To meet student interests and time constraints, the University Center for International Studies at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University collaborate to offer intensive courses on topics of interest taught by expert faculty, with lectures from Friday evening through Sunday afternoon, followed by a research paper. The courses are 1 credit hour with about 14 hours of lectures and an expected 30 hours of work for the paper. The courses focus on countries with emerging economies: Brazil, India, China, Russia, and South Africa (BRICS).