Semester:
Offered:
Hongkun Park (Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and Department of Physics)
First-Year Seminar 52E 4 credits (spring term)
We live in a world that is shaped by science and technology. As modern citizens who will lead the U.S. and the world in the coming generation, we should be aware of the rapidly changing landscape of science and technology and be ready to participate in the decision-making processes for deploying these life-changing developments to the masses. In this seminar, we will learn and debate contemporary topics we encounter every day and use them as motivating examples to explore the underlying science, math, and engineering principles. Some of the issues that we will discuss include, but are not limited to, the COVID-19 pandemic, the prosecutor’s fallacy, climate change, information technology, quantum technology, artificial intelligence, genomics revolution, and brain-machine interfaces. These discussions will teach basic concepts in statistics, thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, information science, biomedical engineering, and nano-bio interfaces. In this seminar, the students will give presentations and participate in discussions and debates.
Note: The seminar is geared toward first-year students who plan to concentrate on humanities and social sciences.
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