The University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering announced that the Ivy League school is launching a Bachelor of Science in Engineering in Artificial Intelligence. This undergraduate major will be ‘the first of its kind among Ivy League universities and of the the very first AI undergraduate engineering programs in the U.S.’.
“The rapid rise of generative AI is transforming virtually every aspect of life: health, energy, transportation, robotics, computer vision, commerce, learning, and even national security,” the news release stated. “This produces an urgent need for innovative, leading-edge AI engineers who understand the principles of AI and how to apply them in a responsible and ethical way.”
Pew Research Center, a non-partisan think tank, produced a series of surveys to show that Americans are generally increasingly cautious about AI’s growing role in their lives. Today, 52% of Americans are more concerned than excited about AI in daily life, compared with just 10% who say they are more excited than concerned; 36% feel a mix of excitement and concern.
Regardless of the ‘threat’ to our workforce, AI continues to grow and jobs will understandably follow in the AI industry. Penn’s intent for this degree is for their engineers to take the lead.
“Inventive at its core, Penn excels at the cutting edge,” says Interim President J. Larry Jameson. “Data, including AI, is a critical area of focus for our strategic framework, in Principle and Practice, and this new degree program represents a leap forward for the Penn engineers who will lead in developing and deploying these powerful technologies in service to humanity. We are deeply grateful to Raj and Neera Singh, whose leadership helps make this possible.”
According to the release, students in Penn’s program will be empowered to develop responsible AI tools that can harness the full knowledge available on the internet, provide superhuman attention to detail, augment humans in making transformative scientific discoveries, and more.
Raj and Neera Singh, whom the program is named after, are considered ‘visionaries in technology. The Singhs are principal owners of Telcom Ventures, LLC, a private investment firm specializing in telecommunications and relation information technologies. The Singhs are also providing funding to support the leadership, faculty, and infrastructure for the new AI program.
“Penn Engineering has long been a pioneer in computing and education, with ENIAC, the first digital computer, and the first Ph.D. in computer science,” says Raj Singh. “This proud legacy of innovation continues with Penn Engineering’s AI program, which will produce engineers that can leverage this powerful technology in a way that benefits all humankind.”
“We are thrilled to continue investing in Penn Engineering and the students who can best shape the future of this field,” says Neera Singh.
The program’s courses will be taught in a brand new facility at Penn, named the Amy Gutmann Hall. The building will be a hub for data science on campus and the community of Philadelphia when it opens sometime in 2024.
“We are training students for jobs that don’t yet exist in fields that may be completely new or revolutionized by the time they graduate,” says Robert Ghrist, associate dean of Undergraduate Education at Penn Engineering and the Andrea Mitchell University Professor. “In my decades of teaching, this is one of the most exciting educational opportunities I’ve ever seen, and I can’t wait to work with these amazing students.”
Courses for this program include Statistics for Data Science, Programming languages, Algorithms, Intro to AI, Applied Machine Learning, and more. A full list of the courses can be found on their website.
“Our carefully selected curriculum reflects the reality that AI has come into its own as an academic discipline, not only because of the many amazing things it can do, but also because we think it’s important to address fundamental questions about the nature of intelligence and learning, how to align AI with our social values, and how to build trustworthy AI systems,” says Zachary Ives, Adani President’s Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Computer and Information Science in Penn Engineering.
The new AI program begins in Fall 2024, for students of the University of Pennsylvania who want to transfer to the B.S.E. and will open to all potential students in 2025, but the school stated they will open applications for the program in the fall.
