La Trobe University staff have worked with Cisco and Rockwell Automation to develop Australia’s first AI engineering degree from the ground up – with a range of potential lessons for other disciplines.
Wenny Rahayu, Dean of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Science at La Trobe explained that the new program was developed as a key priority after the industry partners approached the university seeking graduates to work in the area.
The partners started with plans to create a new major that could bolt on to another engineering program, before quickly realising that the pace and breadth of change in AI applications necessitated a comprehensive revision of existing modules such as physics and maths, paired with a range of new content to create an entirely new course – the Bachelor of AI Engineering (Honours).
Since discussions about the new program commenced last year, Professor Rahayu and her team talked to a range of employers about their skills needs, and also analysed feedback from student placements.
“We get a lot of feedback from student placements. The companies say ‘This is a skills gap, sharpen the curriculum here,’ and we respond,” Professor Rahayu said.
“This is not an existing degree with AI bolted on, it is a brand new degree from scratch, co-designed with partners who have told us what industry is looking for.”
The new course focuses on physical applications augmented by AI in manufacturing, biomedical and also agricultural sectors. AI has enabled small-scale manufacturers to produce diverse goods from relatively small-scale plants, rather than requiring specific, rigid production lines to produce a much narrower selection of items. There are also a range of opportunities to use AI to improve agricultural sensing technology and medical outcomes.
The degree has been designed so that additional minor specialisations can be added into the curriculum as they arise and will train students in use of a range of applications, so that regardless of the change in technology over the course of their studies, they will have developed fundamental skills that can help marry AI technology with practical uses in industry.
Professor Rahayu credits the speed of development of the degree to the contribution of industry partners, who were pushing for the course to get up and running to meet a need for graduates.
“The difficulty is trying to predict in three of four years what will jobs look like – the application of AI in different domains has grown considerably. The course will focus on providing a clear solid underpinning of AI and how to make it applicable and use it responsibly in many different applications, so that regardless of the application that is there when they finish, our students will have that solid underpinning and speak a multidisciplinary language.”
While the degree’s technology partners will continue to provide input to update curriculum, Professor Rahayu also said an industry advisory body would be critical in ensuring that the course changed as technology evolved.
While bringing industry, academia and professional bodies along on the journey, Professor Rahayu is realistic about enrolment hopes – saying that parents and prospective students are now the people they will need to win over, explaining the new technology and future jobs that have inspired the development of the course.
The speed, collaboration and agility in creating the course and foresight to expect and provide space for future evolution of curriculum makes this program an interesting case study for other institutions and disciplines struggling to spell out their value proposition.