Fall 2007 Courses
Please note: Official Yale College program and course information is found in Yale College Programs of Study, available on line at www.yale.edu/yalecollege/publications/ycps. Because of the varied disciplinary courses offered, East Asian Studies (EAS) and East Asian Languages and Literatures (EALL) credits do not automatically accrue to courses taught in the Peking University-Yale University Joint Program.
Fall 2007 Course Descriptions
Chinese Language:
CHNS 115a: "Elementary Modern Chinese"
CHNS 130a: "Intermediate Modern Chinese"
CHNS 150a: "Advanced Modern Chinese I"
Instructor: Xuan Ya Lecturer, International College for Chinese Language Studies, Peking University
The Chinese language program is supervised and coordinated by faculty in the Yale Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures and is led by Peking University faculty member Xuan Ya. Every Yale student will enroll in one Chinese language course; three levels will be offered.
Students at the fourth-year or higher level will study Chinese in advanced elective courses at Peking University's International College for Chinese Language Studies; Yale credit will be awarded as an independent tutorial on early approval by the Resident Director and the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of East Asian Languages & Literatures.
Students who are fluent in Chinese may be permitted to fulfill the Program's language requirement by auditing a course taught in Chinese at Peking University. This must be arranged in consultation with the Resident Director. No Yale credit will be awarded unless the student and the program can arrange for credit through the appropriate Yale departmental Director of Undergraduate Studies.
CPSC 170: "Introduction to Artificial Intelligence" (Group IV)
Instructor: Tan Shaohua, Peking University
This course is designed to give students primary, but comprehensive mastery of the main applications of artificial intelligence, such as expert systems, machine learning, and natural language processing under the guidance of actual application systems. By exploring knowledge representation, searching, and inference, students can gain an understanding of the effect of artificial intelligence on computer science. Topics covered include an introduction to machine perception and robot kinematics and an introduction to artificial intelligence programming languages.
ECON 120: "Introduction to Chinese Economy" (Group III, So)
Instructor: Dong Chen, Assistant Professor, Economics, Peking University
This course is designed to give students an overview of various aspects of the current Chinese economy, as well as the challenges that it faces. The topics to be covered include the cultural and political background of the Chinese economy, China's market transition, introduction of Chinese manufacturing and financial sectors, foreign trade, FDI, and the reform of SOEs. Study of China's economic policies and institutions will give students a practical understanding of business prospects in China and also offer insight into fundamental economic issues.
E & EB 181: "Key Issues in Evolution" (Group IV, Sc, WR)
This seminar explores the biological and cultural evolution of social interactions through readings from the original literature supported by recent textbooks and monographs. To assess the current status of the materialistic explanation of human nature, we compare the logical soundness of and the empirical support for some major approaches taken in the biological and social sciences.
E & EB 122a: "Principles of Evolution, Ecology and Behavior" (Group IV, Sc)
The major principles of evolution, ecology, and behavior explained and illustrated by recent advances that have changed the field. Emphasis on major events in the history and key transitions in the organization of life. Ecological processes from organisms through populations and communities to the biosphere. Foraging, mating, and selfish and cooperative behavior placed in evolutionary and ecological context. Recommended preparation: MCDB 120a or equivalent.
EENG 235a and 236b: "Special Projects, Beida-Yale Joint Research Center for Microelectronics and Nanotechnology" (Group IV)
Faculty-supervised individual or small-group projects with emphasis on laboratory experience, engineering design or tutorial study. Consult the DUS and faculty member to arrive at a one- to two-page prospectus for submission before the semester begins.
HSAR 352a: "Chinese Art: Symbolism and Philosophy of Life" (Group II, Hu)
Instructor: Ding Ning, Vice Dean and Professor, School of Arts, Peking University
This course offers a panoramic view of Chinese art. Students will be encouraged to identify and appreciate the many media of Chinese art throughout the ages. Some modern art is also introduced in order to illustrate the continuance of the tradition.
LING 117/LING 517/PSYC 137: Psycholinguistics (Group III, So)
Instructor: Maria Piñango, Associate Professor, Linguistics, Yale University
This is an introduction to linguistics from a cognitive science perspective. This course brings together the insights from the study of language as a knowledge system (with special attention to morphological, syntactic and semantic systems), with the study of language as a psychological system (including language acquisition in normal and exceptional circumstances, and language processings). It is an intensive and fairly demanding exploration of the challenges that bringing abstract models of cognitive function together with models of psychological organization currently face. This course enables students to see the differences and similarities between their respective languages within a view of language as a formal system (as a feature of the mind as opposed to as a social convention). In this manner, it allows students from both linguistic cultures to distinguish the social from the psychobiological aspects of their respective languages.
LING 231/LING 631/PSYC 331: Neurolinguistics (Group III, So)
Instructor: Maria Piñango, Associate Professor, Linguistics, Yale University
This course will be concerned with language as a system of the brain (focusing on research from lesion studies, brain diseases such as Alzheimer's, mental illnesses such as Schizophrenia, and neuroimaging). In this course, students would learn to integrate knowledge about experimental techniques, experimental design, statistics and probability, linguistic representation and neurology. The main objective of the course is to expose the students to a diverse body of primary literature (there is no textbook for the course, most of the readings are research papers published in peer-reviewed scientific journals) which has as the unifying aim on the one hand the understanding of how language reveals aspects of cortical distribution, and on the other, what these patterns tell us about how language works as a cognitive capacity. Like Language and Mind, this course has no pre-requisites.
MCDB 470: "Tutorial, Peking-Yale Center for Plant Molecular Genetics and Agro-biotechnology" (Group IV)
Instructor: Xing Wang Deng, Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Yale University
Individual study for qualified students on the following research topics: plant development mechanism; plant biotechnology and functional genomics; plant defense mechanism and plant evolution; plant development and rice biotechnology; plant defense against virus; plant functional genomics; plant hormone action. The course must include one or more written examinations and/or a term paper. To register, the student must prepare a form, available in the office of the director of undergraduate studies, and a written plan of study with bibliography, approved by Professor Deng. The final paper is required before a grade is given. One term of this course fulfills the senior requirement if taken in the senior year.
MCDB 475: "Directed Research, Peking-Yale Center for Plant Molecular Genetics and Agro-biotechnology" (Group IV)
Instructor: Xing Wang Deng, Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Yale University
Research projects under faculty supervision, ordinarily taken to fulfill the senior requirement. This course may be taken before the senior year, but it cannot substitute for other requirements. Students spend approximately ten hours per week in the laboratory and participate in monthly section meetings. At the beginning of the term the student must submit a written proposal of research approved by the Yale faculty sponsor and the instructor in charge of the course. A final research report is required before a grade is given. Research possibilities include: plant sex determination; plant biotechnology and functional genomics; plant defense mechanism and plant evolution; plant development and rice biotechnology; plant defense against virus; plant functional genomics; rice gene function and biotechnology; self-incompatibility mechanism and rice functional genomics; photosynthesis and proteomics; plant development mechanism; plant hormone action.
YPKU 470 Direct Enrollment in Peking University Courses
Students with very advanced Chinese language skills may enroll directly in at least one Peking University course with the permission of the instructor and the approval of the resident director and the Joint Program’s DUS. Should a student wish to petition for credit to the major, then she would also need to present a syllabus to the departmental DUS. Because students are expected to enroll in program courses, including one that fulfills the Chinese language requirement, requests to enroll in more than one Peking University course will be considered on a case by case basis.
