This fall, the university in Danbury will begin enrolling students in a program that offers a master of science degree in artificial intelligence, WestConn officials recently announced.
"WestConn identified this degree as a game-changer for people in the workforce, or those about to start their first job in the field," Interim President Manohar Singh said in a statement. "This program will provide the tools to accelerate careers.
"It will help graduates move the industry forward during this time of great advancement in the field."
WestConn said it recognizes AI is a "growing technology" that will provide "considerable employment opportunities" for individuals trained in the theoretical and practical applications of AI.
The new master's program focuses on mathematics and computer science in artificial intelligence, WestConn said.
Under the college's requirements, students with a bachelor's degree in computer science who have taken the prerequisite courses can enroll immediately and should be able to complete the program in three semesters. Students with a bachelor's degree in mathematics will likely need to fulfill some computer science electives to meet admissions criteria. Students with degrees in other STEM areas can apply after completing prerequisite mathematics and computer science courses.
"WestConn's AI degree will be a deep program in the theoretical and computational basis of how AI works," said Daniel Coffman, chairman of the Computer Science Department at WestConn. "Course work will help students realize this goal by utilizing computer science analysis techniques and mathematical prediction and probability."
The classes are designed to be held in-person with hands-on experiments in coding to allow students to determine results, WestConn officials said. The small class sizes will allow for individualized instruction, with faculty helping students pursue their interests in specific subtopics in the field.
"The outcome will be graduates who are highly sought after by banks, insurance companies, research firms and government entities," Coffman said. "They'll be in high demand because they will be well-versed in how AI really works, and the New York city area is a hotbed for these kinds of jobs."
AI is becoming useful in many areas, including web development, application development "and things like ChatGPT that can create content, apps that detect content like spam filters and methods that look at keywords to create patterns so you can make judgments based on anomalies," said David Burns, chair of the Math Department.
The AI master's program at WestConn also provides for a supervised internship, final project or thesis during the last semester. Coffman noted that many tech companies in the region will be good resources for internships. Students will also have the opportunity to present research at regional, national and international annual meetings, he said.
The program will also provide training in the ethics of AI, an area of increasing importance and development, according to WestConn officials.
According to the University of Bridgeport website, it was the first college in Connecticut to offer an AI master's program that prepares graduates "for in-demand commercial or research positions in industry (including tech giants) and academia."
For more information or to apply, visit www.wcsu.edu/graduate.
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