The University of Wisconsin–Madison has received $100 million in private gift commitments for its new College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence, which is set to launch on July 1, 2026.
The donations come from what’s referred to as the Catalyst Collective — a group of alumni, business leaders and corporate partners who have pledged major investments in the college. The alumni donors include Andy Konwinski, cofounder of Laude, Databricks and Perplexity AI; John Morgridge, former chairman and CEO of Cisco Systems, and Tashia Morgridge, a retired special education teacher; Signe Ostby, a former marketing executive; and Jeff Tangney, cofounder and CEO of Doximity. The contributors also include Scott Cook, co-founder of Intuit; and Epic, a software company based in Verona, Wisconsin.
Approved last December by the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents, the college is the first academic division created at UW–Madison in over 40 years. The new unit will include existing UW degree programs in computer sciences, data science, statistics, library science, and information science.
The university plans to hire 50 new faculty members for the AI college in the upcoming years who will create new courses, certificates, majors, and degree programs involving AI technology and related issues involving the ethics and risks of artificial intelligence. Many of those new faculty will hold joint appointments in departments across the institution. In addition to the private philanthropy, the university intends to provide more than $50 million in annual investment to support the college.
On Monday, the university also announced that Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau, the Grace Wahba professor of Computer Sciences and former chair of the Computer Sciences Department at UW, will serve as the founding dean of the new college. Arpaci-Dusseau has spearheaded the effort to create the college over the past few years, including helping with the fund-raising that’s been critical to its launch.
An expert in computer systems, Arpaci-Dusseau has conducted influential research on storage systems, operating systems and distributed computing with his longtime collaborator Andrea Arpaci-Dusseau, who also holds a named professorship in computer sciences at the university.
“I’m honored to lead the college at such an important moment; AI is already reshaping society,” said Arpaci-Dusseau, in a university news release. “In moments of major change, universities have a responsibility to engage, not stand on the sidelines. Universities have long helped develop technologies, and that work must continue. But we also have a responsibility to ask hard questions about their impacts, guide innovation thoughtfully and prepare students to thrive in a changing world.”
“The College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence is intended to be a hub and resource for the rest of campus, while also building core strength in the disciplines at its foundation,” said UW–Madison Chancellor Jennifer L. Mnookin, in the release. “Helping society navigate a changing landscape, including AI’s ethical questions and implications for the workforce, will require collaboration across disciplines, and Remzi brings needed strong and capable leadership to this critical endeavor.”
“I am tremendously grateful to the donors who have come forward to ensure the College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence — the university’s first academic division since 1983 — launches on the strongest possible footing,” added Mnookin.
This article was originally published on Forbes.com