CARBONDALE, Ill. (KFVS) – Southern Illinois University in Carbondale announced a new bachelor’s degree in artificial intelligence as the technology continues to reshape the workforce.
The university joins a short list of other schools across the country adding the offering.
SIU’s dean of engineering said students will not just study AI, but develop their own AI tools and agents, learning not just how AI works but how to apply it in real-world industries.
“You need somebody to understand the AI technology, integrate them together, and then make it work for the company, right? So those skills basically will be taught and our students will be learned in this degree program,” Frank Liu said.
As artificial intelligence becomes more common, Liu said it’s changing what employers need and what students should learn.
“People heard that AI take jobs away. But at the same time, AI create jobs. And that also make job easier,” Liu said.
The university developed a new “AI Plus” bachelor’s degree, where students learn the technology and pair it with another field through a required minor.
“People know about technology, but there’s a gap between technology and application domain. So the students in this degree program basically learn both, right? So they can fill the gap between technology and applications,” Liu said.
The move comes at a time where concerns are growing about how AI could impact careers, especially in creative fields like art and media.
But Liu said AI still depends on human input.
“There are a lot of defects. So there’s take a lot of iterations and human creativity to make it better. So it’s kind of human AI interactions to make it work,” Liu said.
Liu said the demand for AI efficiency is rising fast, with jobs requiring those skills expected to grow 20 percent annually until 2030.
“This is the start of a journey, AI journey, not the end of it,” Liu said.
The program will start this fall.
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