An overview of the principles of E-Commerce. The origin and growth of E-Commerce. Technologies that support the development of E-Commerce applications. Business models and strategies for E-Commerce. Legal issues related to E-Commerce such as privacy, consumer rights, and intellectual property. Information interchange and application sharing via extensible markup languages and web services to support logistics and operation management.

Electronic Payments Systems - ECT7020

This course covers various methods of transferring payments over the Internet and compares their functionality. Topics include electronic money, electronic contracts, micro-payments, authenticity, integrity and reliability of transactions, the encryption and digital signature techniques needed to support electronic cash, and the technologies available to support secure transactions on the Internet.

Logistics Management - ECT7030

The integrated logistics management concept. Customer service. Channels of distribution. Order processing. Transportation systems. Storage and material handling systems. Inventory management. Information systems for order processing & inventory tracking. Impact of Internet and electronic data intercharge (EDI) on order cycles, vendor-customer communications and inventory. Global logistics. Third-party logistics.

Cryptography, Information Security and E-Commerce - ECT7040

Symmetric cryptography. Asymmetric cryptography including integer factorization, discrete logarithm, and elliptic curve. Digital signature, one-way hashing, zero-knowledge proof, certificate and certificate authority. Secure information infrastructure, virtual private network (VPN), online shopping and payment systems, e-cash. Economic impact. Smart card, steganography, time stamping. Cryptanalysis technology. Authentication protocols, analysis, and evaluation.

E-Commerce Data Mining Techniques - ECT7110

Data mining provides techniques for the analysis, understanding and extraction of useful information from huge databases. These techniques are used in business, finance, medicine and engineering. This course will introduce the techniques used in data-mining for E-Commerce information. Topics will include clustering, classification, estimation, forecasting, statistical analysis and visualization tools.

Distributed and Mobile Systems - ECT7120

Distributed and mobile systems are the key framework for E-Commerce applications. This course covers the principles of distributed systems (including mobile applications) and software, and the engineering mechanisms for their specification, design, deployment, and evaluation. Topics include: architectural models for distributed systems, server techniques, remote procedure call and multicast communication, RFID technology, emerging standards and platforms, distributed transactions, concurrency control, reliability and security issues.

Network and Web Programming - ECT7130

This course addresses the techniques for programming in both low-level (Network) and high-level (Web) of internet. Network programs includes: Client-server system design; interprocess communication; sockets; blocking and nonblocking I/O; multithreaded process;iterative and concurrent server designs; Web programming includes: HTML, JAVA, Web page design and contruction.

Open Systems for E-Commerce - ECT7140

Introduction to open system standards and protocols. Transaction protocols. Electronic commerce applications using open system and artificial intelligence technologies. Application of intelligent agents for automated transaction processing. Integration of Web programming techniques with information and communication systems. Case studies for E-Commerce open system applications.

Mobile Commerce and Mobile Logistics - ECT7160

This course introduces key technologies and applications that support operation of mobile commerce and mobile logistics. Topics include security and communication protocols, mobile payment, location-based technologies and applications, RFID, as well as other new mobile commerce applications and solutions. Managerials issues, such as, regulation frameworks, business model, and revenue models, will also be discussed in this course. Mobile commerce applications that are important to Hong Kong, such as mobile tourism and mobile banking/trading will also be discussed through case studies.

Project I in E-Commerce and Logistics Technologies - ECT7150*

An individual or a team project on E-Commerce technologies.

Information Technology Management - ECT7210

The challenges, techniques and technologies associated with the management of information technology (IT) for logistics and supply chain operations. The linkage of IT to busines models and corporate strategies in logistics and supply chain industry. Information systems and technology planning, sourcing and acquisition, budgeting and deployment. Performance evaluation and audit. Standard, privacy and security polices.

Decision Methodology with Financial Application - ECT7220

Utility functions, and mean-variance theory. Probability models and price dynamics of securities. Financial analysis models including: Geometric Brownian motion,Ito's lemma, Black-Scholes model. Capital aset pricing. Models of risks. Risk hedging. Optimization techniques for investment and portfolio management.

Engineering Economics - ECT7230

Principles of engineering economy. Value and cost, cash flows. Economic analysis of alternatives, technological, social, and human factors. Models involving allocation and scheduling of resources. Analytical techniques for evaluating industrial projects. Relationship between economics of technical choice and industrial productivity. Basic financial accounting concepts, accounting cycle, financial statements.

Supply Chain Management - ECT7240

Management of moving raw materials, in-process inventory, and finished-goods; transferring information and payment. Topics include: electronic information and payment transfer and its impact, distribution, forecasting, inventory management, purchasing and supplier management, ERP systems supply chain integration and strategic partnering. Impacts of E-Commerce in supply chain management.

Project II in E-Commerce and Logistics Technologies - ECT7250*

An individual or a team project on E-Commerce technologies.

*Notes for Projects

Project I and Project II in E-Commerce and Logistics Technologies are designed to allow students to gain first-hand experience in studying and developing real-world systems for E-Commerce. These could be conducted either individually or by team work. It is expected that students will be involved in projects for the industrial "pilot programmes" of the Centre for Logistics Technologies and Supply Chain Optimization (LOGITSCO) at the Faculty of Engineering. Possible projects include, but are not limited to:

• On-Line Banking and Financial Systems
• Supply Chain Coordination and Synchronization
• Supply Contracting and Information Sharing
• Web-based Forecasting and Pricing
• Electronic Payment Systems
• Internet Shopping
• Virtual Store or Virtual Campus
• Electronic Office
• Open System Technologies
• Intelligent Agent Systems
• Multimedia Information Systems
• Data Mining Applications
• Virtual Reality Applications
• Cryptography Servers
• Security Fire Wall
• Network Management and Quality of Service
• Distributed System Technologies in CORBA or DCOM

Continuing Education Fund

The following courses in our MSc programme have been included in the CEF reimbursable course list:

• Logistics Management (CEF No. 002 CUHK 25Z02210-6)
• Supply Chain Management (CEF No. 002 CUHK 25Z02211-4)