The UAB to offer a new programme in artificial intelligence in the 2021/22 academic year

Rector of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Javier Lafuente, and Secretary of Digital Policies of the Government of Catalonia, David Ferrer, recently presented the new academic programme in Artificial Intelligence which will be offered by the UAB School of Engineering starting in the 2021/22 academic year.

Artificial Intelligence (IA) has become a key technology in the development of products, services and solutions in many economic sectors. Despite being a discipline that has been around for decades, it is recent technological and computational advances which have strengthened and expanded their area of applications, turning it into an essential tool with which to solve many challenges (economic, social, environmental, healthcare, etc.). One of the main problems for the further development of AI in Europe is the lack of experts in the field. 

To meet these needs, the UAB has created a new programme in Artificial Intelligence. This is a UAB-specific programme worth 240 credits (four academic years), which will be offered by the School of Engineering fully in English, with 40 places available and at a subsidised price until the programme is validated as an official bachelor's degree. The objective is to train professionals with a comprehensive vision of artificial intelligence, capable of developing all types of AI-based solutions and to meet the social challenges of implementing artificial intelligence.

Preparations for the academic programme will be done with the support of the Government of Catalonia which, through its Estratègia Catalonia.AI, aims to deploy artificial intelligence and make it a "priority for the government and the country" and convert Catalonia into a global leader in artificial intelligence technology. It also poses the need to act within the educational sector with the purpose of improving the training in this field. Thus, the Government of Catalonia will provide €400,000 for the first two years of in which this degree is implemented.

The presentation of the new programme took place on 28 January at the Auditorium of the UAB School of Engineering in an event with limited access in which, in addition to Rector Lafuente and Secretary Ferrer, speeches were also given by Ramon Vilanova, director of the School of Engineering, and Ernest Valveny, coordinator of the new degree. Rector Javier Lafuente affirmed that this programme "will meet the needs of society in terms of preparing professionals who will help to change our social paradigm" with the aim of advancing "towards a knowledge-based society". According to the UAB's rector, AI experts are "highly sought after" professionals globally. And, with a mention to other pioneering bachelor's degrees at the UAB such as Environmental Science and Sociocultural Gender Studies, Rector Lafuente stated that he was sure this new undergraduate programme would mark a "before and after" in the university's academic offer.

Secretary of Digital Policies David Ferrer pointed out that the Government of Catalonia had developed a strategy to turn the counrty into a pole of innovation, leadership and attraction of talent and businesses belonging to the artificial intelligence sector. In this sense, he reminded attendants of the need for strong commitments with talent, because as he assured, "talent is the driving force of the digital revolution". "Our businesses need this talent, equipped with the comprehensive training provided by the UAB, in which people are the focus when solving the challenges posed by artificial intelligence".

Ramon Vilanova put emphasis on the cross-curricular aspects of this discipline and highlighted the fact that it is based on the will "to offer a people-centred AI", and Ernest Valveny pointed out that the new programme offers "lectures in English and a highly practical learning methodology based on the application of real-life cases and the involvement of institutions and businesses".

A Cross-curricular Programme on a Global Campus

The UAB's Artificial Intelligence programme will offer comprehensive training in AI, allowing graduates later to design intelligent systems that can cover the needs of society, providing the cognitive, mathematical and algorithmic fundamentals of the reasoning and automatic learning processes needed to develop applications in all AI areas, such as computer vision, natural languages, data analysis, robotics and autonomous agents. Graduates will be prepared to apply AI to different economic and social sectors, as well as analyse and evaluate the ethical, legal and social effects of its implementation.

This programme, designed by the UAB, aims not only to equip professionals with the technical skills they need to design intelligent systems, but also to become aware of the human, social, legal and ethical implications of applying artificial intelligence within the framework of what has been defined as Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, a hybrid scientific-humanistic perspective which can also contribute to reduce the gender gap commonly seen in the technical field.

The UAB makes full use of its position as a cross-curricular, campus university to offer a study plan combining technical aspects of AI with its application in a great variety of areas thanks to the participation of different teaching (School of Engineering, the faculties of Sciences, Arts & Humanities, Psychology, Law, Economics and Business Studies, Political Science and Sociology, Communication Studies, and Translation and Interpreting) and research centres (with the involvement of two leading centres in AI, the Computer Vision Centre and the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute). Thus, this degree is a cross-curricular programme capable of rigorously covering the diverse challenges posed by AI applications, while benefiting from the UAB's expertise in this field. The UAB campus is home to one of the most potent AI hubs in Catalonia, with over 200 researchers and more than 15 PhD theses presented each year.

Practical Teaching Methods, Linked to the Sector's Research Activity and Businesses

Lectures will be in English, and the methodology is based on the practical "learning by doing" method, with projects based on real-life cases and active collaborations with the business sector, research centres and public administration departments, not only in terms of work placements, but throughout the four years of this degree, thanks to resources, teaching staff, project participation and research stays. The UAB's own campus becomes a laboratory in which to apply artificial intelligence to a large variety of domains: health, biology, economics and finances, social sciences, communication, the environment and sustainability, etc.

The UAB's surroundings, forming part of what is known as the Àmbit B30, makes up one of the key industrial hubs for innovation, research and entrepreneurship in Catalonia, with a great amount of businesses and institutions dedicated to the generation and application of this technology. This highly innovative environment represents an extraordinary potential to set down collaborations for this new degree, as well as provide future professional possibilities for graduates.

This and other new academic programmes will be available at the UAB starting in the 2021/22 academic year, and will be presented to future students for the first time during the UAB Open Days, which will be offered online on Friday 12 and Saturday 13 February.