4 Computer Science Course Programs in Asia

Computer science is an intellectually rich and rapidly growing field that has had a profound effect on our society and everyday lives. Today, this field continues to expand in scope and depth and will remain an exciting place to work and learn in coming years. Computer Science majors are in high demand for well- paying jobs in technology, science, business, healthcare, and other sectors. At the same time, the wide- ranging impact of computer science tools and methods demands careful design of the algorithms and systems by which we deploy them, as well as an ability to critique their assumptions and effects in terms of social policy, media and communications, and the arts.

We live in an era where the availability of unprecedented amounts of information and computing resources is erasing the traditional boundaries between disciplines. This is creating new opportunities for multidisciplinary teams to actively engage with and to change the world around them. Experts who combine deep disciplinary knowledge in Mathematics and Computer Science with interdisciplinary skills will play a leading role in such multidisciplinary teams. Applied Mathematics and Computational Sciences is a highly interdisciplinary field which integrates concepts and principles from Mathematics and Computer Science and applies them to Sciences, Engineering, Humanities, and Business. Its distinctive character is an emphasis on modeling and computational thinking that is firmly based on solid theoretical foundations.

We often hear about the relevance and importance of AI in our lives, but often these discussions are centered either around the negative and dystopian topics of surveillance or the hyper positive Silicon Valley views of how this will solve everything. In this class we will look instead at the middle, and how we take a new humanistic approach to this technology by exploring new interactions that can make a positive impact in our lives.

Computational neuroscience has a rich history going back to the original Hodgkin-Huxley model of the action potential and the work of Wilfrid Rall on cable theory and passive dendrites. More recently networks consisting of simple integrate-and-fire neurons have become popular. Nowadays standard simulator software exists to apply these modeling methods, which can then be used to interpret and predict experimental findings. This course introduces some standard modeling methods with an emphasis on simulation of single neurons and synapses and an introduction to integrate-and-fire networks. Each theoretical topic is linked to one or more seminal papers that will be discussed in class. A number of simple exercises using the NEURON simulator will demonstrate single neuron and synapse modeling.