Cloud Hosting

Justus Selwyn, chairman of the computer science department at John Brown University, helped start a program to let students major in artificial intelligence. (Michael Woods)

John Brown University of Siloam Springs wants to stay ahead of the artificial intelligence curve, a mission it started several years ago, so in February it became the first university in Arkansas to announce plans to offer a bachelors degree in AI.

Officials at John Brown, which has an enrollment of slightly more than 2,200 students, also said it is the first Christian university to offer a bachelors degree in artificial intelligence, a program that will begin in the fall semester of 2024. About a dozen universities nationwide offer AI degrees. JBU began offering a minor in AI in the fall of 2023.

Other universities in Arkansas, including the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, offer or are planning to offer AI classes.

Mariofanna Milanova, a computer science professor and AI expert at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, said she hopes her school will begin offering AI degrees soon.

This is the future, Milanova said. They cannot escape from this future.

Bloomberg Intelligence reported last year that generative AI was a $40 billion industry that would grow to more than $1.3 trillion by 2032. Generative AI, such as ChatGPT, includes programs that use prompts and patterns to produce texts and images.

The applications of artificial intelligence range from cloud computing to natural language processing to the Internet of Things.

For Justus Selwyn, the plan to offer the degree at JBU started around the time he joined John Brown as the chairman of the computer science department in the summer of 2021. The university and members of its advisory board were discussing prominent technologies that John Brown needed to address with its students.

We didnt have courses like that in 2021, 2022, Selwyn said. After I joined JBU, I was trying to bring those advanced courses to JBU for computer science students. Those are some of the topics that are so important evolving around AI.

We thought we can bring these courses and start a separate major so we can send our students to companies who three or four years from now will want AI students, students [who] have had hands-on AI. That is where the thought process came in 2022 and we started to work on it.

The hope is that John Browns degree announcement and the growing market for an AI-fluent workforce will create momentum in the academic community in Arkansas.

Justin Richie, vice president of data and AI for Nerdery of Minneapolis, a data products studio, worked with several for-profit universities about how to develop an AI curriculum. Richie said that as AI has grown, it has become important for prospective employees to know how to use the technology.

The interesting aspect of AI right now, especially from an education [standpoint], is where does it fit in? Does it fit in its own segment of majors or does it fall under a computer science program? Richie said.

I see it being on both the technology major side, but also from a business major perspective, training our students to be fluent in AI is going to be a key employment advantage when they hit the marketplace.

Milanova said AI education is important because it is not just about creating new artificial intelligence programs; it is also creating new ways to use old technologies.

There is so much possibility for creativities, Milanova said. There are so many opportunities for people to create amazing algorithms It is not necessary to be completely innovative. Little changes, they can make significant differences. This is the beauty.

Selwyn said incarnations of AI have been around for decades. If you are on a website and a movie recommendation for you pops up, that is an example of artificial intelligence at work.

These are all AI components; these are already in place but a layman, a user didnt know this was an AI thing, Selwyn said. Industry is already going in that direction, so JBU and in northwest Arkansas, we are wanting our students to know what is AI.

Selwyn said business leaders responded positively to John Browns degree announcement.

I dream [that] after four years they will want our AI grads from JBU, Selwyn said. Name an industry and they are going to hire AI and mission learning and data analytics.

Richie said many in the academic world are just trying to figure out how to incorporate an AI curriculum.

I definitely see a lot of momentum behind that curriculum, Richie said.

Im bullish, but I do believe it is going to be our fourth industrial revolution. It is changing the narrative in the last 10 years [for] people like me who went to school for math and computer science.

Now people dont really need to know that stuff. It is a lot more of what you do with it rather than knowing how the entire engine works.

Here is the original post:

John Brown University to Offer AI Degree; Other Universities Plan New Classes - Arkansas Business Online