With artificial intelligence (AI) becoming a regular tool in a range of fields, Sacred Heart University kin Fairfield, Connecticut, is launching a new minor in AI, designed specifically for noncomputer science majors.
Students will learn to use low-code methods to apply AI in solving problems or generating information for their chosen professions and they will be introduced to policy and regulatory framework relating to AI. The 15-credit program also will focus on the social, cultural and global impacts of AI, including its ethical implications.
Brent French, associate dean for academics in Sacred Heart’s Jack Welch College of Business & Technology (WCBT), was part of the team that developed the new program of study. “We anticipate a transformational shift that will have a meaningful impact on nearly every industry,” he said. “We noticed that while there were AI-related graduate and undergraduate courses available, they were designed for computer science, cybersecurity or information technology majors. We had an opportunity to develop something that would benefit the broader undergraduate population.”
The goal is to teach undergraduate students across disciplines, from marketing or psychology to health care or education, how to best use AI. As artificial intelligence becomes a factor in almost every career, students in the minor will become fluent in using it effectively.
“We want to attract the students who say they are allergic to technology,” said French. Classes will not be merely theoretical; students will have access to the WCBT’s $250,000 AI lab for hands-on experience building their own models without coding.
The AI minor will launch in the fall 2025 semester.
