For the past two years, Marymount University has been among a small but growing group of higher education institutions leading the charge in offering degrees in AI.
The private university based in the Old Dominion neighborhood, which launched its AI program in fall 2023, currently offers a Bachelor of Science degree in the subject and an accompanying minor and graduate certificate.
As AI continues to rattle industries worldwide, President Irma Becerra said that Marymount — which remains among only a handful of universities offering such a program — is seeking to address “practical applications” in industries ranging from business to health care.
“We want our students that are graduating this year to be able to enter the workforce with understanding how some of the tools that are out there, like generative AI, can help them be productive on the first day of work,” Becerra told ARLnow.
Somewhat comparable to a computer science degree, the AI bachelor’s program aims to prepare students with a “solid foundation” of AI concepts, skills in “advanced software development, machine learning and robotics,” and a knowledge of AI’s “modern methodologies and tools.”
Graduation requirements include participation in an internship or AI-related research project that addresses a challenge in a specific industry.
While new technologies driven by AI have exploded into a multibillion-dollar industry, some related tools, such as online chatbots, have left schools and workplaces struggling with new concerns about academic integrity, misinformation and other social or environmental impacts.
Addressing the technology’s contentious reputation, Becerra said “we don’t want AI to rob our students [of] the opportunity to learn.”
“A lot of times, people have this perception that AI robots are going to replace humans,” Becerra said. “AI does the same thing for an expert, in terms of expanding an expert’s cognitive ability, that our eyeglasses do to our vision. So, think of AI as the eyeglasses for our brain.”
Addressing these caveats is a course titled “AI Trust, Bias and Social Impact,” which concerns the sociopolitical dilemmas that the technology creates, Professor Dianne Murphy told ARLnow.
“You have to be able to understand it, understand some of the tools that you can use to find out what is going on,” Murphy said. “One of the big issues we have in this country is that we have no AI regulations. … It’s just an open book.”
Becerra, who holds a doctoral degree in electrical engineering, says the neural network basis for AI is “nothing new” — and that the school’s intention is to help students understand the technology’s practical uses in an ethical way.
Overall, the president said she is “incredibly proud” of the bachelor’s degree program as it enters its third year of availability.
While enrollment data is not available for the specific degree program, Marymount has experienced a fourth year of record student growth. A new high of 2,839 undergraduate students are enrolled at the university this year, up 13% from last year.
