This fall, San Jose State University launched a brand-new college with the goal of educating students for the future of AI and tech. Ian Cull reports.
This fall, San Jose State University launched a brand-new college with the goal of educating students for the future of AI and tech.
Administrators said it’ll prepare students for the jobs of tomorrow, and the ethical challenges that come with them.
It’s called the College of Information, Data and Society. It is also the first college of its kind in the California State University system.
“We are really trying to be responsive to the world around us. That means you might have to move at a speed that we might not always be comfortable with,” said SJSU Provost Vincent Del Casino.
NBC Bay Area recently got an inside look at some of their labs, where students aren’t just able to play with the latest tech, but they develop apps and uses for the emerging tech.
Whether it’s in helping someone navigate the campus or helping preserve the oral history of a tribe in Montana by helping build a virtual reality space for its members.
“I think a lot of what’s going on with artificial intelligence now is going to inform the way that people work in the future. So we’re preparing our students for that. They’re going to be working in jobs that we can’t even fathom today,” said Crystal Fausett, an assistant professor at SJSU.
SJSU second-year student Erika Naulu said while her major is library and information science, the classes the school is offering will prepare her to work in tech.
“Because i know a lot of people get scared when they think of tech. They’re just kind of like, ‘we don’t know. AI and robots, we don’t want that.’ So I think having the lab to show this can be so beneficial for education and even for companies,” she said.
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The new college teaches classes on AI, cybersecurity, and data science and offers courses for other majors as well.
The first courses began this semester, and more majors will be created to prepare students for all types of careers moving forward.
