HDR DSC: AI across the statewide curriculum

University Of Florida, Gainesville FL

Investigators

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping the society we live in a profound manner. AI is changing how a nation protects its homeland and population, manages its natural resources and infrastructure, diagnoses and treats diseases, travel, communicates and creates artistic works, etc. AI has the potential to generate tremendous benefits for the society and people. However, the future AI workforce must represent the diversity of racial, ethnic, gender-identity and socioeconomic backgrounds reflective of the nation as a whole, otherwise, an AI-enabled future society could exacerbate existing disparities and benefit just a few, at the expense of too many. To address such a grand challenge, this DSC award is to train a diverse workforce capable of integrating AI equitably across a broad range of disciplines. The project provides unique AI training to students from any discipline using an approach that integrates classroom education in AI fundamentals, applications and ethics with real-world case studies and research experiences spanning the undergraduate curriculum with a focus on enhancing diversity. By recruiting and retaining historically underrepresented minorities in AI-related education and research, this project helps ensure that a diversity of backgrounds and opinions are included at all levels of future AI developments and applications, so the AI-enabled society can broadly benefit everyone. To achieve the goal of educating a diverse next-generation AI workforce, this project develops a vertically-integrated curriculum in which students from outside traditional computer-science fields can learn AI-related concepts, skills and AI applications to address critical emerging problems in one’s field. Over 250 undergraduate fellowships will be created to help eliminate or lessen financial barriers to education. Further, between a research university and a historically black college, a strategic partnership provides flexible avenues to engage diverse undergraduates in AI-related education and research. This project develops a core curriculum covering AI fundamentals, ethics and discipline-specific applications that can be deployed across traditional university disciplines and leverages distance-learning to enable students to participate on their own schedule from anywhere with internet. The award also provides unprecedented access to some of the most advanced computational resources in the world while maintaining the flexibility to adapt to a rapidly-changing field by providing financial assistance supporting the development of new courses and undergraduate research in academic, industry and community studies. It is expected that this approach of integrating "AI across the curriculum" will equip all interested students to equitably engage AI in their chosen discipline. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.