Academic Catalog 2024–2025

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Applied Artificial Intelligence Courses

AAI601O Mathematics for Applied AI

[3–0, 3 cr.]

This course covers the mathematical principals required for the various concepts in the area of applied artificial intelligence. This course aims at delivering the mathematical topics in a balance manner based on solid theoretical foundation while focusing on the computational aspects and application to data problem. Topics covered include linear algebra, multivariate calculus, optimization, regression, statistics of datasets, orthogonal projections, principal component analysis, and probability. The course provides computational and practical examples of the covered topics. 

AAI602 Python for Data Science

[3–0, 3 cr.]

This course introduces the Python programming language along with data analysis and exploration techniques. Topics covered include the fundamentals of Python programming, visualization, and exploratory data analysis using key libraries such as NumPy, Seaborn, Pandas, and Matplotlib.

 

AAI602O Programming for Applied AI

[3–0, 3 cr.]

This course covers programming techniques used in AI applications. Topics include programming constructs,  I/O, conditional constructs, iterative control structures, structured decomposition, method call and parameter passing, classes, 1-D and 2-D arrays, libraries, APIs, and Data Structures. The course will use Python with several tools where students learn programming with a beginner-friendly introduction to Python and AI libraries including learning how to analyze data, integrate and use basic machine learning algorithms and APIs, create visualizations, implement and test some models, and analyze results. 

AAI611 Applied Machine Learning

[3–0, 3 cr.]

This course provides an overview of popular algorithms in machine learning. Topics include supervised and unsupervised learning, linear and polynomial regression, clustering, classification algorithms, gradient descent, support vector machines, decision trees, random forests, instance-based learning, neural networks, and genetic algorithms.

 

AAI611O Machine Learning Fundamentals and Applications

[3–0, 3 cr.]

This course covers the essential machine learning techniques and algorithms and their applications. Topics include supervised and unsupervised learning, clustering, classification algorithms, linear regression, support vector machines, decision trees, random forests, neural network, deep learning, and reinforcement learning. Throughout the course, students will be exposed to real-world industrial, business, medical and social problems, where the obtained skills are employed to handle data and develop machine learning based solutions. The material and structure of the course are designed with a preference for the practical knowledge of AI more than mathematical or theoretical concepts. Different Machine Learning applications will be discussed including computer vision, natural language processing, time-series prediction, speech recognition, sentiment analysis, cybersecurity, among others.

AAI612 Deep Learning and its Applications

[3–0, 3 cr.]

This course covers principles of deep learning and in its applications. Students will learn how to build and use different kinds of deep neural networks using hands-on approach. Topics include feedforward networks, convolutional neural networks (CNNs), recurrent neural networks (RNNs), transformers and encoders/decoders. The course will include hands-on applications covering natural language processing tasks, behavioral analysis, financial analysis and anomalies detection.

 

AAI612O Deep Learning & its Applications

[3–0, 3 cr.]

This course covers principles of deep learning and in  its applications. Students will learn how to build and use different kinds of deep neural networks. The following topics will be covered with a hands-on approach: feedforward networks, convolutional neural networks (CNNs), recurrent neural networks (RNNs), long short-term memory (LSTMs), and gated recurrent units (GRUs).  The course will include hands-on applications covering natural language processing,  behavioral analysis, and anomalies detection.

AAI613O Computer Vision and its Applications

[3–0, 3 cr.]

The course covers Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning methods for computer vision. Fundamental concepts in computer vision are covered, including:  image formation, feature representation (color, texture, and shape), image augmentation (filtering), keypoint and edge detection, image segmentation, perceptual grouping, object/activity recognition, pose estimation, and 3D scene reconstruction. Students will learn about advanced AI techniques and tools used on these applications.

AAI614 Fundamentals of Data Science

[3–0, 3 cr.]

This course covers essential data science and the data processing pipeline including data capture (scraping, cleaning, and filtering), feature engineering (representation, selection, and transformation), data augmentation, data mining (predictive modeling), data visualization (search and exploration), and scalable computing and big data (Hadoop, Hive, and Spark). The course concludes with an introduction to supervised learning.

 

AAI614O Data Science and its Applications

[3–0, 3 cr.]

Data science enables us to process big amounts of structured and unstructured data to detect patterns and perform in-depth and conclusive analysis. This course covers the main techniques involved in the data processing pipeline, including: data capture (scraping, cleaning, and filtering), feature engineering (representation, selection, and transformation), data augmentation (knowledge-based and corpus-based), data mining (regression analysis and predictive modeling), and data visualization (search and exploration). Real-life applications will be considered including search engines, text summarization, text auto-correction, chat bots, personal assistants, social network analysis, sentiment analysis, and event detection, among others. Students will learn about advanced AI techniques and tools used on these applications.

AAI615 Data Ethics

[1–0, 1 cr.]

This course serves as an introduction to fundamental ethics concepts essential for the development of improved intelligent systems, while exploring their implications on the economy, civil society, and government. Topics include ethical data sourcing, data bias mitigation, explainability versus black-box AI, economic equity considerations, and data governance including privacy, security, and stewardship. Special focus is placed on the pivotal data and modeling choices made by developers during system creation and deployment, along with their societal ramifications.

 

AAI615O Ethics and AI

[3–0, 3 cr.]

It is often said that an ethical AI system must be inclusive, explainable, have a positive purpose and use data responsibly, but what does this mean in practice? In this course, students will examine and discuss case studies showcasing both good and questionable applications of AI. Particular emphasis will be placed on the data and modeling desicions that AI developers can make in the creation and application of their systems and the implications of these decision on society. Readings will be drawn from a host of books including: Heartificial Intelligence: Embracing Our Humanity to Maximize Machines by John Havens;  Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code by Ruha Benjamin; Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police and Punish the Poor by Virginia Eubanks; Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World by Meredith Broussard; and Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez.

AAI630 Data Visualization

[2–0, 2 cr.]

This course covers the essential and practical skills necessary to communicate information about data clearly and effectively through graphical means based on principles from graphic design, visual art, perceptual psychology, and cognitive science. The course introduces the value of visualization, the principles and techniques of data visualization, and specific techniques in information and scientific visualization. The course also focuses on big data organization and mining for decision support, and how to best leverage visualization methods. The assignments will involve the use of Tableau, Seaborn, Dash, Folium, Matplotlib, and the ability to manipulate data sets with code.

 

AAI631O Data Visualization

[3–0, 3 cr.]

This course covers essential and practical skills necessary to clearly and effectively communicate information from data through graphical means, based on principles from graphic design, visual art, perceptual psychology, and cognitive science. The course introduces the value of data visualization, as well as the principles and techniques of scientific visualization. It also focuses on big data organization and mining for decision support, and on how to best leverage visualization methods. Assignments and projects will involve the use of different tools and resources to manipulate and visualize data with code.

AAI632O Big Data Analytics

[3–0, 3 cr.]

This course provides an understanding of the business value of big data, the importance of effective management of big data, and the development of technical competencies using leading-edge platforms for managing and manipulating structured and unstructured big data.

AAI634O Data Engineering

[1–0, 1 cr.]

This course introduces the ETL pipeline: Extract, Transform, and Load. The course provides students with a technical overview on how to source, prepare, and manage data. Students also will be introduced to Dash and to the principles of NoSQL database systems.

 

AAI642O AI for Biomedical Informatics

[3–0, 3 cr.]

This course covers the essential and practical skills for applying AI in biomedical informatics. Topics include healthcare economics and regulation for AI, electronic health records, deep learning in genomics, pharmacology, and multi-scale omics data, leveraging big data for personalized treatment and treatment response prediction (precision medicine), and reinforcement learning for medical decision making.

AAI643O AI for Medical Diagnosis and Prediction

[3–0, 3 cr.]

This course covers the essential and practical skills for applying AI in medical diagnosis and prediction. Topics include: medical image classification, detection, segmentation, and reconstruction, time-series classification, regression, and forecasting, Weakly-, Semi-, and Self-supervised learning, and fairness and robustness.

AAI651 Natural Language Processing with Deep Learning

[2–0, 2 cr.]

This course covers word vector representations, embeddings, syntax parsing, vector space modeling, dimensionality reduction, speech tagging, text classification, sentiment analysis, window-based neural networks, recurrent neural networks, long-short-term-memory models, recursive neural networks, convolutional neural networks, and large language models.

 

AAI651O AI Methods for Natural Language Processing

[3–0, 3 cr.]

This course covers word vector representations, embeddings, syntax parsing, vector space modeling, dimensionality reduction, speech tagging, text classification, sentiment analysis, window-based neural networks, recurrent neural networks, long-short-term-memory models, recursive neural networks, convolutional neural networks.

AAI652O AI for Digital Humanities

[3–0, 3 cr.]

Throughout this journey, students will engage with concepts of culture and society through the use of un(der)explored datasets of text, image and sound, while embracing new computational frameworks that are increasingly powerful and easy to use. We focus on the importance of an interdisciplinary, liberal arts mindset in the domain of AI. This course covers the essential and practical skills for applying AI in digital humanities. Topics shall cover AI models, techniques and tools for digital content and resources including text and web mining and analysis, automatic language analysis, sentiment analysis graphs and reports, opinion mining, topic modeling, identification of ideas, web structure mining, web usage mining, language models, visualizations of large image sets, 3D modeling and classification of historical artifacts, and AI driven creation of music, images, and literature. 

AAI653O AI Driven Design Thinking

[3–0, 3 cr.]

This course leverages the fundamental design thinking process as a framework by which to embedd AI tools to innovatively solve problems and address business challenges. Specifically, students will use machine learning tools to identify user groups within the early phases of the empathize stage; AI driven NLP tools to automate detection of key themes in interview transcripts and social media posts as they write problem statements in the define stage; design thinking tools to brainstorm solutions in the ideate stage; optimization tools to ascertain the best service layouts or user interfaces in the prototype stage; and usage analytics tools as they provide data to understand how the user interacts with the final solution.

AAI681O Special Topics in Applied AI (*)

[3–0, 3 cr.]

Selected advanced topics in Applied AI. This course shall covers cutting-edge topics in the field of Applied AI. Topics include cyber security, internet of things, internet of vehicles, metaverse, virtual reality, computational social sciences, among others. This course can be taken several times under different topics.

AAI698O Project in Applied AI

[3–0, 3 cr.]

This course focuses on the application of the various learned AI techniques and algorithms for solving real life industrial, social, business or medical problems. Students will apply the AI tools, knowledge and skills to solve an actual real life problem of their interest or related to their work field. This course requires an independent development and documentation of the proposed solution.

AAI699O Thesis in Applied AI

[3–0, 3 cr.]

This course entails the application of research methods to a current topic relevant to Applied AI. The thesis must incorporate the student’s hypothesis, test methods, test results, and conclusions ready for further publications.