz and Lucrecia Martel. Students will discover the major industrial tends as well as artistic currents that have defined Latin American cinema, as well as have the chance to analyze a number of key works both in terms of their varying approaches to filmmaking as well as their resonance with political/social/historical issues.
Students will have hands-on learning experiences using camera controls and techniques and optics to accentuate psychological and atmospheric aspects surrounding the subject. Additionally, through visual storytelling, composition and basic color theory students will understand how to incorporate theories of cinematic language to emphasize the mood and perception of the story. This course will cover basic lighting techniques for the interview in a hands-on practical experience that will strengthen participants’ camera, cinematography and storytelling skills. Students will complete the course by creating a final short video, having collaboratively conceptualized, filmed, interviewed and shot the necessary B-roll to structure a basic visual storytelling piece with the use of image, sound and basic editing.
Foundational ERM course. Addresses all major ERM activities: risk framework; risk governance; risk identification; risk quantification; risk decision making; and risk messaging. Introduces an advanced yet practical ERM approach based on the integration of ERM and value-based management that supports integration of ERM into decision making. Provides a context to understand the differences between (a) value-based ERM; (b) traditional ERM; and (c) traditional "silo" risk management.
Foundational ERM course. Addresses all major ERM activities: risk framework; risk governance; risk identification; risk quantification; risk decision making; and risk messaging. Introduces an advanced yet practical ERM approach based on the integration of ERM and value-based management that supports integration of ERM into decision making. Provides a context to understand the differences between (a) value-based ERM; (b) traditional ERM; and (c) traditional "silo" risk management.
A lecture and discussion course on the basics of feature-length screenwriting. Using written texts and films screened for class, the course explores the nature of storytelling in the feature-length film and the ways in which it is an extension and an evolution of other dramatic and narrative forms. A basic part of Film’s first year program, the course guides students in developing the plot, characters, conflict and theme of a feature-length story that they will write, as a treatment, by the end of the semester.
The insurance business is an outward facing business built around selling products to individual and business consumers. Therefore, insurance service providers, like all sophisticated consumer-driven businesses, must carefully and constantly assess their markets and strategies to remain relevant in a highly competitive environment. From consumer data analytics, to proper risk pricing, to efficient distribution channels, to navigating social media, to managing the highly regulated nature of insurance sales and distribution, insurance providers operate in a highly competitive environment that rewards discipline as well as innovation. Successful companies identify and make tough decisions to correct underperforming parts of their portfolios and they temper their approaches to new products where loss costs and pricing requirements are uncertain. They innovate by thinking first about new and evolving loss exposures their customers face and develop insurance products and services that respond. They focus on the client experience through the entire insurance process and create specialized/differentiated products and services to either avoid commoditization or leverage it, depending on the needs of that market and the strengths of that insurer.
The focus of this core course, in MSIM’s Insurance Rotation area of study, will include the history and the evolution of the insurance industry across the three main insurance sectors, i.e. property/casualty, life and health. The course will address factors that drive company investment in and/or withdrawal from specific products and markets and the complexities around developing, pricing and selling a product for which costs are determined only after claims have been paid – something that often occurs many years after the policy was sold. The course will consider how providers are expanding beyond traditional products into related services and how technology is increasing innovation around product design and marketing.
TBD
This course will provide an overview of the wealth management profession,
including various business models and the role of the advisor within each. Guest
speakers from across the wealth management profession will discuss the various
business models, key trends, including the intersection of technology and wealth
management and the unique nature of each client planner relationship. This course
will also highlight additional services that advisors are offering clients in order to
provide a full suite of solutions. In addition, students will discuss the role and
function of family offices, the scope of services they offer and best practices to
managing a family office.
This course is designed to provide students with introductory knowledge and basic skills they will need to understand and apply as they progress through the program. Students receive an overview of key topics that will be covered in greater detail through core courses and electives during subsequent terms. Each class session provides a primer on a specific area of vital importance, including construction techniques, legal issues, contracts, blueprint reading, scheduling, sustainability, claims and more. Upon completion students will be familiar with basic concepts, terminology and procedures associated with the industry, and well prepared to study these subjects in greater depth.