NMSU prepares to launch AI degree

LAS CRUCES — New Mexico State University is poised to launch the state’s first bachelor’s degree in artificial intelligence, pending approval by the state Higher Education Department.

“It’s quite clear in the last 10 years we’ve witnessed a quantum leap in this technology,” Enrico Pontelli, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and a computer science professor, remarked at the Jan. 30 board of regents meeting. He presented the outline of the new computer science degree and said he was confident it was ready to launch once approved.

Computer technology that imitates human learning, problem-solving and creativity, collectively referred to as “artificial intelligence,” is driving explosive tech industry growth affecting sectors throughout the economy and daily life, and transforming the job market accordingly, Pontelli reported. While economic studies hold AI will lead to job losses, the dean projected even more jobs would be created by AI, requiring a workforce schooled in machine learning and familiar with rapidly evolving capabilities.

In an interview with the Journal, Pontelli acknowledged the concerns raised by that trend, underscoring the program’s inclusion of an interdisciplinary institute addressing ethical uses of AI.

“It’s not so much pushback,” Pontelli said of questions that have been raised about ethical AI use, particularly in academia. “There are fears.”

NMSU is a founding member of the New Mexico Artificial Intelligence Consortium, created last year by a coalition including several higher education institutions, Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory, to assess risks and beneficial uses of AI. Lawmakers in Santa Fe are currently mulling a bill instituting regulatory checks and consumer protections pertinent to AI systems.

Pontelli said New Mexico possesses high-quality computer science training institutions with promising introductory material in the K-12 public school curriculum, but no comprehensive four-year undergraduate degree or research-oriented graduate degrees as yet.

As AI’s highly publicized growth moves rapidly, universities have opened AI degrees at a growing pace. Pontelli reported more than 24 such degrees across the U.S., including in neighboring states Arizona, Colorado and Texas. The competition hit close to home for NMSU in December, when the University of Texas at El Paso unveiled its own AI degree.

Pontelli said NMSU’s 120-credit program would include core courses in computer science, statistics and generative AI, with a variety of electives and capstone courses encouraging practical applications.

With half of its computer science department already working with AI, Pontelli said the program could begin without any immediate investment: “We are ready to just start as we are. We have faculty, we have talent, we have computing infrastructure … We have the majority of the courses already in place.”

Additional assets and faculty positions would be supported in the future through research grants and tuition, he said, anticipating 70 AI majors would be enrolled by 2030. With internal approvals nearly in place, Pontelli predicted HED’s approval of the degree program by the end of spring.