As AI use booms, RIT offers bachelor's degree in artificial intelligence – Spectrum News

Get the best experience and stay connected to your community with our Spectrum News app. Learn More
Continue in Browser
Get hyperlocal forecasts, radar and weather alerts.
Please enter a valid zipcode.
Save
HENRIETTA, N.Y. — Artificial intelligence has become part of everyday life for a growing number of New Yorkers. On college campuses, more schools are teaching the ins and outs of AI. In the fall, Rochester Institute of Technology will offer a Bachelor of Science degree in AI.
In T.J. Borelli’s class at RIT, technology is the keyword. And the newest technology is artificial intelligence.
“It’s very timely,” said Borelli, a principal lecturer in RIT’s computer science department. “Something that a lot of students are really interested in.”
Borelli teaches many computer science classes, as well as an introduction to AI class. It is something that catches Zac Valdes’s attention. He’s a first-year computer science major.
“I’m very interested in AI and how it works,” said Valdes. “Even before coming to RIT, I did some research on how AI functions itself. And that part of AI really interests me.”
Starting in the fall, RIT will become the latest in a handful of New York colleges and universities to offer a Bachelor of Science degree in AI.
“Students will be engaging with AI the first day that they step on campus, as part of this program,” said Sharon Mason, director of RIT’s School of Information.  
Daily use of AI is growing, with tools and applications available to just about everyone right now.  
“But there’s a real difference between that, and being able to design, develop, and deploy AI systems,” explained Mason. “And so this degree really gives students an opportunity to engage in that space, and shape the future of AI."
“In the broad sense of what AI is as a whole, it’s definitely very useful,” said Valdes. “And generalizing AI to just generative AI, I think, doesn’t help show the potential of what I can actually do.”
Borelli says tech employers are looking for AI experience, and the new RIT program will offer that.
“That’s a very hot thing right now,” he said. “So everyone wants to have some form of AI on their resume, it seems. And having some experience with different aspects of it is certainly going to be helpful.”
RIT will also offer a minor in AI beginning in the fall. An emerging, ever-changing technology where the possibilities appear endless.
“AI has kind of had its ups and downs over the years,” said Borelli. “But yeah, this current explosion is certainly not something that I can say that I’ve foreseen, but it’s certainly an exciting kind of opportunity.”

source