The University of Hawaii at Hilo is rolling out several new artificial intelligence-focused offerings this fall to help prepare students for the rapidly changing landscape.

Sukhwa Hong and Chenbo Shi, both professors in UH-Hilo’s College of Business and Economics, are spearheading the effort with the launch of a business analytics and AI concentration option for business students, as well as an AI for business certificate available to all majors.

Hong said he hopes the new programs will make
AI education more accessible to a broader range of
students, particularly those interested in business.

“Not just computer science students, but I think
everyone should need to know AI,” Hong said. “So, we thought about making our students take courses in computer science to learn about AI, because that is needed, obviously, but that’s not enough — teaching
general AI to our students wasn’t good enough. So, why not build something that is just for our students?”

Hong and Shi have been working on developing curriculum for the new programs, which will include one completely new course, as well as modifications to existing ones.

“We tried to launch this program fast, and the most optimized way, or efficient way, is to adapt from the courses we currently have,” Shi said. “So, essentially we developed one course, which is the intro level concentration course, and that will be kind of the first course the students in this concentration take … and we revised another two courses, business analytics and text mining, into more AI-related courses by including more AI components.”

Hong said students will also be required to take
several courses in data science to complete the concentration. In addition to learning the basics of what AI is and how it works, the new programs will also focus on ethics and responsible AI usage.

“AI is a very sensitive subject, so of course ethics is very important, because AI obviously has limitations,” he said. “Our students are not computer science students, so they actually don’t need to know the architecture behind the AI. But the reason that we are teaching it is because they need to know how it works in order to know its limitations.”

He said the program is not necessarily aimed at encouraging students to use AI, but rather at allowing them to make more informed decisions about if, when and how they do.

“We are giving them
options,” Hong said. “So, you choose to study AI. We’ll teach you how to use it, we’ll even teach you the limitations, what are all the bad things about AI, and it’s up to you whether to use it.”

He and Shi said they view AI as a valuable tool for students to have in the current job market, which has been largely impacted and reshaped by AI.

While there has been broad concern about AI reducing the need for human workers, Hong said he is less worried about that and more concerned with preparing students to have the skills necessary to meet the evolving demands of the job market.

“It’s not that AI is going to replace your job, but it’s the people who have AI skills that will replace your job,” he said. “So, they need to have those AI skills … so it’s not that they should be afraid of AI, but they should be afraid of people who have AI skills. So we’re trying to make that our
students.”

However, he and Shi said it is challenging to keep up with the technology, which seems to be changing more quickly than they are able to update curriculum.

“The thing is, AI is changing so fast, so by the time we actually offer the course, some of the materials become outdated,” he said “So we have to continuously maintain the courses to the latest content, so that’s what we’re trying to figure out.”

The new programs are the first of their kind in the UH system, and Hong and Shi said they are excited to be able to offer a more balanced, comprehensive
AI education at UH Hilo that allows students to better understand it and leverage it in a positive way.

“AI, of course, has a bad side, but I’ve been working with it for like three or four years, and it does good things, too,” he said “It’s
already here, so we cannot get rid of it, so once it’s here, why not make it good for us? That’s what we’re trying to do as educators, (and) our students can be a part of that.”

Hong and Shi said they encourage anyone who is interested to look into the programs, which they said do not require prior programming or math skills.

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