Northwestern Engineering Announces New AI Major

Northwestern Engineering announced a new undergraduate major in artificial intelligence. The program is the first offering of the McCormick School of Engineering's bachelor of science in engineering degree and is administered Sara Owsley Sood, Chookaszian Family Teaching Professor of Instruction and associate chair for undergraduate education, will serve as program director. She said the curriculum will prepare students with specific technical skills in computer vision, knowledge representation and reasoning, natural language processing, machine learning and robotics. The major will also prepare students to deploy AI systems, build systems that interact with users and consider ethical impacts. Samir Khuller, Peter and Adrienne Barris Chair of Computer Science, said the major is designed to bridge the gap between academic computer science and applied AI. The curriculum includes rigorous training in machine learning and natural language processing, AI systems and infrastructure, data structures and algorithms, and mathematical foundations. It emphasizes fluency across programming languages and paradigms as well as user-centered design and the human and societal dimensions of AI. A faculty committee including Larry Birnbaum, David Demeter, Edith Elkind, Bryan Pardo and Zach Wood-Doughty will support curriculum development. Khuller said the initial proposal came at a computer science faculty retreat in fall 2023. Students may contact senior academic adviser Melissa Duong or Sara Sood for more information.