Department of Computer Science at the Interdisciplinary, Engineering and Academic building on the Edinburg campus. Celeste Cruz/Vaquero Radio
The College of Computer Science is incorporating AI (Artificial Intelligence) in the classrooms. Preparing students for possible alterations the tech market will have in the future regarding AI.
Computer Science Professor and department chair Emmett Tomai said courses are constantly changing to integrate AI.
“So it’s a tool for us and it’s also a product and that is based on what’s called machine learning which has actually been explosively growing since about 2010,” Tomai said.
Tomai said students are concerned about AI taking over tech jobs in the future.
“But the current challenge is that nobody knows what AI is gonna look like in 3 to 5 years,” he said. “And so there’s a whole lot of uncertainty… but especially in regards to tech careers.”
Tomai mentioned specializing in AI is having a better outcome than app development.
“I’m gonna make an app career path is definitely shrinking, because that’s something AI is really good at,” he said.
Computer Science Lecturer Pedro Fonseca believes AI will not fully replace software engineering emphasizing students should learn how to use AI.
“We are basically telling them now you need to learn how to use AI in your advantage,” Fonseca said. “So AI is not going to do the software for you but it can help you to build a software faster.”
He said to reduce uncertainty among students, the College of Computer Science added classes to teach students how to implement AI.
“Now we have something like a smart application or intelligent application … It creates software but also implement or embed AI in our software,” Fonseca said.
Bruno Rios, computer science junior said professors have addressed how AI is affecting industry expectations.
“So they warn us,” Rios said. “Learn how to use AI, download Codex, ChatGPT. They want us to thrive so they help us manage this big change.”
Laynie Avila, computer science junior, believes AI is making finding jobs more difficult.
“I think AI is making it harder, but it just makes students have to study harder in like different concepts,” Avila said. “So we just have to adapt with the industry.”
Tomai said students should not worry about AI taking over in the tech field since tech experience and soft skills are important to land a job.
This is Celeste Cruz for Vaquero Radio.
