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In this course we explore how the common understanding of animals and human-animal relationships has changed in recent years. Module 1 focuses on the role of animals in human physical health and psychological well-being. Module 2 explores the self-awareness of animals, particularly in light of their inability to use spoken language. Finally, Module 3 looks at some of the collective efforts that are undertaken when the treatment or use of animals is seen as inhumane, immoral, and deserving of action for social improvement.

Animals are so important to human existence that it is difficult to imagine the entity we call "society" without them. They play an important role in our language, food, clothing, family structure, economics, education, entertainment, science, recreation, and other areas of social life. In this specialization, we will explore a range of topics, many of which are controversial. Although this is a sociology course, the field of human-animal studies is interdisciplinary. Many of the suggested readings are from fields outside sociology, but this specialization emphasizes their sociological significance throughout the course. Applied learning project This specialization is ideal for those working in animal welfare, including animal shelters, veterinary medicine, training, rehabilitation, and animal control. This specialization is also great for those interested in deepening their knowledge of how people and society treat animals, from common pets to livestock, captive animals, and animals in the wild.

In this course, you will first learn about the Arctic as a geographic region, the peoples who inhabit the Arctic, and the long history of Arctic settlement and exploration. You will then learn about key features of the Arctic environment - its climate and weather, ocean features, sea ice, land features, and the Greenland Ice Sheet, as well as some of the rapid changes that have been observed. Learning Objectives: Appreciate the long history of the Arctic and its peoples. Learn and recall the physical geography of the Arctic, including the major features of the Arctic Ocean and Arctic lands. Describe the major climatic and environmental features of the Arctic, including its sea ice cover, temperature regimes, precipitation, snow cover, land ice, permafrost, and vegetation, the physical processes that produce these features, and how they change.

This course takes a detailed look at the remarkable changes unfolding in the Arctic environment, including the shrinking Arctic sea ice cover, shrinking land ice, thawing permafrost and cascading impacts on Arctic ecosystems. After a review of Arctic climates of the past, attention turns to the possible future of the Arctic's climate and environment.

In this course, you will learn how the changing Arctic environment is tied to the growing economic and strategic importance of the North. After setting the stage through a review of the peoples of the Arctic and how they are dealing with change, Arctic governance, economies national defense, turns attention to marine use of the Arctic, oil and gas exploration, mining, fisheries and tourism. The course ends with a survey of recent Arctic events. Learning Objectives: Articulate the drivers of the growing economic and strategic importance of the Arctic in the context of the environmental changes unfolding in the region, governance, and geopolitics. Identify the impacts of the changing Arctic, both positive and negative, on the peoples of the North.

This specialization starts with an in-depth look at the physical geography of the Arctic and its key climate features, including the ocean's floating sea ice cover, the Greenland Ice Sheet, and patterns of temperature, precipitation, snow cover and permafrost. We will then learn about the remarkable unfolding changes that are transforming the Arctic environment, how they are related to each other, and cascading impacts on terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Attention then turns to the growing economic, strategic, and geopolitical importance of the Arctic in the context of observed environmental changes in the region. Applied learning project This specialization will consist of in-video questions, short quizzes for each module, and a final project for each course. Projects include a set of mapping exercises to gain familiarity with the Arctic region and its climate, a poster designed to illustrate and explain connections between observed physical and ecological changes unfolding in the Arctic and how the Arctic system will likely evolve in the 21st Century, and a project of each student's choice to illustrate how the changing Arctic will affect them and their community.

This course may also be credited toward ECEA 5317, part of the CU Boulder Electrical Engineering Master of Science program. Upon completion of this course, the student will know the difference between systems that you can bet your life on (mission critical) and systems that provide predictable response and quality of service (reliable). This will be accomplished not only by learning mission critical system design methods and models, but also by implementing soft real-time systems and comparing them to hard real-time. Verification methods will be explored to determine the ability to meet mission critical requirements as well as soft real-time requirements so that the student can properly assess the risk, reliability, and consequences of failure in real-time systems. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to apply an architectural style (cyclic executive, RTOS, or embedded Linux) to design a mission-critical, soft real-time, or mixed hard and soft real-time system in more detail, including: ● A thorough understanding of hardware/software device interfaces and resource representation for hardware abstraction layers (HAL, BSP) ● Design trade-offs in various real-time hardware architectures, including single-core, multi-core, hybrid FPGA, GP-GPU, and DSP systems, with an emphasis on multi-core systems ● Mission-critical embedded system architecture and key design elements ● Fault-tolerant processing, memory, and I/O concepts

This course focuses on climate impacts that are occurring and expected across the United States. Our approach will be regional and sectoral, looking at impacts on water, transportation, energy, agriculture, forests, health, and coastal/marine resources. We will also look at how you can use climate risk information to motivate climate action in your family, community, or workplace.

In this course, students will identify the types of actions we can take to address climate change. These actions fall into two broad categories: 1) mitigation, which refers to efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or increase carbon sinks, and 2) adaptation, which refers to our preparation for climate impacts. We will examine technologies, programs, and policies related to both mitigation and adaptation. By the end of the course, students should be able to identify and evaluate climate actions taken by communities, governments, and businesses.

In this course, students will learn about the scientific evidence of human-caused climate change. We will examine how greenhouse gases are causing the Earth to warm and why recent warming is due to human activity. We will also discuss where our climate is heading, including projected future temperatures, precipitation, and sea levels. Students will consider the implications of these changes for our ecosystems, infrastructure, and communities. We will also identify how political beliefs influence our attitudes toward climate change and apply this knowledge to become better climate communicators.

In this specialization, students will be introduced to the main sources of information that make up the scientific consensus on the human-caused causes of climate change and its impacts. We will examine options for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and preparing for their impacts, drawing heavily on the findings of the U.S. Fourth National Climate Assessment. The ultimate goal of the specialization is to enable students to formulate their own plans to reduce emissions and adapt to future impacts that are appropriate for their households, communities, and workplaces. Applied learning project To apply our knowledge of climate change and public opinion on the issue, students will conduct “climate conversations” with a friend, family member, co-worker, or neighbor. We will also create infographics to explain how political action can effectively address climate risks. At the end of the specialization, we will reflect on these projects and how they can spur climate action in our families, communities, and workplaces.

This course introduces the fundamentals of high-performance and parallel computing. It is designed for scientists, engineers, researchers, and anyone who wants to develop the software skills needed to work in parallel software environments. These skills include big data analytics, machine learning, parallel programming, and optimization. We will cover the basics of working in a Linux environment and bash scripting, all the way to high-performance computing and parallel code. We recommend that you be familiar with Fortran 90, C++, or Python for some of the programming assignments. Upon completion of this course, you will be familiar with: The components of a high-performance distributed computing system Types of parallel programming models and the situations in which they can be used High-throughput computing Shared-memory parallelism Distributed-memory parallelism Navigating a typical Linux-based HPC environment Evaluating and analyzing application scalability, including weak and strong scaling Processing quantification This course can be taken for academic credit toward CU Boulder’s Master of Science in Data Science (MS-DS) program, offered on Coursera. The MS-DS is an interdisciplinary degree that features faculty from CU Boulder’s Departments of Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Science, and other departments. The MS-DS program, which is outcomes-based and requires no application, is ideal for individuals with broad educational and/or professional experience in computer science, computer science, mathematics, and statistics. Learn more about the MS-DS program at https://www.coursera.org/degrees/master-of-science-data-science-boulder.