At the Professional Science Master’s program, we provide our students with cutting-edge education. Due to the recent explosion of artificial intelligence (AI) in the media and workplace, we created the brand-new course Special Topics: Basics of Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning as a primer for those who do not have a technical background. This course teaches “AI for the rest of us.”
About the Professors
This course is taught by two professors with extensive industry and academic expertise. Bob Warfsman has worked in technical engineering at Hitachi for over 18 years. He himself completed an MBS degree. He worked on projects with Professor Richard Mammone, the previous instructor of the AI course, and was asked to teach alongside him.
Jay Yogeshwar received a doctorate in electrical engineering. His thesis advisor was Professor Mammone, who asked Yogeshwar and Warfsman to take over the course when he retired. Yogeshwar also worked at Hitachi, where he saw applications of AI firsthand. He is also an experienced entrepreneur, having started his own businesses.
Warfsman and Yogeshwar use their extensive experience to approach this course from a business and scientific perspective.
An Inside Look
Basics of AI provides students with the knowledge to understand dialogue around AI. Students will gain both a conceptual foundation of AI and machine learning and the practical ability to apply those concepts in carefully curated lab workshops. Although many of the core concepts taught in Basics of AI are similar to our technical course Applied AI: From Concept to Market, Basics of AI is open to students of all backgrounds.
"Many of our students in the professional field are going to be involved in large projects,” said Yogeshwar, “and there’s no escaping the fact that those new projects will involve AI to some level. [Students] need to know enough at least to ask the right questions to be able to contribute to these projects.”
This course will demonstrate the concepts of AI, allowing students to understand how algorithms are built and demystify AI and machine learning. Students will learn when each algorithm should be used to achieve a business or scientific goal.
“We’re going to focus on how this is being used today within a business environment,” said Warfsman.
This class will explore the technical capabilities behind AI, filtering AI through the lens of how it’s being introduced in the business world. Yogeshwar and Warfsman will introduce conceptual ideas that allow students of all backgrounds to participate in the conversation. Students will also take part in hands-on workshops to experiment with algorithms without the need to explicitly program using a traditional programming language.
The course will contain illustrative problems from different markets, teaching students how to solve problems using AI components. Students will consider how to address issues they face today using AI as part of their toolkit.
This course will also feature guest lectures from presenters in industry to discuss how AI is being used in actual business settings such as Wall Street, marketing, and neuroscience. There will also be a session dedicated to the ethics of AI, tackling difficult questions such as boundaries, bias, and regulations.
If you would like to learn more about ethics and AI, we will also be hosting the special lecture Autonomous Vehicles – Legal and Ethical Lessons Learned from an AI Application. Register now!
There’s still time to register for this course in fall 2023. For students with a technical background, we offer Applied AI: From Concept to Market during the spring semester.