R program offers a powerful tool for analyzing and visualizing data, and in recent years it became very popular among (not only) ecologists. It offers great freedom in handling, analysing and visualizing any type of data, however, it also comes up with steep learning curve of S language and frustration from frequent error messages. This practical course should teach students the basic of R program operation and data visualization.

All materials are available on http://bit.ly/r-ecol The main goal is to teach students basic skills of using R program, and prepare them for more advanced courses where R will be used for data analysis and visualization. College of Life Science Main Campus David Zeleny 35 Tuesday 2,3,4 EEB5082 3 Half Department of Lifescience, Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology http://ecology.lifescience.ntu.edu.tw/english/index.htm

Course website: www.bit.ly/VegEcol

The course is introducing main concepts in vegetation ecology. We will focus on different aspects of plant ecology at the community level, including topics like vegetation-environment relationship, vegetation dynamics, plant invasions, diversity patterns, plant traits, vegetation in the historical perspective, vegetation classification, biomes of the World, vegetation of Taiwan etc. We will discuss also more specific topics including vegetation and climate change or conservation, management and restoration.

The course is focused on senior undergraduate and graduate students, who want to gain theoretical knowledge about vegetation ecology, i.e. plant ecology at the community level. Additionally to theoretical lectures, I will also encourage students to deepen their view and interest by additional suggested readings, as well as moderating discussions on potentially interesting or controversial topics related to vegetation ecology.

Class schedule (preliminary):

1. Introduction to vegetation ecology

2. Vegetation and environment 1

3. Vegetation and environment 2

4. Diversity patterns and ecosystem functions

5. Species interactions in plant communities (competition, allelopathy, parasitism, facilitation, mutualisms)

6. Mechanisms of species coexistence in vegetation (assembly rules, niche- vs neutral, storage effect, priority effect)

7. Group discussion (based on reading required papers)

8. Plant traits at community level

9. Vegetation dynamics (succession, disturbance)

10. Midterm quiz

11. Plant invasions and invasibility of plant communities

12. Vegetation classification and vegetation maps

13. Vegetation of the World

14. Vegetation of Taiwan in the context of East Asia

15. Vegetation in the past (Holocene and historical perspective)

16. Vegetation and global change (effect of climate change, myths and facts)

17. Group discussion (based on reading required papers)

18. Applications in vegetation ecology: management, conservation and restoration

Part of the final evaluation will be a written essay on selected topic (in English). Final evaluation will be based on final test, midterm quiz, written essay and activity in the class, mostly joining group discussions.

College of Life Science Main Campus *Prerequisite: General Biology & Ecology (preferred) David Zeleny 20 Wednesday 7,8 EEB5085 2 Half Department of Lifescience, Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology http://ecology.lifescience.ntu.edu.tw/english/index.htm

This course intends to introduce the basic neuroscience. The course is designed for students without Neuroscience background, or even without Biology background. The scope of the course covers the basic structure and sensory and motor function of the nervous system, as well as the high function of the brain and related diseases. Students are expected to gain a broad perspective of how neural information is processed in the brain, and how brain activity determines individual behaviors in response to environmental stress. College of Life Science Academia Sinica Chen Chi Cheng 20 Wednesday 6,7,8 TIPGIN8003 3 Half Taiwan International Graduate Program In Interdisciplinary Neuroscience http://ecology.lifescience.ntu.edu.tw/english/index.htm

This course focuses on establishing epidemiologic concept and the ability of research design, and performing data analyses for observational studies. This course includes three parts: The first part is study design, which gives an introduction of causal inference and the principle of study design. The second part is analytical method, which gives an introduction on data analyses and the applications of statistical method. The third part is critical appraisal, which establishes students ability in reviewing specified literatures. The content of this course mainly follows the book Rothman KJ. Epidemiology: An Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press (2002) with the addition of chapters from other reference books. The examples from Taiwan unique research topics are given and illustrated in the course. For the latter part of this course, students will receive three papers for critical review and then present the results.

For lab data analysis, some example datasets will be distributed to students. Each week, students perform statistical analyses using these datasets and then send TA homework a week later. TA will demonstrate the SAS code and provide the answers for specific topics.

Students may use SAS, Stata, SPSS, and R programs for preparation the homework and lab data analyses.
This course establishes the following competencies via (1) the introduction of epidemiologic concept and research design using Taiwan unique research topics, (2) practice of data analysis, and (3) training on critical review:

1. Correctly use the principle of causal inference on literature reading and doing doctoral research.

2. Understand how random variation and bias affect research findings.

3. Understand the principle of cohort study and case-control study.

4. Learn Taiwan unique research topics.

5. Use statistical program to analyze example data set for observational studies.

College of Public Health Downtown Campus – College of Public Health Lin Hsien-Ho 20 Wednesday 6,7,8 EPM8002 3 Half Graduate Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine http://epm.ntu.edu.tw/?locale=en

Population health and health care system of a nation are increasingly affected by the processes of globalization. This introductory course is aimed to provide an overview of the emerging field of global health. Thru lectures and discussion sessions we will introduce the principles and goals of global health, measurement tools for global health research, and the contemporary development of global health. Invited speakers will address global health theories and practices on a range of topics, such as health care delivery systems, control of communicable and non-communicable diseases, occupational health, environmental health, and the rising influences of global trade policies on health and health inequalities. This course is designed for undergraduate students majoring in global health and students in other departments who may or may not have previous exposure to public health sciences. Each session runs for 3 hours, starting with a one-hour lecture and followed by small-group discussions led by TA, and ending with a final plenary discussion involving the instructor and the whole class. Students will obtain knowledge on public health sciences with a global perspective. College of Public Health Downtown Campus – College of Public Health Shu-Sen Chang 60 Monday 6,7,8 PH3040 3 Half Department of Public Health http://dph.ntu.edu.tw/?locale=en

Global Health Live Pacific is a graduate seminar for PhD and Masters graduate students. The seminar is held once per week for ten (10) weeks via live video (eg www.zoom.us) with international guest lecturers.

The course extends the theory of global health to the practice of global health. The relationship of health, foreign policy, and global health leadership are the cutting edge of the scope of the course. 1. Discuss key issues of current global health from an application perspective.

2. Expand networking opportunities for future global health career opportunities.

3. Practice and hone presentation skills and participate in case studies.

4. Construct a Mission, Vision, and Values (Personal) Career Statement.

5. List and describe global health leader’s characteristics.

College of Public Health Downtown Campus – College of Medicine_ *Restrict to graduate students and Ph.D. students. Chang-Chuan Chan 20 Tuesday 2,3,4 MPH7008 2 Half Master of Public Health, National Taiwan University Distance Learning http://mph.ntu.edu.tw/?locale=en

Class Participation 20%
Two Assignments 20%
Group Project Presentation 15%
Group Project Report 15%
Final exam 30%
1. Understand the role and importance of SOM in an organization.
2. Learn the fundamental concepts, tools and methodologies in SOM.
3. Acquire knowledge about context of application, managerial skills and better attitudes in learning.
College of Management Main Campus *Restrict to students in GMBA program.
Chialin Chen 66 Monday A,B,C GMBA7094 3 Half Global MBA, College of Management http://www.management.ntu.edu.tw/en/GMBA

Statistics and data analysis are probably playing the most important roles in business analytics nowadays. With the ability to conduct scientific statistical studies and systematically analyze data, managers will be able to understand more about their customers, suppliers, competitors, and the business environment. The insights may then facilitate better decision making and help a company to attain competitive advantages. In this fundamental course in the Global MBA (GMBA) program, we will focus on the techniques for conducting basic statistical studies and data analysis. The hope is that students will be capable of doing scientific data analyses in their future GMBA courses and after graduations. Time will be spent on tools, applications, as well as theories. Statistical software will be taught and used throughout this course. For at least part of this course, I plan to adopt the “flipped classroom” principle, which may be new to some students. Please pay attention to the syllabus to get an idea about the design of this course.

This is a required course offered in the GMBA program in National Taiwan University. The GMBA office does not allow non-GMBA students to take or audit this course.

Week Date Topic Suggested Reading
1 9/13 Overview and in-class brainstorming LD, MK, B Ch. 1
2 9/20 (No class: the instructor is in UIUC)
3 9/27 MS Excel operations
4 10/4 (No class: Mid-Autumn Festival)
5 10/11 Exploratory data analysis (1) B Ch. 2
6 10/18 Exploratory data analysis (2) B Ch. 3
7 10/25 Probability B Chs. 4–6
8 11/1 Case study (1)
9 11/8 Distributions and sampling B Ch. 7
10 11/15 (No class: NTU’s birthday)
11 11/22 Hypothesis testing B Chs. 9–10
12 11/29 Regression analysis (1) B Ch. 12
13 12/6 Regression analysis (2) B Chs. 13–14
14 12/13 Case study (2)
15 12/20 Explanation vs. prediction
16 12/27 Data mining and machine learning
17 1/3 Review and preview
18 1/10 Final project presentations
College of Management *Restrict to students in GMBA program. Ling-Chieh Kung 66 Wednesday A,B,C GMBA7098 3 Half Global MBA, College of Management http://www.management.ntu.edu.tw/en/GMBA

Microbial populations are a key component of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and are responsible for mediating a number of important functions, including nutrient cycling and biogeochemical transformations. Molecular biology tools now allow us to describe the diversity and structure of microbial communities in natural systems, and relate these to environmental drivers and ecosystem function.

Course Outline

1.Nucleic acid recovery from environmental samples

2.Prokaryotic systematics:

3.DNA fingerprinting of microbial communities

4.Molecular typing of environmental isolates

5.Expression analysis of functional genes

6.Quantification of environmental microbes

7.Microbial ecology and genomics

8.Molecular detection of uncultured microorganisms

9.Bioremediation

10.Bioinformatics and web resources for phylogenetic analyses The goal of this course is to let students acquire knowledge of the diverse roles that microorganisms play in biological transformations in our environment. College of Bio-Resources & Agriculture *Restrict to graduate students. Chi-Te Liu 10 Wednesday 6,7,8 Biot7005 3 Half Institute of Biotechnology http://www.iob.ntu.edu.tw/main.php?lang=en&Trad2Simp=n

This course tries to integrate technological strategy and business strategy and aims at creating new business opportunities through technological innovation and applications. The aim of the course is to develop an understanding on issues and/or methods for managing technological innovation as a strategic source of the firm. The course will discuss the process, risks, and rewards of technological innovation and its impact on industrial development and changes. The topics covered include: technological innovation strategy, service innovation, technology transfer, high-tech industry development and entrepreneur, network and collaboration, technology evolution, R &D management, technology policy, etc. College of Management Main Campus Bou-Wen Lin 60 Tuesday 7,8,9 BA3003 3 Half Department of Business Administration-Division of Itechnology Management http://www.management.ntu.edu.tw/en/BA