In 2018, the University of Buffalo became one of the first schools in the world to establish a master's program focused on AI. Science, told the Observer, about the registration of the program as “slow and stable for a while.”
This program is classified as a Master of Science in Engineering Science with a focus on AI and provides a basic background in AI and key sets such as machine learning, deep learning and advanced artificial neural networks. The degree opened for enrollment in the spring of 2020 and enrolled five students in its first semester. That number has since increased by more than twenty, as the university counted 103 students in the program this fall. “It was a great investment now that we look back,” said Lewis.
Part of this surge can be attributed to the massive success of AI following the November 2022 launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT, said Lewis, who noted a “respectable jump” in registrations around the chatbot's release. But the biggest expansion of the program has come in connection with local initiatives like Empire AI, a $400 million statewide research initiative launched by New York Governor Kathy Hochul earlier this year. The University of Buffalo is part of a new private research institute and plans to build a $250 million AI supercomputing center on campus. “I think there's a lot of Google searches going on right now about AI degrees, Buffalo, and they're finding our master's program around the world,” Lewis said.
Interest in AI degrees is increasing across the country
The University of Buffalo is not the only school to embrace AI in its graduate programs. Schools such as Carnegie Mellon, Purdue University and MIT also began to be discovered, while the University of Pennsylvania earlier this year made history as the first Ivy League school to offer an undergraduate degree and subsequent master's in AI.
Carnegie Mellon, which launched its AI graduate program in 2018, has also seen an increase in interest. Although its enrollment in 2019 was 53, the program has reliably counted more than 100 students per year since 2021. Oregon State University's AI graduate program grew from 15 students in its inaugural class of 2021 to 62 last fall, while MIT's AI-related undergraduate major counted 300 students. this year compared to only 37 in 2022. Awardees of AI-related bachelor's and master's degrees have increased 120 percent since 2011, according to a 2023 report from Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology, while AI-related Ph.D. conferrals grew by 33 percent during that period.
At the University of Buffalo, the school's AI degree takes between 12 to 18 months to complete and sends alumni to companies such as Nvidia (NVDA), Amazon Web Services and Salesforce. The school is on a mission to strengthen the program with programs such as Advancing Top 25: Faculty Hiring, which has helped add more than 200 faculty members researching AI. Such research is needed as the program's topic continues to change, according to Lewis. “We are always working to improve these qualifications and make sure that they continue to work,” he said.
Lewis added that its efforts are beginning to pay off as people understand the value of AI and begin to see it as an important field in higher education. “I think students around the world are starting to see, okay, this is here to stay,” she said.
