Broadening of the AI Workforce through a Junior College Program

After many years of ups and downs starting the 1950’s, Artificial Intelligence has become highly impactful in many industries and in our lives in general. This is translating into an employment segment with one of the fastest growth. For many years AI was predominantly a research field but the number and breadth of practical applications is rapidly growing. It is becoming imperative to prepare a larger and more diverse workforce to adapt these new methods and tools. A broader workforce will also help a more effective implementation of AI and mitigate some of the likely pitfalls associated with the rapid deployment of new technologies. The talk will be describe conceptual plans for the development of a Junior College Curriculum. While such curriculum will include coding basics, comprehensive data and computational environments increasingly include AI tools including deep learning tools. The proposed curriculum is tied to a GIS Associate Degree program with GIS providing the environment and the integrated AI tools. The proposed curriculum will teach fundamentals of AI including basic methods, data management and concepts such as training bias and overfitting. Other classes will introduce and apply AI within the GIS environment. The development is planned for South Texas a great location to help develop a broader and more inclusive AI workforce.