This course will examine Japanese architecture and urban planning from the mid-19th century to the present. We will address topics such as the establishment of an architectural profession along western lines in the late 19th century, the emergence of a modernist movement in the 1920's, the use of biological metaphors and the romanticization of technology in the theories and designs of the Metabolist Group, and the shifting significance of pre-modern Japanese architectural practices for modern architects. There will be an emphasis on the complex relationship between architectural practice and broader political and social change in Japan.
Ray optics, matrix formulation, wave effects, interference, Gaussian beams, Fourier optics, diffraction, image formation, electromagnetic theory of light, polarization and crystal optics, coherence, guided wave and fiber optics, optical elements, photons, selected topics in nonlinear optics.
The use of multinuclear NMR spectroscopy in the determination of the structures of inorganic molecules and the use of dynamic NMR spectroscopy (variable temperature NMR and magnetization transfer techniques) to provide information concerned with reaction mechanisms.
The fundamentals of database design and application development using databases: entity-relationship modeling, logical design of relational databases, relational data definition and manipulation languages, SQL, XML, query processing, physical database tuning, transaction processing, security. Programming projects are required.
Develops and applies non-equilibrium thermodynamics for modeling of transport phenomena in fluids and their mixtures. Continuum balances of mass, energy and momentum for pure fluids; non-equilibrium thermodynamic development of Newtons law of viscosity and Fouriers law; applications (conduction dominated energy transport, forced and free convection energy transport in fluids); balance laws for fluid mixtures; non-equilibrium thermodynamic development of Ficks law; applications (diffusion-reaction problems, analogy between energy and mass transport processes, transport in electrolyte solutions, sedimentation).
Advanced Business Chinese II is the continuation of Advanced Business Chinese I, both of which are designed to help Columbia students who have achieved the advanced level of proficiency in Chinese use the language to communicate effectively in professional contexts. Topics to be discussed include, but are not limited to, the concept of Face, Guanxi/Interpersonal obligations, Chinese modesty and humility, and Chinese style of negotiation and decision making.
Stress and deformation formulation in two-and three-dimensional solids; viscoelastic and plastic material in one and two dimensions energy methods.
Advanced senior-level/MS/PhD course covering interaction of laser light with matter in both classical and quantum domains. First half introduces microscopic origin of optical nonlinearities through formal derivation of nonlinear susceptibilities, emphasis on second- and third-order optical processes. Topics include Maxwell's wave equation, and nonlinear optical processes such as second-harmonic, difference frequency generation, four-wave mixing, and self-phase modulation, including various applications of processes such as frequency conversion, and optical parametric amplifiers and oscillators. Second half describes two-level atomic systems and quantization of electromagnetic field. Descriptions of coherent, Fock, and squeezed states of light discussed and techniques to generate such states outlined.
Elastic stresses at a crack; energy and stress intensity criteria for crack growth; effect of plastic zone at the crack; fracture testing applications. Fatigue characterization by stress-life and strain-life; damage index; crack propagation; fail safe and safe life analysis.
Overview of composite materials, including history, background, and manufacturing processes. Macro-mechanics: anisotropic elasticity and stress transformation. Micro-mechanics: Rule of Mixture, Composites Cylinder Model (CCM) and other models. Macro-mechanics: Classic Lamination Theory (CLT). Hygrothermal effects, residual stresses, Composite mechanical testing, fabrication. Failure modes and lamina-based failure theories. Bending and Buckling of composite plates. ICME of Composites (nano-, micro-, meso- and macro-scale analysis, experimental validation, process modeling, integration).
Design and implementation of operating systems. Topics include process management, process synchronization and interprocess communication, memory management, virtual memory, interrupt handling, processor scheduling, device management, I/O, and file systems. Case study of the UNIX operating system. A programming project is required.
Introduction to computer networks and the technical foundations of the Internet, including applications, protocols, local area networks, algorithms for routing and congestion control, security, elementary performance evaluation. Several written and programming assignments required.
Boltzmann’s entropy hypothesis and its restatement to calculate the Helmholtz and Gibbs free energies and the grand potential. Applications to interfaces, liquid crystal displays, polymeric materials, crystalline solids, heat capacity and electrical conductivity of crystalline materials, fuel cell solid electrolytes, rubbers, surfactants, molecular self assembly, ferroelectricity. Computational methods for molecular systems. Monte Carlo (MC) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation methods. MC method applied to liquid-gas and ferromagnetic phase transitions. Deterministic MD simulations of isolated gases and liquids. Stochastic MD simulation methods.
This seminar considers the difference gender makes in interpreting ancient Christian texts, ideas, and practices. Topics will include gender hierarchy and homoeroticism, prophecy and authority, outsiders’ views of Christianity, bodily pieties such as martyrdom and asceticism, and gender politics in the establishment of church offices. Emphasis will be placed on close readings of primary sources and selected scholarly framings of these sources.
In viewing historical films and media works, we often grapple with the question of historical accuracy, and whether visual media is suited to the task of historical accounts, but another question we could ask is: Of what is film a history? This course will examine Korean history through cinema, and Korean cinema through history, by viewing films from various time periods that depict moments in Korean history.
Introduction to the principles, methods and tools necessary to manage design and construction processes. Elements of planning, estimating, scheduling, bidding and contractual relationships. Valuation of project cash flows. Critical path method. Survey of construction procedures. Cost control and effectiveness. Field supervision.
A survey of the most influential literary theories of the twentieth century, this seminar will discuss seminal contributions to hermeneutics, psychoanalysis, structuralism, deconstruction, discourse analysis, and gender theory. Each section will juxtapose two representative authors whose texts either complement or contradict one another. Based on close readings of exemplary texts, we will explore basic concepts of these theories and examine their intersections and differences. A second focal point of the seminar will be on applications of theory to literature. We will analyze their reformulation as methodologies in literary studies and discuss how they influenced different approaches to literature. The aim of the seminar will ultimately be to scrutinize critically these “applications” of theory to literature. Readings and discussions in English. No prior knowledge of literary theories required.
This course prepares students to understand, analyze, and develop policies and procedures to address sustainability issues faced by urban centers in the developed and developing world, their decision-makers, and inhabitants. Enrolled students are assumed to have had no previous in-depth exposure to sustainable urban development and urban planning. By the end of the course, students will have learned the following skills necessary to develop strategies and related actions to enhance sustainability of cities: identify and support good practices in green and efficient urban development and planning; develop policies and foster technologies used to promote energy efficiency and reduced GHG emissions from buildings and transportation; develop policies and foster technologies necessary to ensure access to clean water; develop policies and foster technologies necessary for the effective collection, disposal, and possible re-use of waste; create approaches to climate change adaptation measures undertaken by cities; develop, track, and analyze sustainability metrics and indicators for urban centers. This course can also be counted toward Area 1: Integrative Sustainability Management.
Current methods of construction, cost-effective designs, maintenance, safe work environment. Design functions, constructability, site and environmental issues.
Contractual relationships in the engineering and construction industry and the actions that result in disputes. Emphasis on procedures required to prevent disputes and resolve them quickly and cost-effectively. Case studies requiring oral and written presentations.
Interpretations of civil society and the foundations of political order according to the two main traditions of political thought--contraction and Aristotelian. Readings include works by Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Montesquieu, Hume, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Saint-Simon, Tocqueville, Marx, and Mill.
Capstone practicum where teams develop strategies and business plans for a new enterprise in the engineering and construction industry. Identification of attractive market segments and locations; development of an entry strategy; acquisition of financing, bonding and insurance; organizational design; plans for recruiting and retaining personnel; personnel compensation/incentives. Invited industry speakers. Priority given to graduate students in Construction Engineering and Management.
Examination of the fundamentals of infrastructure planning and management, with a focus on the application of rational methods that support infrastructure decision-making. Institutional environment and issues. Decision-making under certainty and uncertainty. Capital budgeting and financing. Group decision processes. Elements of decision and finance theory. Priority given to graduate students in Construction Engineering and Management.
Introduction to financial mechanics of public and private real-estate development and management. Working from perspectives of developers, investors and taxpayers, financing of several types of real estate and infrastructure projects are covered. Basics of real-estate accounting and finance, followed by in-depth studies of private, public, and public/private-partnership projects and their financial structures. Focused on U.S.-based financing, with some international practices introduced and explored. Financial risks and rewards, and pertinent capital markets and their financing roles. Impacts and incentives of various government programs, such as LEED certification and solar power tax credits. Case studies provide opportunity to compare U.S. practices to several international methods.
Design and analysis of unit operations employed in chemical engineering separations. Fundamental aspects of single and multistaged operations using both equilibrium and rate-based methods. Examples include distillation, absorption and stripping, extraction, membranes, crystallization, bioseparations, and environmental applications.
Fundamentals and applications of key physicochemical processes relevant to water quality engineering (such as water treatment, waste water treatment/reuse/recycling, desalination) and the natural environment (e.g. lakes, rivers, groundwater).
Delivery of infrastructure assets through Public-Private Partnerships (PPP). Value for Money analysis. Project organization. Infrastructure sector characterization. Risk analysis, allocation and mitigation. Monte Carlo methods and Real Options. Project finance and financing instruments. Case studies from transportation, water supply and energy sectors.
Prerequisites: elementary organic chemistry. Introduction to theory and practice of NMR spectroscopy. Instrumental aspects, basic NMR theory, NOE, and a survey of 2D methods are covered.
Digital transformation optimizes day-to-day operations to provide maximum performance in Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) workflows. Focuses on broadening knowledge of AEC data leading to building data management. Use of open data sets from the design, construction, and operations of buildings to learn and practice data management and its applied use. Major technical topics include Project Management Information System (PMIS) and Facility Management (FM), leading to Digital Twin data management, data processing, and data visualization.
This course will cover the science needed to understand hydrology, the link between hydrology and climate, and why climate change will affect the hydrologic cycle. It will then look at what changes have occurred in the past, and what changes are projected for the future and how these changes may affect other sectors, such as agriculture. The final module of the course will look at adaptation measures to adapt to climate change. The course will be formatted to be a mixture of lectures and seminars, with the lecture portion used to introduce scientific concepts and the seminar portion to discuss and evaluate the readings assigned. At the end of this course, students will the hydrologic cycle and its connection to climate, how changes in climate have affected/will affect how much water is available on land, how water impacts ecosystem services, and how to diagnose the cause of a climate-related water problem and develop solutions to address it.
Introduction to modern tools in functional analysis that are used in the analysis of deterministic and stochastic partial differential equations and in the analysis of numerical methods: metric and normed spaces. Banach space of continuous functions, measurable spaces, the contraction mapping theorem, Banach and Hilbert spaces bounded linear operators on Hilbert spaces and their spectral decomposition, and time permitting distributions and Fourier transforms.
Introduces and employs various tools, concepts, and analytical frameworks to enhance students’ ability to define and analyze leadership issues. In-depth analysis of the leadership literature and practical situational immersion using industry case studies. Multiple guest lecturers from the private and public sectors throughout the semester. Term project exploring leadership challenges in the design and construction industry.
The world’s most influential living film director and the most impactful creator of
popular culture in the last quarter of the Twentieth Century is a Jewish-American. Steven
Spielberg’s uncanny grasp of visual storytelling and his auteurist signature can be found
on every film he has directed, as well as many he has produced. This course will analyze
the content and formal construction of Spielberg’s films by following their thematic
through-lines – family ties (strained and healthy), the implacable threat, humanity at war,
man vs. the natural world, the child’s perspective, Jewish identity and others – in films as
disparate as Jaws and The Color Purple.
Each class meeting will include a complete screening of a feature film directed by Steven
Spielberg, as well as clips of related films by Spielberg. Readings will include critical
essays, histories, and interviews which elaborate on in-class screenings and cover
additional topics and films. Written assignments will be three analytical essays which
will encourage critical thinking, close analysis of film texts, and independent research
beyond the materials presented in class.
Prerequisites: MATH GU4061 or MATH UN3007 A rigorous introduction to the concepts and methods of mathematical probability starting with basic notions and making use of combinatorial and analytic techniques. Generating functions. Convergence in probability and in distribution. Discrete probability spaces, recurrence and transience of random walks. Infinite models, proof of the law of large numbers and the central limit theorem. Markov chains.
In this course, we will not only analyze some of the key antisemitic texts and ideas of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but also consider the impact of antisemitism on Jewish lived experience in the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe and the ways in which Jewish people and communities have responded to and confronted antisemitism in all three regions.
Antisemitism permeates the histories of nationalism, colonialism, and religion in ways that cross borders and cultures. Often, predominantly European phenomena – from the myth of ritual murder to fascist racism – have meaningfully informed Middle Eastern and North African antisemitism. Jewish resistance movements in all three regions, meanwhile, have relied and built upon one another: Middle Eastern Jews called upon European Jewish leaders to help them confront the anti-Jewish policies of colonial bureaucracies, and North African Jewish partisans rescued European Jewish refugees during World War II. These regions, however, are typically studied in isolation from one another. In this course, we will seek to arrive at an understanding of the interconnectedness of these histories.
Over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Jewish life in these regions was radically transformed. Many longstanding Jewish communities – whole worlds of culture and human life – were ultimately destroyed. In our own time of rampant, well-documented antisemitism, it is especially important to learn about not only the history of antisemitism itself, but also the myriad successes and failures of those who, at every moment, found ways to resist. By learning about the past, we inherit the collective wisdom of those who have engaged with these issues before us; this may, in turn, help us to make well-informed, thoughtful decisions in the present and for the future.
This course will focus on key debates that have shaped the study of Africa in the post-colonial African academy. We will cover six key debates: Historiography; Slavery: Premodern and Modern; State Formation; Colonialism and Difference; Nationalism; Political Identity and Political Violence The approach will be multi-disciplinary. To the extent possible, readings will be illustrative of different sides in the debate.
This course – the first of its kind at Columbia – introduces students to a vital subfield of ethics focusing on patent and regulatory law in the biotech and pharmaceutical sectors. The course combines lectures, structured debate, and research to best present this fascinating and nuanced subject. Properly exploring this branch of bioethics requires an in-depth understanding of biotech and pharmaceutical patent and regulatory law. Students can gain this understanding by first completing Biotechnology Law (BIOT GU4160), formerly the prerequisite for this course. Now, they can also gain it by reading the appropriate chapters of
Biotechnology Law: A Primer for Scientists
(the textbook for BIOT GU4160 published earlier this year) prior to each class. A number of students in the biotechnology fields (such as those in biotechnology, biomedical engineering, and bioethics programs) have shown a keen interest over the years in taking this course, yet were unable to do so because they hadn’t taken BIOT GU4160. Given the recent publication of
Biotechnology Law
and the desirability of making BIOT GU4161 accessible to more students having the appropriate science background, BIOT GU4160 has been removed as a prerequisite.
This is an interdisciplinary seminar for graduate students and advanced undergraduates to explore transnational feminisms, gender politics in China, and the movement of feminist (and anti-feminist) ideas across borders. We will read some translations of primary works by Chinese writers, as well as feminist scholarship in English to gain insight into the following areas: social movements; gender, race, ethnicity and class; global capitalism and inequalities; sexualities; identities; digital activism; nationalisms; marriage and families; and the politics of reproduction. Although the course has no formal prerequisites, it assumes some basic knowledge about Chinese history and intersectional approaches to gender. If you have never taken a course on China before,please ask me for guidance on whether or not the course is suitable for you.
Fundamentals of water pollution and wastewater characteristics. Chemistry, microbiology, and reaction kinetics. Design of primary, secondary, and advanced treatment systems. Small community and residential systems.
Introduction to the theory and practice of computer user interface design, emphasizing the software design of graphical user interfaces. Topics include basic interaction devices and techniques, human factors, interaction styles, dialogue design, and software infrastructure. Design and programming projects are required.
Design, development, and evaluation of 3D user interfaces. Interaction techniques and metaphors, from desktop to immersive. Selection and manipulation. Travel and navigation. Symbolic, menu, gestural, and multimodal interaction. Dialogue design. 3D software support. 3D interaction devices and displays. Virtual and augmented reality. Tangible user interfaces. Review of relevant 3D math.
Prerequisites: SDEV W3390 or EESC W4050 or the instructors permission. This class provides basic theory in landscape analysis and training in methods for analyzing landscapes, focusing on interpretation of satellite images. The class covers approaches and definitions in landscape analysis, data sources, land cover classification, change detection, accuracy assessment, projections of future land cover change, and techniques to interpret results of these analyses. Students will obtain hands-on experience working with data from a landscape related to his/her research or a landscape chosen by the instructors.
Techniques of solution of partial differential equations. Separation of the variables. Orthogonality and characteristic functions, nonhomogeneous boundary value problems. Solutions in orthogonal curvilinear coordinate systems. Applications of Fourier integrals, Fourier and Laplace transforms. Problems from the fields of vibrations, heat conduction, electricity, fluid dynamics, and wave propagation are considered.
Open to SEAS graduate and advanced undergraduate students, Business School, and GSAPP. Students from other schools may apply. Fast-paced introduction to human-centered design. Students learn the vocabulary of design methods, understanding of design process. Small group projects to create prototypes. Design of simple product, more complex systems of products and services, and design of business.
Prerequisites: BIOT W4200 (OK without prerequisite). This course will provide a practical definition of the current role of the Regulatory Professional in pharmaceutical development, approval and post-approval actions. This will be illustrated by exploration, and interactive discussion of regulatory history, its evolution, current standards, and associated processes. The course will seek to clarify the role of Regulatory in development and lifecycle opportunities, demonstrating the value Regulatory adds by participation on research, development and commercial teams. The course will utilize weekly case studies and guest lecturers to provide color to current topical events related to the areas.
This course examines psychoanalytic movements that are viewed either as post-Freudian in theory or as emerging after Freuds time. The course begins by considering the ways Freuds cultural and historical surround, as well as the wartime diaspora of the European psychoanalytic community, shaped Freudian and post-Freudian thought. It then focuses on significant schools and theories of psychoanalysis that were developed from the mid 20th century to the present. Through readings of key texts and selected case studies, it explores theorists challenges to classical thought and technique, and their reconfigurations, modernizations, and total rejections of central Freudian ideas. The course concludes by looking at contemporary theorists moves to integrate notions of culture, concepts of trauma, and findings from neuroscience and attachment research into the psychoanalytic frame.
Review of laws of thermodynamics, thermodynamic variables and relations, free energies and equilibrium in thermodynamic system. Statistical thermodynamics. Unary, binary, and ternary phase diagrams, compounds and intermediate phases, solid solutions and Hume-Rothery rules, relationship between phase diagrams and metastability, defects in crystals. Thermodynamics of surfaces and interfaces, effect of particle size on phase equilibria, adsorption isotherms, grain boundaries, surface energy, electrochemistry, statistical mechanics.
Review of thermodynamics, irreversible thermodynamics, diffusion in crystals and noncrystalline materials, phase transformations via nucleation and growth, overall transformation analysis and time-temperature-transformation (TTT) diagrams, precipitation, grain growth, solidification, spinodal and order-disorder transformations, martensitic transformation.
What are the agents of developmental change in human childhood? How has the scientific community graduated from nature versus nurture, to nature
and
nurture? This course offers students an in-depth analysis of the fundamental theories in the study of cognitive and social development.
Phenomenological theoretical understanding of electrons in crystalline materials. Both translational and point symmetry employed to block diagonalize the Schrödinger equation and compute observables related to electrons. Topics include nearly free electrons, tight-binding, electron-electron interactions, transport, magnetism, optical properties, topological insulators, spin-orbit coupling, and superconductivity. Illustrated using both minimal model Hamiltonians in addition to accurate Hamiltonians for real materials.
Prerequisites: At least one semester, and preferably two, of calculus. An introductory course (STAT UN1201, preferably) is strongly recommended. A calculus-based introduction to probability theory. A quick review of multivariate calculus is provided. 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 Markov’s inequality.
Prerequisites: At least one semester, and preferably two, of calculus. An introductory course (STAT UN1201, preferably) is strongly recommended. A calculus-based introduction to probability theory. A quick review of multivariate calculus is provided. 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 Markov’s inequality.
Prerequisites: STAT GU4203. At least one semester of calculus is required; two or three semesters are strongly recommended. 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.
Prerequisites: STAT GU4203. At least one semester of calculus is required; two or three semesters are strongly recommended. 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.
Prerequisites: STAT GU4204 or the equivalent, and a course in linear algebra. Theory and practice of regression analysis. Simple and multiple regression, testing, estimation, prediction, and confidence procedures, modeling, regression diagnostics and plots, polynomial regression, colinearity and confounding, model selection, geometry of least squares. Extensive use of the computer to analyse data.
Prerequisites: STAT GU4204 and GU4205 or the equivalent. Introduction to programming in the R statistical package: functions, objects, data structures, flow control, input and output, debugging, logical design, and abstraction. Writing code for numerical and graphical statistical analyses. Writing maintainable code and testing, stochastic simulations, paralleizing data analyses, and working with large data sets. Examples from data science will be used for demonstration.
Prerequisites: STAT GU4203 and two, preferably three, semesters of calculus. Review of elements of probability theory. Poisson processes. Renewal theory. Walds equation. Introduction to discrete and continuous time Markov chains. Applications to queueing theory, inventory models, branching processes.
Prerequisites: STAT GU4203 and two, preferably three, semesters of calculus. Review of elements of probability theory. Poisson processes. Renewal theory. Walds equation. Introduction to discrete and continuous time Markov chains. Applications to queueing theory, inventory models, branching processes.
This course explores the recording studio and Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) as tools for diverse compositional practices. By exploring a range of recording and editing techniques to craft new musical works beyond the limitations of live performance, this class encourages a seamless blend of composition and music production. Various genres, artists, and techniques that push the boundaries of music recording will be studied, such as Jamaican dub, musique concrète, hyper-pop, jazz fusion, and more. Students will gain hands-on experience with DAWs, exploring tools like effects processing, layering, and spatial placement. They will learn to listen closely to pieces exemplifying these techniques, building a shared analytic vocabulary to describe them. Students will also create original pieces, applying and building on the techniques studied in class, while engaging in constructive feedback with peers.
This seminar engages the life and work of W.E.B. Du Bois, widely understood to be the greatest intellectual in U.S. history. Students will read and discuss Du Bois’s autobiography, and major works across his long and prolific career. Major themes include pan-Africanism, socialism, and peace.
Review of significant failures, civil/structural engineering design and construction practices, ethical standards and the legal positions as necessary background to forensic engineering. Discussion of standard-of-care. Study of the process of engineering evaluation of structural defects and failures in construction and in service. Examination of the roles, activities, conduct and ethics of the forensic consultant and expert witness. Students are assigned projects of actual cases of non-performance or failure of steel, concrete, masonry, geotechnical and temporary structures, in order to perform, discuss and report their own investigations under the guidance of the instructor.
Critical theory was the central practice of the Frankfurt School. Founded in Frankfurt in 1923 and later based at Columbia University, this interdisciplinary institute influenced fields like sociology, political science, film, cultural studies, media theory, and comparative literature. The course begins by examining the genealogy of the Frankfurt School in Marxism and its critique of fascism and traces its afterlife in aesthetic theory, deconstruction, and gender studies, as well as the specter of “Cultural Marxism” recently floating around right-wing circles. We read texts by key figures of the Frankfurt School such as Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse and Jürgen Habermas as well as works by adjacent figures like Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt, and Siegfried Kracauer.
Far from obvious renderings of place, maps are spatial arguments about who belongs where and how living should be defined. This course approaches place as something that is contested daily in the U.S. through the struggle of who gets to lay claim to a way of life. From the landscapes of dispossession to the alternative ways marginalized people work with and against traditional geographies, this course centers Black place-making practices as political struggle. This class will look at how power and domination become a landed project. We will critically examine how ideas about “nature” are bound up with notions of race, and the way “race” naturalizes the proper place for humans and non-human others. We will interrogate settler colonialism’s relationships to mapping who is and isn’t human, the transatlantic slave trade as a project of terraforming environments for capital, and land use as a science for determining who “owns” the earth. Centered on Black feminist, queer and trans thinkers, we will encounter space not as a something given by maps, but as a struggle over definitions of the human, geography, sovereignty, and alternative worlds. To this end, we will read from a variety of disciplines, such as Critical Black Studies, Feminist and Intersectional Science Studies, Black Geographies and Ecologies, Urban Studies and Afrofuturist literature. (Note: this class will count as an elective for the CCIS minors/concentrations in F/ISTS, ICORE/MORE, and Environmental Humanities.)
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and MATH UN2010 Students must register for required discussion section. Corequisites: MATH UN2500 or MATH GU4061 The course provides a rigorous introduction to microeconomics. Topics will vary with the instructor but will include consumer theory, producer theory, general equilibrium and welfare, social choice theory, game theory and information economics. This course is strongly recommended for students considering graduate work in economics. Discussion section required.
Students in the regular third-year Arabic track improve reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills through close reading, compositions, class discussions, and presentations in Arabic on topics such as cultures of the Arab world, classical and modern Arabic literature, and contemporary Arabic media. Review of grammatical and syntactic rules as needed. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and MATH UN2010 Students must register for lecture course ECON GU4211 Corequisites: MATH UN2500MATH GU4061 Required discussion section for ECON GU4211 Advanced Microeconomics. The course provides a rigorous introduction to microeconomics. Topics will vary with the instructor but will include consumer theory, producer theory, general equilibrium and welfare, social choice theory, game theory and information economics. This course is strongly recommended for students considering graduate work in economics. Discussion section required.
Prerequisites: MDES W4212. Through reading articles and essays by Arab thinkers and intellectuals of the Twentieth century, starting from the period called Nahda (Renaissance), such as Taha Hussein, Qasim Amin, Abdallah Laroui, Abed Al-Jabiri, Tahar Haddad, Fatima Mernissi and others, students will be able to increase their fluency and accuracy in Arabic while working on reading text and being exposed to the main
themes in Arab thought. The course works with all four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing). Arabic is the language of instruction. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.
Connects basic MEMS transduction elements to applications by analyzing the analog signal chain, sensor packaging, and sensor integration into larger systems. Underlying concepts of analog instrumentation such as filtering and digitization covered. Hands-on projects involve off-the-shelf sensors and single-board computers to create self-contained sensor systems that demonstrate relevant issues.
Review of states of stress and strain and their relations in elastic, plastic, and viscous materials. Dislocation and elastic-plastic concepts introduced to explain work hardening, various materials-strengthening mechanisms, ductility, and toughness. Macroscopic and microstructural aspects of brittle and ductile fracture mechanics, creep and fatigue phenomena. Case studies used throughout, including flow and fracture of structural alloys, polymers, hybrid materials, composite materials, ceramics, and electronic materials devices. Materials reliability and fracture prevention emphasized.
Modular Sound Synthesis is a hands-on studio class that explores contemporary techniques for synthesizers both in studio practice and performance while framing them in the historical context in which they developed. The class approaches the fundamentals of sound and synthesis through the perspective of Columbia’s Computer Music Center: vintage function generators, suitcase reel-to-reel tape machines, prototype modules, custom devices; and the first programmable music synthesizer, the RCA Mark II. Students will learn to perform and compose on both hardware devices and software emulations, utilizing them as a creative tool for recording and live performance. Topics include oscillators, modulation, sequencers, voltage processing, wave shaping, filters, and LFOs. The course will engage in listening to both historical and contemporary examples to develop critical listening skills. This class is designed as a follow-up to Intro to Digital Music for undergraduates or graduate students interested in integrating modular synthesis within their artistic practice.
Through reading and writing, students will review Arabic Grammar concepts within the context of linguistic functions such as narration, description, comparison, etc. For example, within the function of narration, students will focus on verb tenses, word order, and adverbials. Based on error analysis in the past twelve years that the Arabic Program has been using Al-Kitaab, emphasis will be placed on common and frequent grammatical errors. Within these linguistic functions and based on error analysis, the course will review the following main concepts: Types of sentence and sentence/clause structure. The Verb system, pattern meanings and verb complementation. Quadriliteral verb patterns and derivations. Weak Verbs derivations, conjugation, tense frames and negation. Case endings. Types of noun and participle: Noun of time, place, instance, stance, instrument, active and passive participles. Types of construct phrase: al-iDafa. Types of Adverbials and verb complements: Hal, Tamyiz, Maf’ul mutlaq, Maf’ul li’ajlihi, adverbs of time, frequency, place and manner. The number system and countable nouns. Types of maa.Diptotes, al-mamnu’ min-aSSarf. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.
Is the market a religious system? Can we consider "capitalism" to be a key arena in which the relationship between the religious and the secular is both negotiated and performed? In this course, students will explore the complicated relationship between faith and the market, the religious and the secular, and the evolution of vice and virtue as they relate to economic thriving in the United States. While no hard and fast rules for thinking about the relationship between right conduct and material interests cut across all religious and philosophical traditions, human agents invest real faith into currency, into markets, and into the reigning economic order to bring about increased opportunities, wealth, and freedom to people across the globe. Throughout this semester, we will chart both the long shadows and the future trajectories of these beliefs from our American perspective.
This seminar focuses on historical, sociological, and first-hand accounts of a diverse set of American non-conformist religious and spiritual groups (including MOVE, the Branch Davidians at Waco, Father Divine's International Peace Mission, the Oneida Perfectionists, and Occupy and others). Diverse in their historical origins, their activities, and their ends, each of the groups sought or seeks to offer radically news ways of living, subverting American gender, sexuality, racial, or economic norms. The title of this seminar highlights the ways that these groups explain their reasons for existing (to themselves or others) not as a choice but as a response to a system or society out of whack, at odds with the plans of the divine, or at odds with nature and survival. Likewise, it considers the numerous ways that these same groups have often found themselves the targets of state surveillance and violence.
Prerequisites: MDES UN2202 This is an introductory course to Levantine Arabic for students who have completed two years of Standard Arabic studies, at the Intermediate level. The course is designed to further develop fluency in oral communication, through building students’ familiarity with a less formal register of Arabic, namely the Levantine dialect. The course will convert and recycle some of the previous Standard Arabic knowledge to the dialect, by comparing their prior knowledge to its dialectal counterpart; while at the same time developing students’ new communicative skills in a diverse range of contexts that are essential in any conversational interaction. The course will build students abilities to interact effectively in various areas where Levantine Arabic is spoken. In addition to varied thematic topics, the course exposes students to cultural aspects specific to the region. Additionally, the course will work on both constructing students’ knowledge of dialectal diction as well as other grammatical features of the dialects. Even though the course is designed for communication in the four skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking), the emphasis will be mostly on speaking and listening. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.
The purpose of the Arabic Linguistic Tradition course is to introduce undergraduate and graduate
students to the Arabic Linguistic Tradition, starting before Islam and ending in current times. The
course maps out the context in which the Arabic language and its predecessors existed, the
history of the development of the language, its script, its geographical spread, its linguistic
influences on other languages and scripts throughout the world, as well as its own influences by
other languages. The course will also examine the importance of Arabic as a language of
religion, philosophy, sciences, and nationalism. Furthermore, the course will focus on the
classical Arabic linguistic categories and fields devised by Arab/Arabic grammarians, and how
we can situate them vis-à-vis modern western linguistic theories. The course will detail some of
the language linguistic issues, challenges and secrets, as the language stands on its own, as well
as within a euro-centric “modern” linguistic theories framework.
Prerequisites: STAT GU4205 or the equivalent. Least squares smoothing and prediction, linear systems, Fourier analysis, and spectral estimation. Impulse response and transfer function. Fourier series, the fast Fourier transform, autocorrelation function, and spectral density. Univariate Box-Jenkins modeling and forecasting. Emphasis on applications. Examples from the physical sciences, social sciences, and business. Computing is an integral part of the course.
Cross disciplinary interfacial engineering principles and applications in sustainable energy and material science. Surface science and systems analysis across different technology sectors - material production and processing, waste management, device manufacture, composites, coatings, ceramics, membranes, biomaterials, and microelectronics.
Prerequisites: STAT GU4204 or the equivalent. Statistical inference without parametric model assumption. Hypothesis testing using ranks, permutations, and order statistics. Nonparametric analogs of analysis of variance. Non-parametric regression, smoothing and model selection.
Russian ideas are familiar to the world through Tolstoy’s and Dostoevsky’s novels. In this course, we will examine key texts in the intellectual tradition that forms the backdrop to these famous works. Emphasis is on close textual readings; but also on how Russian ideas have been read and interpreted across national and cultural boundaries, including in recent English-language works like Tom Stoppard’s play,
Coast of Utopia
. Thinkers include Schellingians and Hegelians, Slavophiles, Populists and Pan-Slavists, and Vladimir Soloviev.
This seminar for advanced undergraduates and graduate students investigates the significance of dreams in multiple cultural and historical contexts with a focus on Tibetan Buddhism. Dreams and dreaming are vital aspects of Tibetan Buddhist meditative practice, visionary experience, poetry, narratives, as well as visual arts. Students in the seminar will explore a range of materials that 1) guide Buddhist practitioners to cultivate certain types of dreams, and 2) narrate dream experiences that the dreamer has deemed worth recording, and 3) situate Tibetan Buddhist examples in broader contexts of religious and psychological perspectives, with an emphasis on Freud and Jung’s treatment of dreams. According to Buddhist sources, a dream might be significant because the dreamer understands it to be revelatory, foretelling the future, or it might be recorded simply because the dreamer finds the dream in some way compelling, troubling, or funny. In life writing, dreams often highlight crucial moments in the writer’s life experience. Just as psychoanalysts make use of dreams to engage with analysands, Tibetan medical texts instruct doctors to pay close attention to patients’ dreams in the process of diagnosis. Tibetan ritual texts guide meditators in techniques for lucid dreaming. Visionary dreams are recorded in great aesthetic detail. Narratives of dreams and dreamscapes are an important part of biographies and life writing in general. We will also consider European and American treatments of dreams and lucid dreaming, including psychoanalytic, philosophical approaches to dreaming. A significant element of the course is a daily dream journal.
This course introduces the Bayesian paradigm for statistical inference. Topics covered include prior and posterior distributions: conjugate priors, informative and non-informative priors; one- and two-sample problems; models for normal data, models for binary data, Bayesian linear models; Bayesian computation: MCMC algorithms, the Gibbs sampler; hierarchical models; hypothesis testing, Bayes factors, model selection; use of statistical software.
Prerequisites: A course in the theory of statistical inference, such as STAT GU4204 a course in statistical modeling and data analysis, such as STAT GU4205.
Review of loads and structural design approaches. Material considerations in structural steel design. Behavior and design of rolled steel, welded, cold-formed light-gauge, and composite concrete/steel members. Design of multi-story buildings and space structures.
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and STAT Un1201 This course takes New York as our laboratory. Economics is about individual choice subject to constraints and the ways that choices sum up to something often much more than the parts. The fundamental feature of any city is the combination of those forces that bring people together and those that push them apart. Thus both physical and social space will be central to our discussions. The underlying theoretical and empirical analysis will touch on spatial aspects of urban economics, regional, and even international economics. We will aim to see these features in New York City taken as a whole, as well as in specific neighborhoods of the city. We will match these theoretical and empirical analyses with readings that reflect close observation of specific subjects. The close observation is meant to inspire you to probe deeply into a topic in order that the tools and approaches of economics may illuminate these issues in a fresh way.
Prerequisites: COMS W3134, COMS W3136, or COMS W3137, and COMS W3203. Introduction to the design and analysis of efficient algorithms. Topics include models of computation, efficient sorting and searching, algorithms for algebraic problems, graph algorithms, dynamic programming, probabilistic methods, approximation algorithms, and NP-completeness.
Prerequisites: (COMS W3134 or COMS W3136COMS W3137) and (COMS W3203) Introduction to the design and analysis of efficient algorithms. Topics include models of computation, efficient sorting and searching, algorithms for algebraic problems, graph algorithms, dynamic programming, probabilistic methods, approximation algorithms, and NP-completeness.
This seminar explores the Cold Wars impact on Eastern Europe (1940s-1980s) and Eastern Europes Cold War-era engagements with the wider world. We will address the methodologies used by historians to answer questions like these: What was the Cold War? What did it mean, and for whom? We will also look at the Cold War as something more than a series of events; we will consider its value, uses, and limits as a device for framing the second half of the twentieth century.