Technology, Science and Society

COURSE OVERVIEW

You have grown up in a digital age, meaning digital technologies have shaped the ways in which you view, understand and engage with the world. You now depend on digital technologies to navigate your daily life, but have you ever paused to think about why such dependencies came about, and how they have transformed yourself, your relationships, and the wider world in which you live, work and play?

The impact of digital technologies has been dramatic, but it has also been relatively recent. Just twenty years ago, societies, businesses, cities and governments operated very differently than they do today. Go back fifty years and the differences are even more pronounced. Whilst various factors have contributed to these developments, digital technologies have arguably attracted the most interest, criticism and debate.

This course explores key themes in the encroachment of digital technologies into everyday life, and the subsequent emergence of “digital cultures”. It considers the ways in which digital technologies have enabled the constraints of space and time to be overcome, business processes to be disrupted, new forms of content to be reproduced, identities and communities to be forged, and cities to be managed. It also considers the ways in which they have led to new expressions of power and control, new channels of resistance, and new forms of inequality. Upon completion of the course, you will appreciate the breadth and depth of digital cultures, and how they have come to shape who you are today.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

• Understand what digital cultures are, how they came about, and why their impact has been so significant.
• Understand how digital cultures are rooted in, but have also transformed, the logics of space and time.
• Understand how digital cultures have brought about changes in business operations, the production of content, the formation of identity and community, and the management of cities.
• Understand how digital technologies have led to new forms of power, resistance and inequality.
• Understand themselves, and how digital cultures can both positively and negatively affect their lives.

COURSE OVERVIEW

This module is designed to introduce students to some key concepts within environmental history and STS studies, especially the impact and control of science and technology, with particular focus on the risks that these have posed to environmental sustainability and society in parts of Asia historically. Focusing on the history of the British Empire in Asia as a way of thinking around such issues, it uses imperial history as a lens into the development of ideas in environmental, medical and climatic science. It also considers the technological transformations that enabled and facilitated global imperial expansion. In so doing, it considers imperialism’s role in environmental change in Asia; the transposition of scientific thought between West and East and, the evolution of environmentalism as a movement. It also seeks to promote interdisciplinary thinking about critical contemporary challenges by thinking through the complex historical interconnections of society, environment and science.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

• Have a firm grasp of the multi-disciplinary and historical concepts and theories that inform the broad field of environmental history within the context of nineteenth century imperialism.
• By undertaking primary source analysis, become confident in rapid critical thinking, objective analysis and the articulation of varying viewpoints. While based on historical sources, these skills are transferable across a range of disciplines and job roles.
• Develop a greater appreciation of some of the environmental issues and challenges that face us in Asia, and the world, today, with the benefit of a long-view.
• By taking part in group activities and presentations, develop skills in effective collaboration, teamwork, and communications.
• Develop independent thinking and a readiness to challenge or critique accepted narratives.

COURSE OVERVIEW

In Technology and World Change, we show our students how technology has changed and continues to change the lives of people and society. We study the processes by which technology and modern society have co-evolved, especially how the past provides insights on potential changes in the future. We study specific examples of how technological innovations have been created, refined and implemented by entrepreneurs, larger corporations or industrial systems. This course trains students to think critically in a broad-based, interdisciplinary manner, and to analyse matters of potential uncertainty and ambiguity. After this course, students should be more perceptive to opportunities for innovations and technological change, regardless of the industry they will be in.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

• Understand how civilizations changed in antiquity and the present is derived from past technological changes, and conversely, how civilization shapes the development and use of technology.
• Understand the antecedents and consequences of historical and contemporary agricultural and industrial revolutions; these being a broader lens within which socio-economic activity and technological change can be viewed.
• Become more confident and capable in understanding how innovations and technology come about, including specific examples of how technology (in product, process or service) advances in historical and current contexts.
• Learn scientific investigative techniques for gaining insights into multifaceted phenomena (eg, ’natural experiments’ such as Jared Diamond’s investigation into the causes of geographical disparity in modern technological development).
• Develop abilities to critically analyze data and to formulate plans for analysis (eg, determining what data to collect, how the data should be analyzed and how the results should be interpreted); this includes issues with uncertainty and ambiguity.
• Integrate knowledge from different academic disciplines in critiquing and assessing the impact of technological innovations.
• Understand the basic concepts of different technologies including the Digital Revolution, Block Chain, IoT and AI, and will be better prepared to face the changing external demand and acquire the multi-disciplinary competencies.
• Identify potential business opportunities from technological and world changes.
• Become capable of asking intelligent questions to assess the technological feasibility and economic viability of potential technological innovations.
• Approach in an analytical manner on how to be an innovator and a disruptive innovator.

COURSE OVERVIEW

This course introduces students to climate change, both within cities and globally, through a predominant Science, Technology and Society (STS) perspective. After first understanding basic local and global climate science, students will examine case studies from Singapore and the region. Students will understand up-to-date research on how

1. Socio-economic inequalities heighten risks towards urban populations, and
2. Technological innovation evolves with applied nature-based solutions in reducing climate vulnerabilities. We conclude the course by examining the relevant interactions between (i) and (ii) across spatial and temporal scales.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

Disciplinary and Multidisciplinary Knowledge

• Understand how the confluence of scientific, social scientific, and humanities knowledge are essential to understanding climate change.

Intellectual and Creative Skills

• Through critical thinking engendered from class discussions, lead them to applying effective management and innovation principles towards managing climate change impacts.

Global Citizenship

• Become cognizant on how personal actions and group decisions can impact upon the larger global community through the larger scale climate system.

COURSE OVERVIEW

Today, knowledge and social development are unthinkable without one another. Science and Technology Studies (STS) is the interdisciplinary study of how science and technology shape society and the environment, and conversely, how society and the environment shape science and technology. Innovation and maturation, systems and regulation, risk and failure are the key notions that exemplify this dynamic relationship.

In this course, we will analyze what science is, how it works, and how society provides the means and framework for scientific and technological knowledge. We will draw from various perspectives in the humanities and social sciences, including those of history, anthropology, sociology and public policy to explore different forms of interaction between science, technology, and society. In other words, we will examine the connections between scientific theories and practices, and our social, cultural, economic, and political lives. Specific topics covered include nuclear power and waste, regulation of the internet, data and self-hood, as well as climate change politics.

The first unit introduces central ideas in Science and Technology Studies (STS). In unit two, we focus on assumptions and authority of science and technology, asking who benefits from how particular research agendas or new technologies are designed, and who bears the risks of living with uncertain science or dangerous technologies. The final unit explores controversial issues in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), and examines how policy-makers, scientists and STS scholars have addressed conflict and controversy.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

• Grasp analytical differences between a variety of disciplinary perspectives, to identify key sites where social and technical issues interlock and to explain the interdependence between identified problems and possible solutions in the realms of technology and politics.
• Analyze both primary and secondary sources, to collect, structure and synthesize evidence and to articulate their arguments regarding the connection between scientific knowledge, technological development and human values.
• Group work and face-to-face interaction is the primary means of communication in this course, based on the learning-by-doing approach to the improvement of communication skills as well as strong encouragement of self-reflection and peer feedback.
• By investigating case studies from different national contexts across the globe, develop intercultural understanding and a sense of responsibility for those problems that can only be solved on a global scale.

COURSE OVERVIEW

This module aims to introduce students to topics within the emerging field of climate history. After an overview of the field, it focuses on two trajectories.

First the complex relationship between society and climate. Whilst we are well aware today how humans have shaped our climate, the story of how climate has shaped us is less well understood. Climate has played a role in socio-political changes including the rise and fall of civilizations, to the shaping of sociocultural traditions and customs.

Second, it looks at the development of the science of climate and the meteorology. It explores climate science as a global phenomenon, influenced by scientific ideas and movements that circulated across borders and empires, but also as a response to local circumstances, especially extremes of weather.

It also considers some of the broader challenges being faced because of climate change today and the role of the historian in current climate change debate. It has a particular focus on Asia and the exchange of knowledge about climate and weather between East and West.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

• Have a firm grasp of the basic concepts and theories that inform the broad field of the history of the climate.
• Be confident with using primary sources for the study of historical issues.
• Provide insights into climate related issues as they have developed over time, and the processes and politics that shaped the same.
• Be more aware of the long history of environmental thought.
• Be more aware of the role of climate in shaping human culture, in addition to the impact of man on the climate.
• Develop skills in critical objective analysis and interpretation.

COURSE OVERVIEW

This course explores the idea(l) of technological and innovative ‘solutions’ in the context of the contemporary social, political, and economic challenges facing cities. It situates these technological solutions, and the global suppliers thereof, in the wider relationship between processes of problem-solving and metropolitan governance. It adopts interdisciplinary perspectives from science and technology studies, urban studies and urban planning, critical policy studies, geography, and sociology to evaluate the nature, scale, and effectiveness of these solutions to city challenges locally and globally.

Drawing on case studies internationally as well as from Singapore, students will learn about:

(a) different technological tropes of urban solutions;

(b) the history and culture of technocratic problem solving in the urban context;

(c) the global capitalist landscape of urban solutions providers, in particular technology companies; and

(d) Singapore’s peculiar standing as a self-styled, ideal-type ‘model’ of urban solutions, particularly for countries and cities in the Global South. Particular emphasis will be laid on the increasingly important role of technology companies as suppliers of (claims to)  ’solutions’ for urban challenges, as well as on critical perspectives of place, politics, and power, to continually ask questions of who has the power to define ‘problems’ and ‘solutions’ (and for whom?).

Over thirteen weeks of readings, field-trips, and seminar discussions, students will learn to problematize and critically reflect on the contradictory conceptions of ‘solutions’ and ‘problems’ in the context of (global) metropolitan governance from the distinctive position of a ‘model’ city.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

• Be cognizant of how technology is embedded within the processes and politics of contemporary urban policymaking.
• Be critically aware of how cities came to be constructed and viewed as problem-solving sites of urban governance, and the challenges as well as opportunities created by technological innovation in this regard.
• Be knowledgeable of experiences of urban governance across different social, political, and economic contexts, especially in the Global South.

COURSE OVERVIEW

The newest development in machine learning methods, such as Deep Neural Networks, brought about ubiquitous proclamations of a radical societal change. Amidst utopian visions of technological enthusiasts and dystopian scenarios advanced by the sceptics that proliferate in media, some basic questions about the aims and the tools of AI remain obscured. "Can Machines think?”

This class takes one of the central questions addressed to and by the proponents of the AI, artists, and philosophers as an entry point to consider the current emphasis on the transformative potential of machine learning from a historical perspective. Therefore, the course structure is chronological.

We will situate the field of AI in the long tradition of automata construction, as well as in the context of a cold war meta-discipline of cybernetics. We will read the original works of the founders of the field, such as Alan Turing and John McCarthy, to reconstruct the main lines of the intellectual development of the field as well as its paradoxes. We will also overview some of the main philosophical and ethical debates around the notions of “intelligence”, “rationality", and “mind” in light of the computational technics for decision making.

Finally, the course materials include a selection of science fiction novels, films, and short stories in order to discuss the notion of technological imagination as a link connecting public science, cultural production, and the formation of a scientific/engineering research programs.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

• Have a firm grasp of the basic concepts related to the field of AI, such as strong and weak AI, and the origins of intellectual controversies around them.
• Provide insights into the historical dynamics of the human search to create autonomous and intelligent devices as well as their representations in different media.
• Be knowledgeable of the different approaches to AI across various national and political contexts.
• Know how to analyze and deploy cultural sources to construct a historical argument.

COURSE OVERVIEW

The world is rapidly urbanizing. More and more cities in Asia and around the world are becoming increasingly popular as economic powerhouses and magnets for rural migrants. All big cities in both First and Third World countries such as New York, London, Tokyo, Paris, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, New Delhi, Jakarta etc. have to cope with high population density and serious challenges such as air pollution, traffic congestion or waste management. How do we pack more people into big cities and yet continue to achieve a high quality of life? How do we create and manage ‘good cities’ which are safe, spacious, green, connected, fair and resilient? How can cities create economic wealth while still fulfilling the CSR responsibilities of sustaining a “Green Planet”? What are the best practice designs and technical ‘smart city’ solutions which could be leveraged to tackle these challenges and how can they be successfully commercialized? This course will provide answers to these questions with special emphasis on the managerial and commercial aspects of smart city concepts.

The key lies in creating and effectively managing innovative and sustainable smart cities able to leverage on new technologies such as smart grids or sensor networks to create a place where people can live, play and work well. Starting from the stakeholder requirements of citizens and planners of innovative cities, the course will introduce students to urban design concepts as well as commercialization, management challenges and implementation issues of the smart city model. There will also be a focus on how good governance and enabling technologies such as sensor networks can facilitate the creation, management and sustainability of ‘good’ cities. 

With the help of case studies and resource persons such as industry leaders, innovative city designers, tech experts and business development experts from local and international companies, students will be familiarized with the opportunities and challenges of the ‘smart city business’ which represents a key element in the value creation and extraction strategy of the Singapore Government and related businesses. Local site visits to ‘smart’ urban components in Singapore will complement the learning experience (note: due to the Covid-19 situation, these will be virtual site visits).

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

Taxonomy of Innovative & Sustainable Cities

• Describe the core characteristics of a Smart City and respective concepts.
• Explain the unique characteristics of each component and how it adds value to innovative and sustainable (smart) cities.

Design of Innovative & Sustainable Cities

• Understand the planning and design principles of Innovative & Sustainable Cities.
• Explain the workings of each component of Innovative & Sustainable Cities.

In-depth study of selected (Mega) Cities

• Be familiar with the challenges of selected mega cities around the globe and understand how the smart city concept can add value in terms of livability.

Commercialization of the Smart City Concept

• Appreciate the challenges in successfully commercializing smart city concepts and applications.
• Know some of the key players in the Singapore context which are involved in this service sector and establish network contacts.

COURSE OVERVIEW

This course is a response to the increasing use of robotics, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and digital technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) applications in business and society. Drones are unmanned, multi-purpose tools. Their history can be traced back to World War I when the US army experimented with unmanned aerial torpedos. Nowadays, drone technology belongs to the military arsenal of many nations. Drones serve many purposes (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance etc.), and they can be deadly.

In business and society, drones are utilized to capture images of people and/or buildings, to monitor agricultural conditions, to take pictures from (or of) hard to reach places, to assess the impact of climate change on rainforests, to film events, to deliver parcels, to survey real estate, to deliver help to heart attack victims in remote areas via a flying defibrillator or to fly life-saving kits to swimmers in emergency situations.

In view of their increasing importance in terms of commercial value creation, R&D (it is estimated that about $6.4 billion is spent annually for R&D on drones), job creation, innovation (e.g. Internet of Things), new forms of warfare as well as legal/moral-ethical/regulatory concerns, it is imperative that students learn to critically appreciate the multiple and often conflicting implications and consequences of this technology for business and society.

Similarly, the increasing use of AR (defined as an enhanced version of the real physical world that is achieved through the use of digital visual elements, sound, or other sensory stimuli delivered via technology) and VR (which refers to the use of computer technology to create a simulated environment enabling users to immerse themselves in an entirely different virtual environment created and rendered by computers) can have unintended effects such as data misuse, loss of freedom or harm to one’s reputation. 

To build holistic digital capabilities, students will have to read widely and familiarize themselves with the various functionalities of robotics, UAVs and immersive technologies in order to critically assess these technologies and to articulate informed opinions about ‘the good’, ‘the bad’, and ‘the future’ of these novel technological developments. The course will be taught by a multi-disciplinary team of instructors plus exposure to tech entrepreneurs and digital (corporate) innovation champions.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

The overall objective of this module is to equip students with core knowledge of drone and 3D robotics technology from a holistic perspective – i.e. technology, business and societal impact as well as ethical issues.

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate the ability to critically explain the functioning of selected use cases of drone, robot (digital) and immersive technologies (AR/VR) in various verticals and industry sectors.
• Demonstrate the ability to critically evaluate the multiple and often conflicting implications and consequences of drone, robot (digital) and immersive technologies in business and society.
• Demonstrate the ability to identify key stakeholders in business and society and understand their interests, critically apply ethical perspectives to problems, and manage the competing, or even conflicting, concerns that often arise from the development and use of a disruptive technologies related to UAVs, robots and AR/VR.
• Develop competencies related to the historical evolution of UAVs (drones), robot (digital) and immersive technologies (AR/VR), including the critical analysis of contemporary use cases of such novel technologies in logistics, supply chain management, transportation, manufacturing etc.
• Develop digital capabilities with regard to drones, robot (digital) and immersive technologies (AR/VR) by doing research on the workings of the respective technology, internalizing the basic technology functions, and explaining how they (basically) work.
• Describe and analyze key commercial (incl. military) applications of drones, (digital) robot and immersive technologies in various verticals and sectors. They can explain how new disruptive digital technologies produce new value creation opportunities in business and society. Students can articulate the start-up potential and future impact of drones, robot and immersive technologies.
• Assess ‘the good’, ‘the bad’, and ‘the future’ of novel technologies such as robotics, UAVs and immersive technologies (AR/VR).
• Articulate some of the legal, regulatory & ethical-moral issues of deploying drones, robots and immersive technologies in business and society.
• Critically evaluate the call by robotics experts to ban autonomous weapons and their concerns about the potentially disastrous effects of the artificial intelligence revolution for humanity.

COURSE OVERVIEW

The past 20 years have seen several global epidemics and pandemics: 2003 SARS, 2009 Flu Pandemic, the continuing Ebola outbreaks since 2014, and now, COVID-19. Discussions about preparedness for an outbreak abound and systems of biological research, biomedical interventions, and global health measures are implemented to contain and resolve an outbreak.

Governments and communities respond by suspending some privileges as scientists and institutions fast-track therapeutic solutions. While these events may feel “unprecedented,” epidemics have occurred in the past. The key is to understand what has changed and what has remained similar.

This course examines epidemics from the perspectives of history of biomedicine and global health. Understanding the history of epidemics will help us attain a comprehensive understanding about what epidemics actually are. This knowledge will also aid in our social responses to COVID-19 in our everyday lives, chart informed biomedical
interventions and potential socio-political actions. We will explore questions such as, How have epidemics shaped society? How did the biomedical practices around epidemics arise? Are vaccines really the “magic bullet” to solve all of our problems?

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

Disciplinary and Multidisciplinary Knowledge

• Draw from the history of biomedicine, global health, and science and technology studies to identify the relationship between society, health, and politics; evaluate the significance of biomedicine and public/global health; and understand the reactions and responses to epidemics.

Interpersonal Skills

• By working in collaborative projects, cooperate in teams to analyze the emergence and spread of biomedicine and global health; engage in combining the diverse viewpoints on health to provide an integrated and constructive analysis.

Intellectual and Creative Skills

• Apply multidisciplinary perspectives to critically evaluate the biologization of health; compose a historically-informed, critical analysis of biomedical and public/global health interventions; how epidemics have shaped society as much as society has shaped the emergence of epidemics. Students will also learn to use historical tools for research.

Global Citizenship

• Use the knowledge gained from the course to demonstrate their ability to understand how biomedical practices may be both beneficial and harmful to different peoples; and how local histories and power relations inform particular attitudes toward global health and biomedicine. Doing so allow us to understand that epidemics affect diverse peoples across the world in different ways. We will think critically about which practices may count as ethical actions in the time of epidemics.

COURSE OVERVIEW

Biotechnology has emerged as one of the most promising and potentially profitable fields for venture capital, the government, health practitioners, consumers, and patients. Some biotechnological companies like 23andMe promise clients access to their ancient ancestry with a simple DNA swab. Scientists have harnessed the power of cloning that promises miraculous cures through stem cell therapies. Many patients have pinned their hopes in the secrets of the BRCA genes to find that elusive cure for breast cancer. But what is biotechnology? How did the field emerge and for what purpose? What are the potentials and dangers of this new field? Who actually benefits from new biotechnologies? This course will explore these questions by examining the modern history of biotechnology and its embedding in a global, capitalist society. We will trace the political ideals, scientific developments, technological infrastructures, and new economic modes that made biotechnology possible.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

Disciplinary and Multidisciplinary Knowledge 

• Draw from history and science and technology studies to identify the role of social, economic, and political changes that shaped the emergence of modern biotechnology.

Interpersonal Skills

• By working in collaborative projects, cooperate in teams to analyze biotechnological innovations and engage in constructive and productive debates on opposing viewpoints.

Intellectual and Creative Skills

• Apply multidisciplinary perspectives to critically evaluate biotechnological products, companies, problems, and discourses; deconstruct hyped, cultural discourses around the promises of biotechnology. Students should also become familiar with using the tools for historical research.

Global Citizenship

• Use the knowledge gained from the course to demonstrate their ability to understand their relationship to biotechnology and contemplate on the ethics of biotechnology-like innovations that may profoundly shape society.

COURSE OVERVIEW

This course is aimed at anyone who wants to gain an understanding of the place of science in our world and how it relates to other parts of our culture.

Science plays a central role in our lives. It is the source of new technological developments, and of information about safety and risks that are relevant to our decisions as individuals and as a society. Yet many people find science disquieting. There is a feeling that science destroys the wonder of nature. Moreover, many people mistrust what scientists tell them.

In this course we will dive into an investigation of the nature of science and its place in modern culture. Among the questions to be addressed are: What distinguishes science from non-science? What, if anything, is the proper scientific method? Can I know things about the future? In what sense, if any, is science “objective”? Is science biased? What is the proper role of science in society, and what are the ethical obligations of scientists?

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

• Gain an understanding of how the modern scientific worldview came about.
• Learn the basics of scientific methodology.
• Become familiar with major points of view on the relation between science and religion, and between science and value judgments, and gain an appreciation for the place of science within our culture.
• Become familiar with the basics of some contemporary scientific controversies. Most importantly, students will develop skills needed to distinguish scientific claims that are well-supported by evidence from those that are not.

COURSE OVERVIEW

This course provides students with a set of interweaving and interdisciplinary concepts across the social sciences regarding the what, the how and the why regarding the implementation of technology on urban sustainability issues.

Topics to be covered include

1. Sustainability in cities, particularly in the context of environmental and climate change.
2. The role of technology in enhancing and disrupting “normal” ways of life in the city, through the use of shared riding/food delivery apps, and social media.
3. How technology applied judiciously can enhance livability and livelihoods for a wide range of urban residents who are both technology-savvy and residents uncomfortable using technology.

Students will gain an understanding of how selected industries consider and apply these technologies towards urban sustainability issues. While there will be some in-class meetings to discuss theoretical concepts, learning will be primarily experiential in nature through class discussion, group exercises, and a team project. Guest speakers with practical and industrial experience may be invited as well. The course project will work with one or two industry
sponsors. Students are expected to conceive a solution to address a defined problem statement, related to an aspect of urban sustainability with societal impact, and in accordance to the real-world needs of the industry sponsor.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

Disciplinary and Multidisciplinary Knowledge

• Appreciate knowledge on technology and society from a variety of disciplinary perspectives.

Intellectual, Management and Creative Skills

• Demonstrate how “book” knowledge must be complemented by practical applied knowledge, especially in the context of management decisions within industries. Students’ creativity in considering solutions will also be developed in the context of the group project with the industrial partner.

* Course Syllabus is under review and will be provided in due time. This course will not be offered in AY 21/22 Term 1.

COURSE OVERVIEW

The goal of the course is to provide a broad appreciation for the intersection of emerging technologies and the law.

Often times there is not enough (or even any) law that adequately regulates a particular area. In some instances, the courts can apply regulations and laws from similar technologies as a stopgap. This course aims to show where the law adequately regulates an emerging technology, and where there is room for improvement. This course will also provide a section that focuses primarily on the legal issues that arise at the novel intersection between pandemics, technology and the law. The course aims to have an international bent, looking at how different regimes apply their laws, and how those efforts promote or stymie innovation.

This is a short course and it is impossible to provide even a cursory overview of all interesting and emerging technologies. As such, this syllabus is only a guideline for potential analysis and discussion. We will look to the students to decide what areas in particular interest them and the class will try to focus there.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

• Issue spot at the intersection of law and technology. Rather, than provide students with discussion of the particulars of law as they stand today, the course aims to provide students with the tools to appreciate where the law might be heading given their understanding of the broader issues.

COURSE OVERVIEW

Take your smartphone out and study it. Its shape and functions—do you wonder how they were influenced by social, economic, political, and cultural forces? Do you think it changed the way people interact with one another? And when you look at it, does it give you hope or make you nervous about what may come? In this class, we will explore how technological artifacts and systems— from the ships early factories to the internet—have shaped (and are shaped by) social, cultural, economic, and political factors.

The course’s underlying premise is that “technology”—a concept that carries a multifaceted ideological baggage—only makes sense when understood as being embedded in specific social, material, and ideological configurations. That is to say, there are histories of technologies. Instead of a comprehensive survey, the course will unfold through chronologically arranged topics that include the emergence of industrial society, imperial mobility, urban spectacles, systems of mass production, gendered consumption, digital cultures, risk in the Anthropocene, and technological imaginings.

The unifying theme weaving all these topics together will be that far from being deterministic, technology is instead better understood as a site of contestation and negotiation for different visions of society. So that students can dig deeper into those tensions, each week will feature scholarly readings and two primary source-driven case studies in which groups will explore the complex intersection between technology and society—including Singaporean rickshaws, the Magnitogorsk Soviet industrial city, the contraceptive pill, and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. For their final project, students will select a technological artifact and write a historical essay about its development and/or use.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

Disciplinary and Multidisciplinary Knowledge

• Critically engage with primary sources, confidently interpreting and contextualizing them.
• Have a firm grasp of some of the main methods historians have used to approach the study of technology.

Global Citizenship

• Provide insights into how technology is shaped (and can shape) the social, the material, and the ideological across different cultures.
• Articulate how technological artifacts serve as sites of contestation and negotiation of larger societal issues.

Intellectual and Creative Skills

• Work individually and collaboratively to construct nuanced historical narratives from fragmented primary sources and other scholarly arguments.
• Think of ways in which the past can inform or limit our understanding of present challenges.

COURSE OVERVIEW

The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 in 2019 presented the global scientific community with major challenges, from uncovering the origins of this new strain of coronavirus to developing a vaccine to help prevent future outbreaks. However, epidemics and pandemics are not just biological phenomena—they are also intimately intertwined with society and culture. Throughout history different communities have found diverse ways to make sense of and tackle the rapid spread of disease. In turn, those intense experiences have shaped questions concerning rights and responsibilities, the boundaries of belonging, and risk and prevention.

This course introduces students to the different ways humanists and social scientists have approached the study of communicable diseases in the modern era. It begins with discussions of how to talk about and how to frame this field of study, and then follows a loosely chronological structure—starting with nineteenth-century debates about the nature of cholera and ending with the complex relationship between emerging viruses and globalization. On the way we explore how tropical diseases helped shape and were shaped by colonialism; the networks that connect diseases, vectors, and populations; the fraught history of vaccine resistance; the massive mobilization in response to the devastating 1918 influenza pandemic; and the way stigma and activism has defined the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

Disciplinary and Multidisciplinary Knowledge

• Critically engage with primary sources, confidently interpreting and contextualizing them.
• Develop a firm grasp of basic concepts and theories that inform the study of epidemics and pandemics from the perspectives of the humanities and social sciences.

Global Citizenship

• Provide insights into how the understanding of infectious diseases has changed over time, and the ways it is inflected by cultural, political, social, economic, and geographic factors.
• Articulate some of the major challenges faced by societies when confronted with the outbreak of infectious diseases.

Intellectual and Creative Skills

• Think of ways in which the past can inform or limit our understanding of present challenges.

COURSE OVERVIEW

This course is aimed at anyone who wants to gain an understanding of climate change, the moral problems it raises, and the responsibilities we have, individually and collectively, because of it.

This course will consider several interrelated issues connected to climate change. Such issues include: What ethical challenges does climate change raise? Who has a right to what emission levels? How do we negotiate between collective and individual self-interests? What would constitute a just allocation of the burdens of climate change? What can economic analysis tell us (and not tell us) about climate change? In what ways does uncertainty challenge our ability to understand what we should do about climate change? Why might geoengineering be morally problematic? What are we individually and collectively required to do about climate change? What are our responsibilities toward future generations and the environment, and how do we take these into account? 

This course will examine the science, and look closely at the interplay of science and public policy. It will also look at the role of values in science.

This course will approach these issues from a variety of perspectives. Readings will drawn from climate science, philosophy, economics, environmental studies, public policy, and popular media, among other sources.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

• Gain an understanding of some basic climate science and scientific methodology, as well as public policy.
• Become familiar with the moral problems that arise from climate change, and with the challenges that come from trying to address them.
• Become aware of the individual and collective responsibilities they have towards others, non-human animals, and the environment.

COURSE OVERVIEW

This course is dedicated to curious laypersons. In your professional life after graduation, whatever your chosen field, you will face two certainties. First, a professional matter which involves machine learning or the Blockchain. Second, you will work with a lawyer! This course gives you a toolkit, a shorthand for constructive dialogue with a lawyer’s concerns, to solve your problems within your domain expertise.

Consider this example: what is your understanding of a “token”? A banker might think about asset ownership records, and link a “token” to “accounts”. To a programmer, a “token” could be a technical standard for a fungible unit of value on the Blockchain. In contrast, a lawyer understands a “token” based on legislation or judge-made law. Significantly, lawyers have an exclusive right to advocate for all your professional interests in a court of law.

This course will cover legal reactions to technological innovations in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. We will examine case studies in Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain concerning, for instance, autonomous vehicles and smart contracts, which are dumb contracts.

Lawyers are trained to shape these realities with words by manipulating natural language. You will understand how – and why - lawyers convert the realities of algorithms and codes into legalese to mitigate harm against persons, to aid commercial growth and resolve its disputes. 

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

Disciplinary and Multidisciplinary Knowledge

• Explain the role of legal sources and legal reasoning in technology-related issues.
• Discuss the dynamic tensions between traditional law-making by State organs, and the pace of technological innovations in Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain.

Intellectual and Creative Skills

• Analyse the problems caused by Artificial Intelligence in criminal and tort law, commerce, and misinformation.
• Formulate a critical position as to the law’s role in strengthening blockchain innovations in cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens, and decentralised dispute resolution.

COURSE OVERVIEW

Technology (specifically AI) has evolved beyond a technical proposition to a shaping force of our future, interwoven into social, cultural and political elements of human society.

We are at the genesis of how the relationship between humans and AI is evolving. More than ever, it is crucial to examine a fundamental question of what does it mean to be a human (and AI). Can AI perceive, communicate and sense as well as humans do, or perhaps even better?

Such pertinent questions require a multidisciplinary lens, which this course equips you with to dexterously navigate an unfolding future as leaders of today. Venture beyond an academic discourse and gain hands-on experience as a psychologist and AI scientist to develop an AI powered chatbot.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

Disciplinary and Multidisciplinary Knowledge

• Articulate the uniqueness of humans and AI from psychological and technical perspectives.

Intellectual and Creative Skills

• Recommend ways in which humans and AI can live with each other in a synergistic manner.

Personal Mastery

• Demonstrate design and technical competencies in developing a chatbot.

COURSE OVERVIEW

The notion that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the capacity to transform the way society operates has long been a part of popular culture. Androids have been dreaming of electric sheep since 1968, and Tom Cruise was already arresting pre-criminals in 2002. With the explosion of data available to governments and companies, and cloud computing platforms making supercomputing power widely available, science fiction and reality have never been closer. However, the true capabilities and limitations of AI are often poorly understood, as some predict doom, while others promise the moon. Modern AI techniques have the capacity to improve the way organisations operate, improving decision-making and increasing human and environmental wellbeing, but also carry the potential to cause harm if used irresponsibly or ignorantly.

Accessible to technical and non-technical students alike, this course will introduce you to key techniques, showing how they can be flexibly applied to a range of problems, from using game theory to intercept wildlife poachers, through machine learning models for crime prediction, to risk-aware logistics scheduling. The course will guide you through the ethical implications of AI, considering the effects of biased data and the uncritical application of techniques. By the end of the course you will have a working understanding of the capacities and limitations of practical AI, equipping you to critically analyse new developments, and engage in responsible, informed decision-making in the workplace. 

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

Global Citizenship

• Have an accurate understanding of the potential impact of AI and its ethics, and be able to apply the understanding to assess the ethical implications of applying AI to other domains.

Interpersonal Skills

• Explain a range of AI techniques for societal transformation. This will equip them to act as a bridge in the workplace between technical and non-technical colleagues, to foster common understanding.

Intellectual and Creative Skills

• Apply the problem-solving process of breaking down a problem and selecting appropriate AI techniques to apply to its resolution.

COURSE OVERVIEW

The pace of development in modern computing can be bewildering. New technologies appear, making headlines, yet the important details of what they are and how they work often seem to be secrets that are accessible to only an initiated few. This course provides an introduction to the hot technologies in modern computing, demystifying terminology and breaking down the relevant technical information for students of all backgrounds. The course scope encompasses both hot topics that grab headlines, and recent developments that have become central to modern computing infrastructure, understanding how the technology developed to this point, and examining where it may progress in the future. Typical topics include blockchain, Internet of Things, cloud computing and machine learning.

This course will equip you with an understanding of key contemporary technologies. It does not shy away from technical details, but presents them in an accessible manner so that you can grasp the capabilities and purpose of the tools discussed. As advances in computing methods are evolved from existing techniques, the insights gained from this course will also give you a head start in getting to grips with further developments in computing in the future. You will also be invited to consider the ethical implications and moral responsibilities of deploying the technologies that pervade our daily lives.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

Personal Mastery

• Understand the technical underpinnings of key modern computing technologies. They will be able to apply this to understand further developments as evolutions of existing technology.

Interpersonal Skills

• Have a sound technical understanding of the technologies covered, and be able to explain both their functions, and their pros and cons to a non-technical audience. Thus, they will be equipped to act as a communication bridge in the workplace to facilitate common understanding.

Global Citizenship

• Have not only a technical understanding of major topics in contemporary computing, but will also be able to analyze the wider ethical implications of these technologies, as they draw on large quantities of data.

COURSE OVERVIEW

What is AI? How does it work, and how do we use it to solve problems? This course co-taught by three experts is an integrative endeavour that strives to address the development of AI technologies across disciplines, across theory and practice, and across past, present, and future. It will introduce students to the fundamental ideas of AI, combining perspectives from history, technology, and business to develop a well-rounded understanding of the origins of the field, its current state of the art, as well as aspirations for the future. With insights from real industry case studies, you will acquire a practical knowledge of the ways AI techniques can, or cannot yet, enhance organisational operations. You will hone your critical thinking skills and practice the problem-solving process that analysts employ in the deployment of AI solutions. Looking ahead, you will gain a preview of the future directions of AI as set by government policies and developing technologies while confronting their social, cultural, and ethical implications.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

Disciplinary and Multidisciplinary Knowledge

• Explain what AI is from both social and technical perspectives, and analyse the ethical and practical issues associated with AI deployment.

Intellectual and Creative Skills

• Analyse operational processes to identify areas that can be enhanced by AI. Drawing on an understanding of key AI techniques they will be able to combine methods into viable solution ideas.

Interpersonal Skills

• Group work and face-to-face interaction is the primary means of communication in this course, based on the learning-by-doing approach to the improvement of communication skills as well as strong encouragement of self-reflection and peer feedback.