Pompeu Fabra University is a university in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Founded in 1990, it is named after the Catalan philologist Pompeu Fabra. According to Times Higher Education is one of the 7 fastest-rising young universities in the world.
Start programming 3D graphics applications for the webThis free online course will provide web developers, who haveexisting knowledge of JavaScript, with the theoretical and practical knowledge to start programming 3D graphics applications for the web.Most graphics courses start with the very basics. In this course, we take a top-down approach, starting with very high-level scene-editing tools, before drilling down and creating applications with increasing levels of complexity.This course is designed for existing web developerswho have little or no previous experience in creating 3D graphics applications. Youshould be capable of manipulating the DOM using JavaScript or JQuery, and familiar with the concepts of AJAX. You should also have at least intermediate-level programming skills and be comfortable manipulating arrays and objects.
##This free online course focuses on when and how the West first approached China. We will explore the influence that the discovery of China exerted on late medieval and early modern European minds.Explore Chinese history through the eyes of WesternersThe backdrop of the course is the history of China. We will begin by looking at China’s place in the world and connections to the West via the Silk Road, before examining the changes brought about by the Song dynasty, the rise of Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire, and finally the Ming dynasty.We’ll analyse this period of Chinese history through the eyes of travellers, discoverers and missionaries who wrote about China from the 13th to the 17th century. These will include Marco Polo - not the first European to discover China, but the first to chronicle his time there in detail - and later Portuguese settlers, such as Galeote Pereira.We’ll also take advantage of Chinese and European illustrated sources, like scrolls, paintings and maps, to give a more accurate picture of how China really was at each time.Understand how Europe constructed the image of ChinaThrough these sources, we’ll see how Europeans constructed a highly positive image of China that would persist until the 18th century.What these Western travellers saw, what they didn’t see, what they choose not to tell and what they invented - that’s the story that we will unravel in this course.This course is aimed at anyone with an interest in Chinese, European or world history. No previous knowledge or experience of the subject is required
##Ramon Llull, born in Majorca in the 13th Century, was an influential philosopher, writer and pioneering thinker. This controversial man was admired and scorned alike by some of the most enlightened minds in European culture. He was also one of the leading lights in the intellectual circles of the late 13th century, in which Arab, Jewish and Christian philosophers and scientists participated.Today he has acquired a new importance in the debate on the ways knowledge is shared with others. In this course we’ll explore his work and how it’s influenced the arts, literature, science and technology.You don’t need any previous experience to do this course, just an interest in philosophy.
Explore the biology behind the complex issues you read about in the newsTo be able to properly engage with complex issues in today’s society we often need a basic knowledge of biology. Any consideration of issues like genetic determinism, cloning, genetic engineering, the fight against ageing, eugenics, artificial selection or intelligence inheritance requires an understanding of biology we might not all have.This online biology course can help. You’ll get a basic introduction to the biology behind big issues - using lessons and interviews with experts - so that you can understand the implications of them for the fields of the social sciences and humanities.This biology course is for people curious about science, students and professionals in the social sciences and humanities, who want to learn more about the scientific basis of humanity, people with a general interest in biology or the social sciences and humanities.