Search result: Catalogue data in Autumn Semester 2024
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| 860-0023-00L | International Environmental Politics Particularly suitable for students of D-ITET, D-USYS. | W | 3 credits | 2V | T. Bernauer | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | This course deals with how and why international problem-solving efforts (cooperation) in environmental politics emerge and evolve, and under what circumstances such efforts are effective. Based on concepts, theories, and methods of political economy, political science, and public policy, various examples of international environmental policy-making are examined. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | The objectives in this course are to (1) gain an overview of important questions in international environmental politics from a social sciences viewpoint; (2) learn how to identify interesting/innovative questions in this policy area and how to address them in a conceptually and methodologically meaningful and insightful way; (3) gain an overview of important global and regional environmental problems and how they are or could be solved. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | This course deals with how and why international problem-solving efforts (cooperation) in environmental politics emerge and evolve, and under what circumstances such efforts are effective. Based on concepts, theories, and methods of political economy, political science, and public policy, various examples of international environmental policy-making are examined, for example international efforts to reduce air pollution, manage international water resources, mitigate and adapt to global warming, protect the stratospheric ozone layer, address biodiversity challenges, deal with plastic waste, and prevent pollution of the oceans. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lecture notes | Reading materials and slides will be available via Moodle. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literature | Reading materials and slides will be available via Moodle. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | The course is open to all ETH students and visiting students from other universities. Participation does not require previous coursework in the social sciences or environmental policy. Most meetings in this course will take place on campus (ETH Main Building, HG F.3). There will be no live-streaming, and the course is not in hybrid (on-campus plus online) format. However, the lecture will be recorded (slides and voice, no video) and the recordings will be made available via the Moodle platform for this course a few days after the respective lecture for students who are unable to attend in person. All electronic correspondence will take place via the ETH mystudies system and Moodle, so please make sure you are properly registered there with a functioning email address/account. Credits and Exam After passing a written test at the end of the course (requirement: grade 4.0 or higher) students will receive 3 ECTS credit points. The workload is around 90 hours (meetings, reading assignments, preparation of test). Visiting students (e.g., from the University of Zurich, exchange students) are subject to the same conditions. Registration of visiting students in the web-based system of ETH is compulsory. Students who obtain a grade of < 4.0 for the test will have a second chance (see table below). Students who did not participate in the test on 16 December 2024 will not have access to the repeat test unless they submit compelling and documented (e.g., medical, other exam in parallel at ETH) reasons for why they are/were unable to participate in the first test. The test covers all contents of the lectures and the reading assignments. No separate registration for the exam is required, registration for the course as such covers everything. The exam will take place on campus, most likely in HG F3. That is, you must be present in person at ETH Zurich on the exam date/time. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 701-1631-00L | Foundations of Ecosystem Management  | W | 5 credits | 3G | J. Ghazoul, A. Giger Dray | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | This course introduces the broad variety of conflicts that arise in projects focusing on sustainable management of natural resources. It explores case studies of ecosystem management approaches and considers their practicability, their achievements and possible barriers to their uptake. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | Students should be able to a) propose appropriate and realistic solutions to ecosystem management problems that integrate ecological, economic and social dimensions across relevant temporal and spatial scales. b) identify important stakeholders, their needs and interests, and the main conflicts that exist among them in the context of land and resource management. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | Traditional management systems focus on extraction of natural resources, and their manipulation and governance. However, traditional management has frequently resulted in catastrophic failures such as, for example, the collapse of fish stocks and biodiversity loss. These failures have stimulated the development of alternative ‘ecosystem management’ approaches that emphasise the functionality of human-dominated systems. Inherent to such approaches are system-wide perspectives and a focus on ecological processes and services, multiple spatial and temporal scales, as well as the need to incorporate diverse stakeholder interests in decision making. Thus, ecosystem management is the science and practice of managing natural resources, biodiversity and ecological processes, to meet multiple demands of society. It can be local, regional or global in scope, and addresses critical issues in developed and developing countries relating to economic and environmental security and sustainability. This course provides an introduction to ecosystem management, and in particular the importance of integrating ecology into management systems to meet multiple societal demands. The course explores the extent to which human-managed terrestrial systems depend on underlying ecological processes, and the consequences of degradation of these processes for human welfare and environmental well-being. Building upon a theoretical foundation, the course will tackle issues in resource ecology and management, notably forests, agriculture and wild resources within the broader context of sustainability, biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation or economic development. Case studies from tropical and temperate regions will be used to explore these issues. Dealing with ecological and economic uncertainty, and how this affects decision making, will be discussed. Strategies for conservation and management of terrestrial ecosystems will give consideration to landscape ecology, protected area systems, and community management, paying particular attention to alternative livelihood options and marketing strategies of common pool resources. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lecture notes | No Script | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literature | Chichilnisky, G. and Heal, G. (1998) Economic returns from the biosphere. Nature, 391: 629-630. Daily, G.C. (1997) Nature’s Services: Societal dependence on natural ecosystems. Island Press. Washington DC. Hindmarch, C. and Pienkowski, M. (2000) Land Management: The Hidden Costs. Blackwell Science. Millenium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Synthesis. Island Press, Washington DC. Milner-Gulland, E.J. and Mace, R. (1998) Conservation of Biological Resources. Blackwell Science. Gunderson, L.H. and Holling, C.S. (2002) Panarchy: understanding transformations in human and natural systems. Island Press. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 851-0467-00L | From Traffic Modeling to Smart Cities and Digital Democracies | W | 3 credits | 2S | D. Helbing, R. K. Dubey | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | This seminar will present speakers who discuss the challenges and opportunities arising for our cities and societies with the digital revolution. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | To collect credit points, students must actively contribute and give an individual, circa 20-minute presentation in the seminar on a subject agreed upon with the lecturer. After the presentation, it will be discussed and graded. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | This seminar will present speakers who discuss the challenges and opportunities arising for our cities and societies with the digital revolution. Besides discussing questions of automation using Big Data, AI and other digital technologies, we will also reflect on the question of how democracy could be digitally upgraded, and how citizen participation could contribute to innovation, sustainability, resilience, and quality of life. This includes questions around collective intelligence and digital platforms that support creativity, engagement, coordination and cooperation. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literature | Dirk Helbing An Analytical Theory of Traffic Flow (collection of papers) Michael Batty, Kay Axhausen et al. Smart cities of the future Books by Michael Batty: How social influence can undermine the wisdom of crowd effect Evidence for a collective intelligence factor in the performance of human groups Optimal incentives for collective intelligence Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace Big Mind: How Collective Intelligence Can Change Our World Programming Collective Intelligence Urban architecture as connective-collective intelligence. Which spaces of interaction? Build digital democracy How to make democracy work in the digital age Digital Democracy: How to make it work? Proof of witness presence: Blockchain consensus for augmented democracy in smart cities Iterative Learning Control for Multi-agent Systems Coordination Decentralized Collective Learning for Self-managed Sharing Economies | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | Students need to present a new subject, for which they have not earned any credit points before. Good scientific practices, in particular citation and quotation rules, must be properly complied with. Chatham House rules apply to this course. Materials may not be shared without previous written permission. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 851-0585-41L | Computational Social Science | W | 3 credits | 2S | D. Helbing, C. I. Hausladen, J. C.‑Y. Yang | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | The seminar aims at three-fold integration: (1) bringing modeling and computer simulation of techno-socio-economic processes and phenomena together with related empirical, experimental, and data-driven work, (2) combining perspectives of different scientific disciplines (e.g. sociology, computer science, physics, complexity science, engineering), (3) bridging between fundamental and applied work. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | Participants of the seminar should understand how tightly connected systems lead to networked risks, and why this can imply systems we do not understand and cannot control well, thereby causing systemic risks and extreme events. They should also be able to explain how systemic instabilities can be understood by changing the perspective from a component-oriented to an interaction- and network-oriented view, and what fundamental implications this has for the proper design and management of complex dynamical systems. Computational Social Science and Global Systems Science serve to better understand the emerging digital society with its close co-evolution of information and communication technology (ICT) and society. They make current theories of crises and disasters applicable to the solution of global-scale problems, taking a data-based approach that builds on a serious collaboration between the natural, engineering, and social sciences, i.e. an interdisciplinary integration of knowledge. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literature | Ball: Why Society Is A Complex Matter • Helbing: Social Self-Organization • Helbing: Managing Complexity • Colander/Kupers: Complexity and the Art of Public Policy • Mitchell: Complexity • Buckley: Society – A Complex Adaptive System • Castellani/Hafferty: Sociology and Complexity Science • Mikhailov/Calenbuhr: From Cells to Society • Mainzer: Thinking in Complexity • Sawyer: Social Emergence • Books published by the Santa Fe Institute Computational Social Science https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/323/5915/721.full.pdf Manifesto of Computational Social Science https://link.springer.com/article/10.1140/epjst/e2012-01697-8 Social Self-Organisation https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783642240034 How simple rules determine pedestrian behaviour and crowd disasters https://www.pnas.org/content/108/17/6884.short Peer review and competition in the Art Exhibition Game https://www.pnas.org/content/113/30/8414.short Generalized network dismantling https://www.pnas.org/content/116/14/6554.short Computational Social Science: Obstacles and Opportunities https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6507/1060?rss%253D1= Bit by Bit: Social Research in the Digital Age https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bit-Social-Research-Digital-Age-ebook/dp/B072MPFXX2/ Further literature will be recommended in the lectures. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | Students need to present a new subject, for which they have not earned any credit points before. Good scientific practices, in particular citation and quotation rules, must be properly complied with. Chatham House rules apply to this course. Materials may not be shared without previous written permission. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 363-0537-00L | Resource and Environmental Economics | W | 3 credits | 2G | A. Miftakhova, A. Minabutdinov | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | Relationship between economy and environment, market failures, external effects and public goods, contingent valuation, internalisation of externalities, economics of non-renewable resources, economics of renewable resources, environmental cost-benefit analysis, sustainability economics, and international resource and environmental problems. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | A successful completion of the course will enable a thorough understanding of the basic questions and methods of resource and environmental economics and the ability to solve typical problems using appropriate tools consisting of concise verbal explanations, diagrams or mathematical expressions. Concrete goals are first of all the acquisition of knowledge about the main questions of resource and environmental economics and about the foundation of the theory with different normative concepts in terms of efficiency and fairness. Secondly, students should be able to deal with environmental externalities and internalisation through appropriate policies or private negotiations, including knowledge of the available policy instruments and their relative strengths and weaknesses. Thirdly, the course will allow for in-depth economic analysis of renewable and non-renewable resources, including the role of stock constraints, regeneration functions, market power, property rights and the impact of technology. A fourth objective is to successfully use the well-known tool of cost-benefit analysis for environmental policy problems, which requires knowledge of the benefits of an improved natural environment. The last two objectives of the course are the acquisition of sufficient knowledge about the economics of sustainability and the application of environmental economic theory and policy at international level, e.g. to the problem of climate change. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | The course covers all the interactions between the economy and the natural environment. It introduces and explains basic welfare concepts and market failure; external effects, public goods, and environmental policy; the measurement of externalities and contingent valuation; the economics of non-renewable resources, renewable resources, cost-benefit-analysis, sustainability concepts; international aspects of resource and environmental problems; selected examples and case studies. After a general introduction to resource and environmental economics, highlighting its importace and the main issues, the course explains the normative basis, utilitarianism, and fairness according to different principles. Pollution externalities are a deep core topic of the lecture. We explain the governmental internalisation of externalities as well as the private internalisation of externalities (Coase theorem). Furthermore, the issues of free rider problems and public goods, efficient levels of pollution, tax vs. permits, and command and control instruments add to a thorough analysis of environmental policy. Turning to resource supply, the lecture first looks at empirical data on non-renewable natural resources and then develops the optimal price development (Hotelling-rule). It deals with the effects of explorations, new technologies, and market power. When treating the renewable resources, we look at biological growth functions, optimal harvesting of renewable resources, and the overuse of open-access resources. A next topic is cost-benefit analysis with the environment, requiring measuring environmental benefits and measuring costs. In the chapter on sustainability, the course covers concepts of sustainability, conflicts with optimality, and indicators of sustainability. In a final chapter, we consider international environmental problems and in particular climate change and climate policy. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literature | Perman, R., Ma, Y., McGilvray, J, Common, M.: "Natural Resource & Environmental Economics", 4th edition, 2011, Harlow, UK: Pearson Education | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 052-0707-00L | Urban Design III | W | 2 credits | 2V | H. Klumpner, F. T. Salva Rocha Franco | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | Students are introduced to a narrative of 'Urban Stories' through a series of three tools driven by social, governance, and environmental transformations in today's urbanization processes. Each lecture explores one city's spatial and organizational ingenuity born out of a particular place's realities, allowing students to transfer these inventions into a catalog of conceptual tools. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | How can students of architecture become active agents of change? What does it take to go beyond a building's scale, making design-relevant decisions to the city rather than a single client? How can we design in cities with a lack of land, tax base, risk, and resilience, understanding that Zurich is the exception and these other cities are the rule? How can we discover, set rather than follow trends and understand existing urban phenomena activating them in a design process? The lecture series produces a growing catalog of operational urban tools across the globe, considering Governance, Social, and Environmental realities. Instead of limited binary comparing of cities, we are building a catalog of change, analyzing what design solutions cities have been developing informally incrementally over time, why, and how. We look at the people, institutions, culture behind the design and make concepts behind these tools visible. Students get first-hand information from cities where the chair as a Team has researched, worked, or constructed projects over the last year, allowing competent, practical insight about the people and topics that make these places unique. Students will be able to use and expand an alternative repertoire of experiences and evidence-based design tools, go to the conceptual core of them, and understand how and to what extent they can be relevant in other places. Urban Stories is the basic practice of architecture and urban design. It introduces a repertoire of urban design instruments to the students to use, test, and start their designs. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | Urban form cannot be reduced to physical space. Cities result from social construction, under the influence of technologies, ecology, culture, the impact of experts, and accidents. Urban un-concluded processes respond to political interests, economic pressure, cultural inclinations, along with the imagination of architects and urbanists and the informal powers at work in complex adaptive systems. Current urban phenomena are the result of urban evolution. The facts stored in urban environments include contributions from its entire lifecycle, visible in the physical environment, and non-physical aspects. This imaginary city exists along with its potentials and problems and with the conflicts that have evolved. Knowledge and understanding, along with a critical observation of the actions and policies, are necessary to understand the diversity and instability present in the contemporary city and understand how urban form evolved to its current state. How did cities develop into the cities we live in now? Urban plans, instruments, visions, political decisions, economic reasonings, cultural inputs, and social organization have been used to operate in urban settlements in specific moments of change. We have chosen cities that exemplify how these instruments have been implemented and how they have shaped urban environments. We transcribe these instruments into urban operational tools that we have recognized and collected within existing tested cases in contemporary cities across the globe. This lecture series will introduce urban knowledge and the way it has introduced urban models and operational modes within different concrete realities, therefore shaping cities. The lecture series translates urban knowledge into operational tools, extracted from cities where they have been tested and become exemplary samples, most relevant for understanding how the urban landscape has taken shape. The tools are clustered in twelve thematic clusters and three tool scales for better comparability and cross-reflection. The Tool case studies are compiled into a global urbanization toolbox, which we use as typological models to read the city and critically reflect upon it. The presented contents are meant to serve as inspiration for positioning in future professional life and provide instruments for future design decisions. In an interview with a local designer, we measure our insights against the most pressing design topics in cities today, including inclusion, affordable housing, provision of public spaces, and infrastructure for all. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lecture notes | The learning material, available via https://moodle-app2.let.ethz.ch/ is comprised of the following: - Toolbox 'Reader' with an introduction to the lecture course and tool summaries - Weekly exercise tasks - Infographics with basic information about each city - Quiz question for each tool - Additional reading material - Interviews with experts - Archive of lecture recordings Structure and Grading: - 70% Exam - 20% Exercise (one group workshop per semester) - 10% Participation (drawing exercises) For one-semester students, only a Research will be required. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literature | - Reading material will be provided throughout the semester. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 851-0101-86L | Complex Social Systems: Modeling Agents, Learning, and Games Prerequisites: Basic programming skills, elementary probability and statistics. | W | 3 credits | 2S | D. N. Dailisan, D. Carpentras, D. Helbing | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | This course introduces mathematical and computational models to study techno-socioeconomic systems and the process of scientific research. Students develop a significant project to tackle techno-socio-economic challenges in application domains of complex systems. They are expected to implement a model and to communicate their results through a project report and a short oral presentation. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | See your own field of study in a wider context (“Science in Perspective”), e.g. see the psychological, social, economic, environmental, historical, ethical,or philosophical connections and implications. Learn to think critically and out of the box. Question what you believe you know for sure. Get to know surprising, counterintuitive properties of complex (non-linearly interacting, networked, multi-component) systems. Learn about collaboration. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | By the end of the course, the students should be able to better understand the literature on complex social systems, develop their own models for studying specific phenomena and report results according to the standards of the relevant scientific literature by presenting their results both numerically and graphically. At the end of the course, the students will deliver a report, computer code and a short oral presentation. To collect credit points, students will have to actively contribute and give a circa 30 minutes presentation in the course on a subject agreed with the lecturers, after which the presentation will be discussed. The presentation will be graded. Students are expected to implement themselves models of techno-socio-economic processes and systems, particularly agent-based models, complex networks models, decision making, group dynamics, human crowds, or game-theoretical models. Credit points are finally earned for the implementation of a mathematical or empirical model from the complexity science literature, its presentation, and documentation by a project report. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lecture notes | The lecture slides will be presented on the course Moodle after each lecture. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literature | Agent-Based Modeling https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-24004-1_2 Social Self-Organization https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783642240034 Traffic and related self-driven many-particle systems Reviews of Modern Physics 73, 1067 https://journals.aps.org/rmp/abstract/10.1103/RevModPhys.73.1067 An Analytical Theory of Traffic Flow (collection of papers) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261629187 Pedestrian, Crowd, and Evacuation Dynamics https://www.research-collection.ethz.ch/handle/20.500.11850/45424 The hidden geometry of complex, network-driven contagion phenomena (relevant for modeling pandemic spread) https://science.sciencemag.org/content/342/6164/1337 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | The number of participants is limited to the size of the available computer teaching room. The source code related to the seminar thesis should be well enough documented. Good programming skills and a good understanding of probability & statistics and calculus are expected. Students need to present a new subject, for which they have not earned any credit points before. Good scientific practices, in particular citation and quotation rules, must be properly complied with. Chatham House rules apply to this course. Materials may not be shared without previous written permission. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 851-0732-06L | Law & Tech | W | 3 credits | 2S | A. Stremitzer, J. Merane | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | This course introduces students to scientific and technological developments that require regulation or enable legal innovation. We focus particularly on the challenges to current law posed by prominent near-future technologies. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | The course is designed for a wide range of ETH students as well as for law students who are keen to deepen their understanding of cutting-edge technology. It offers an overview of key legal areas important for technology regulation, complemented by guest lectures on emerging technological trends. In previous years, the course has featured esteemed speakers from various sectors, including industry leaders like Google, NGOs such as Digital Society Switzerland and The European Consumer Organization, regulatory bodies like the Swiss Competition Commission, and noted academics. The course is open to ETH students through the Science in Perspective program of the Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | The planned course outline is below. - Overview of Law and Technology - Fundamental Rights - AI & Discrimination - Landmark Big Tech Cases - Regulation of Digital Platforms & Content Moderation - Online Consumer Protection - Law and Tech Scholarship Series A number of recent regulations will be discussed, including the EU's AI Act, the Digital Services Act (DSA), and the Digital Markets Act (DMA), as well as emerging internet phenomena, like ChatGPT. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | You can find all course materials and the most recent announcements on Moodle. Please log in to Moodle using your ETH or UZH credentials. Then search for "Law & Tech (851-0732-06L, HS 2024)" and enroll. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 151-8101-00L | International Engineering: from Hubris to Hope | W | 4 credits | 3G | E. Tilley, J. Freihardt, C. Walder | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | Since Europe surrendered their colonial assets, engineers from rich countries have returned to the African continent to address the real and perceived ills that they felt technology could solve. And yet, 70 years on, the promise of technology has largely failed to deliver widespread, substantive improvements in the quality of life. Why? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | This course is meant for engineers who are interested in pursuing an ethical and relevant career internationally, and who are willing to examine the complex role that well-meaning foreigners have played and continue to play in the disappointing health outcomes that characterize much of the African continent. After completing the course, participants will be able to • critique the jargon and terms used by the international community, i.e. “development”, “aid”, “cooperation”, “assistance” “third world” “developing” “global south” “low and middle-income” and justify their own chosen terminology • recognize the role of racism and white-supremacy in the development of the Aid industry • understand the political, financial, and cultural reasons why technology and infrastructure have historically failed • Debate the merits of international engineering in popular culture and media • Propose improved SDG indicators that address current shortcomings • Compare the engineering curricula of different countries to identify relative strengths and shortcomings • Explain the inherent biases of academic publishing and its impact on engineering failure • Analyse linkages between the rise of philanthropy and strategic priority areas • Recommend equitable, just funding models to achieve more sustainable outcomes • Formulate a vision for the international engineer of the future | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | Role of international engineering during colonialism Transition of international engineering following colonialism White saviourism and racism in international engineering International engineering in popular culture The missing role of Engineering Education Biases in academic publishing The emerging role in Global Philanthropy The paradox of International funding | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literature | McGoey, L. (2015). No such thing as a free gift: The Gates Foundation and the price of philanthropy. Verso Books. Moyo, D. (2009). Dead aid: Why aid is not working and how there is a better way for Africa. Macmillan. Munk, N. (2013). The idealist: Jeffrey Sachs and the quest to end poverty. Signal. Rodney, W. (2018). How europe underdeveloped africa. Verso Trade. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 851-0760-00L | Building a Robot Judge: Data Science for Decision-Making Does not take place this semester. Particularly suitable for students of D-INFK, D-ITET, D-MTEC. | W | 3 credits | 2V | E. Ash | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | This course explores the automation of decisions in the legal system. We delve into the machine learning tools needed to predict judge decision-making and ask whether techniques in model explanation and algorithmic fairness are sufficient to address the potential risks. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | This course introduces students to the data science tools that may provide the first building blocks for a robot judge. While building a working robot judge might be far off in the future, some of the building blocks are already here, and we will put them to work. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | Data science technologies have the potential to improve legal decisions by making them more efficient and consistent. On the other hand, there are serious risks that automated systems could replicate or amplify existing legal biases and rigidities. Given the stakes, these technologies force us to think carefully about notions of fairness and justice and how they should be applied. The focus is on legal prediction problems. Given the evidence and briefs in this case, how will a judge probably decide? How likely is a criminal defendant to commit another crime? How much additional revenue will this new tax law collect? Students will investigate and implement the relevant machine learning tools for making these types of predictions, including regression, classification, and deep neural networks models. We then use these predictions to better understand the operation of the legal system. Under what conditions do judges tend to make errors? Against which types of defendants do parole boards exhibit bias? Which jurisdictions have the most tax loopholes? Students will be introduced to emerging applied research in this vein. In a semester paper, students (individually or in groups) will conceive and implement an applied data-science research project. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 851-0685-00L | Data and Society | W | 3 credits | 2V | M. Leese | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | This lecture series explores the multifaceted role of data in shaping contemporary society, governance, and individual lives. The course equips students with a critical understanding of how data is made, managed, and preserved, and its implications for societal norms and individual rights. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | At the end of the term, students will be able to: • reflect concepts and theories that capture the performativity of data • reflect concepts and theories that capture the socio-technical nature of data • assess the implications of data practices for social and political ordering • identify key actors, sites, and domain contexts of data practices | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Competencies |
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| 860-0001-01L | Public Institutions and Policy-Making Processes; Research Paper Prerequisite: you have to be enrolled in 860-0001-00L during the same semester. | W | 3 credits | 3A | T. Bernauer, S. Bechtold, F. Schimmelfennig | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | This is an add-on module to the course: 860-0001-00L. It focuses on students writing an essay on an issue covered by the main course 860-0001-00L. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | Students learn how to write an essay on a policy issue they select. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | Public policies result from decision-making processes that take place within formal institutions of the state (parliament, government, public administration, courts). That is, policies are shaped by the characteristics of decision-making processes and the characteristics of public institutions and related actors (e.g. interest groups). In this course, students acquire the contextual knowledge for analyzing public policies - hence this course is complementary to the ISTP course on concepts and methods of policy analysis. Students learn why and how public policies and laws are developed, designed, and implemented at national and international levels. The course is organized in three modules. The first module (taught by Stefan Bechtold) examines basic concepts and the role of law, law-making, and law enforcement in modern societies. The second module (taught by Thomas Bernauer) deals with the functioning of legislatures, governments, and interest groups. The third module (taught by Frank Schimmelfennig) focuses on the European Union and international organizations. This teaching unit is an add-on module to the course: 860-0001-00L. It focuses on students writing an essay on an issue covered by the main course 860-0001-00L. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literature | See Moodle | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | Access only for ISTP MSc students also enrolled in 860-0001-00L | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Internship The performance counts as electives. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Number | Title | Type | ECTS | Hours | Lecturers | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 860-0600-00L | Internship - Short The internship can be started the earliest in the second semester. The internship needs to be approved by the study director. Therefore students need to hand in a short description to the study secretary before they start the internship. | W | 6 credits | external organisers | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | The internship is a voluntary part of the MSc curriculum. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | The internship serves to make students familiar with policy analysis in a real world setting, for instance in a government agency, a NGO, a regulatory or public affairs division of a private sector firm, or a consulting firm focused on policy analysis. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | The short internship corresponds to a workload of 180 hours, to be accomplished within 3 months. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | The internship can be started the earliest in the second semester. The internship needs to be approved by the study director. Therefore students need to hand in a short description to the study secretary before they start the internship. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 860-0700-00L | Internship - Long The internship can be started the earliest in the second semester. The internship needs to be approved by the study director. Therefore students need to hand in a short description to the study secretary before they start the internship. | W | 12 credits | external organisers | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | The internship is a voluntary part of the MSc curriculum. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | The internship serves to make students familiar with policy analysis in a real world setting, for instance in a government agency, a regulatory or public affairs division of a private sector firm, or a consulting firm focused on policy analysis. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | The long internship corresponds to a workload of 360 hours, to be accomplished within 6 months. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | The internship can be started the earliest in the second semester. The internship needs to be approved by the study director. We ask students to hand in a short description to the study secretary before they start the internship. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Master's Thesis | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Number | Title | Type | ECTS | Hours | Lecturers | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 860-0900-00L | Master's Thesis Only students who fulfill the following criteria are allowed to begin with their master thesis: a. successful completion of the bachelor programme; b. fulfilling of any additional requirements necessary to gain admission to the master programme. | O | 30 credits | 64D | Lecturers | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | The thesis should demonstrate the students ability to conduct independent research on the basis of the theoreticel and methodological knowledge acquired during the MSc program. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | The thesis should demonstrate the students ability to conduct independent research on the basis of the theoreticel and methodological knowledge acquired during the MSc program. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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