New AI courses can help tackle 'Grand Challenge'

Published: 12 April 2019 at 12:42

Anglia Ruskin works with tech companies to develop undergraduate and master’s courses

Anglia Ruskin University has launched four new courses, with the help of local companies, to help the UK close the Artificial Intelligence skills gap and address one of the Grand Challenges set out in the Government’s Industrial Strategy.

From this September, students will be able to enrol on three Master’s courses (MSc Artificial Intelligence and Big Data, MSc Artificial Intelligence with Cyber Security, MSc Intelligent Systems and Machine Learning) as well as an undergraduate BSc (Hons) in Artificial Intelligence.

All courses will be run on Anglia Ruskin’s Cambridge campus and will benefit from the state-of-the-art facilities available at Compass House, the home of Anglia Ruskin’s School of Computing and Information Science.

Artificial Intelligence, or AI, is a programmed system or piece of software that can “think” for itself and create solutions by working out missing information.

AI can be found in products ranging from telephones to tumble dryers and graduates from AI courses could go on to work in a variety of sectors in research and development, programming, analyst, engineering and technician roles.

Dr Silvia Cirstea, Deputy Head of the School of Computing and Information Science, said:

“The Government identified AI and data as one of four Grand Challenges we need to tackle to prevent us falling behind the worldwide industry curve, working with companies leading the way with this technology, such as Intel and Amazon, to provide people with the necessary skills to develop this industry in the UK.

“Our new courses have been developed in conjunction with employers, many of which are based in and around Cambridge, and these employers have provided advice about future roles and opportunities, and what they will need graduates to be able to do.”