This course is the second half of a year-long course for students in the Bachelor of Arts, Science and Technology (BAScT) programme. It is also the second instalment of a series of Solution-Based Learning Modules throughout the four-year curriculum. These learning modules aim to provide opportunities for active and authentic learning. Each student will play an essential role in deciding what materials to engage with and what projects to work on, in consultation with their respective supervisors and the course instructor. The projects shall be linked to real issues beyond academic problems and eventually joined by community or industry partners.

This year-long course aims to achieve two purposes. First, it will equip students with some basic but essential data analytic skills. Second, it will guide students to approach a real world problem from the transdisciplinary perspective. For the first aim, there will be a series of tutorials and workshops on the basic principles and techniques of data science, including some elementary concepts and methods of machine learning. For the second aim, each student will be assigned at least one supervisor in each semester, under whose guidance the student will go through a process of problem identification, analysis, ideation, and solution prototyping. In the first semester (Guided Study I), the main objective is to train students to recognize important sub-problems in a complex issue, identify the types of information and skill that are relevant to addressing a problem, and plan independent studies and research to acquire the relevant knowledge. In the second semester (Guided Study II), the main objective is to guide students to carry out some of the planned studies and research that span more than one discipline, analyse the target problem from multiple, transdisciplinary perspectives, and write proposals of preliminary ideas and steps towards solving the problem. At the end of the course, students are expected to present mock-ups illustrating their problem-solving ideas and reflect in writing on the advantages and challenges of a transdisciplinary approach.

This course will help each student solidify the main directions of their learning pathway by learning to work with their respective supervisors and course mates. This primary goal will be treated as an (individual) problem-solving task and will be approached in several steps. In addition, students will be divided into groups to work on a group project related to a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), with a three-fold purpose. First, it provides an opportunity for students to hone their skills to recognise sub-problems in a complex issue and to identify types of information and skill relevant to addressing a problem. Second, it serves as an illustration of the advantages and challenges of transdisciplinary collaboration. Third, it is expected to reinforce the intended training offered by the concurrent Common Core Course on global challenges. Finally, students will be introduced to basic concepts and techniques of data analytics and ethnography. Students will be encouraged to make use of these techniques in their group projects.