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Carnegie Mellon Launches Undergraduate Degree in Artificial Intelligence

cs.cmu.edu

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Re: Carnegie Mellon Launches Undergraduate Degree in Artificial Intelligence

#241

Post by asafira »

jknoepfler wrote: post #164

I really do not like this move. AI and Machine Learning require graduate-level mathematical and computational skills. I don't think it's productive to pretend that we can train someone to be even remotely useful in these fields in four years of an undergraduate education. It sounds like an attempt to get around the fundamentals of csci to "skip to the interesting bits," which will produce graduates with a cursory kno…

Would you consider an undergraduate degree in Physics the same as a graduate degree in physics?

No, I would not expect a person with an undergrad degree in physics to have nearly the same capabilities and understanding of a PhD holder in general.

Similarly, it would be silly to assume the alums from this program are going to be considered to be of the same caliber. Instead, they will fill roles in which having a richer math, cs, and stats background matters a bit less, as is the case for a large fraction of data scientist jobs. And yes, they would be remotely useful with just 4 decent cs classes, 2 stats classes, and 2 math classes.

Re: Carnegie Mellon Launches Undergraduate Degree in Artificial Intelligence

#242

Post by willhslade »

naeemtee wrote: post #147
KSS42 wrote: post #139

University of Toronto Engineering also is starting a Machine Intelligence option: Engineering Science - Machine Intelligence Option http://engsci.utoronto.ca/explore_our_program/majors/machine... What is the difference between the Machine Intelligence major in Engineering Science, and an undergraduate degree in Computer Science? While there are some commonalities between the Machine Intelligence major and what is off…

Ah, EngSci - the most freakishly difficult undergraduate curriculum on the planet.

Care to elaborate?

Re: Carnegie Mellon Launches Undergraduate Degree in Artificial Intelligence

#243

Post by epicureanideal »

mlazos wrote: post #105
epicureanideal wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, that's basically what Computer Science degrees started out as, right? An Electrical Engineering degree with a bunch of software related electives? Even now, at UC Berkeley for example, "EE/CS" majors can choose a set of courses that end up almost exactly matching what the "CS" majors take, with not necessarily more EE. It's really just a narrowing of the electives. There are enough AI related courses available…

For me this just looks equivalent to adding a new major for every sub field of electrical engineering. Signal processing, digital circuits, analog circuits ... truth is a CS major could go take the same classes and a computer engineering student could also.

I think there's just a (subjective) point where a field is different enough that it's worth distinguishing from the rest. I could see Signal Processing being a different major than Electrical Engineering, and digital circuits is basically Computer Engineering.

Re: Carnegie Mellon Launches Undergraduate Degree in Artificial Intelligence

#245

Post by Vinnl »

Interestingly, I majored in Artificial Intelligence for my undergraduate degree, which has been a thing in the Netherlands for thirty years now. Vastly different scope, probably, but still interesting - I believe there are si universities here offering the program.

Re: Carnegie Mellon Launches Undergraduate Degree in Artificial Intelligence

#246

Post by seanmcdirmid »

jazoom wrote: post #227
habosa wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a lie that I hear a lot from AI/ML experts. To me it reeks of gatekeeping. Yes the foundations of the field and many of the breakthroughs require this knowledge, but one can be a very effective practicioner of AI/ML techniques with a few years of undergraduate level instruction. And given how many industries are kicking the tires of AI/ML, we're going to need hordes of practicioners.

I can't create a new programming language that compiles to machine code. Maybe I shouldn't be programming? I don't see why you need to be a domain expert of the low level details to make a career out of something so useful.

I don't see why you would need a graduate degree to create a new PL that compiles to machine code. In fact, many successful PL designers lack PhDs.

Most work in CS feeds more on experience than education. A PhD is simply a way of getting deep experience (and advice) in areas that a job probably wouldn't allow for. Since ML is hot, you can get hands on experience with it these days, its not like 10 years ago when the only people looking at deep learning were pretty much researchers, PhDs, and PhD students.

Re: Carnegie Mellon Launches Undergraduate Degree in Artificial Intelligence

#247

Post by jabgrabdthrow »

jknoepfler wrote: post #164

I really do not like this move. AI and Machine Learning require graduate-level mathematical and computational skills. I don't think it's productive to pretend that we can train someone to be even remotely useful in these fields in four years of an undergraduate education. It sounds like an attempt to get around the fundamentals of csci to "skip to the interesting bits," which will produce graduates with a cursory kno…

At CMU plenty of undergraduates took grad machine learning (10-601 or 701), high achievers sometimes in sophomore year. CMUs ML grad program is a top grad program and be sure not to move the goal posts to PhDs defined as contributing new knowledge

Re: Carnegie Mellon Launches Undergraduate Degree in Artificial Intelligence

#248

Post by diiaann »

kendallpark wrote: post #70

If you are an undergraduate in computer science these days, it is very hard to get into advanced AI/ML classes, which are typically reserved for graduate students. Back before the ML goldrush, a strong CS undergrad interested in AI could elect to take advanced coursework beyond the introductory AI class. Nowadays, good luck getting off the waitlist! Having an official "AI major" does at least tell students, "Hey, we…

This. I think people forget that majors are also an operational consideration.

Re: Carnegie Mellon Launches Undergraduate Degree in Artificial Intelligence

#249

Post by learc83 »

srinivasan wrote: post #181
learc83 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>CMU doesn't generally craft their degrees for industry-marketability; I don't think a CS degree should be a trade program, but avoiding actively harming students job prospects by adding a few more electives isn't quite the same things as crafting their degrees for industry-marketability. >they tore out functional programming above 15-150 I'm looking at the requirements for the BS in CS right now. I don't see any fun…

15-210: Parallel and Sequential Data Structures and Algorithms, which is still required, is purely functional.

That class is also required for the AI degree.

Re: Carnegie Mellon Launches Undergraduate Degree in Artificial Intelligence

#250

Post by learc83 »

dgacmu wrote: post #194
learc83 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>CMU doesn't generally craft their degrees for industry-marketability; I don't think a CS degree should be a trade program, but avoiding actively harming students job prospects by adding a few more electives isn't quite the same things as crafting their degrees for industry-marketability. >they tore out functional programming above 15-150 I'm looking at the requirements for the BS in CS right now. I don't see any fun…

The logic and languages cluster, while not exclusively a functional programming set, practically covers a lot of what one might think of as upper-division FP concepts. Foundations of PL and Semantics are bread and butter PL theory, for example.

But none of those are required in that section. You could take Software Foundations of Security and Privacy, or Foundations of Cyber-Physical Systems.
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