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M.I.T. Plans College for Artificial Intelligence, Backed by $1 Billion

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for BoyceMagooglyMonkey

M.I.T. Plans College for Artificial Intelligence, Backed by $1 Billion

Every major university is wrestling with how to adapt to the technology wave of artificial intelligence — how to prepare students not only to harness the powerful tools of A.I., but also to thoughtfully weigh its ethical and social implications. A.I. courses, conferences and joint majors have proliferated in the last few years.

But the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is taking a particularly ambitious step, creating a new college backed by a planned investment of $1 billion. Two-thirds of the funds have already been raised, M.I.T. said, in announcing the initiative on Monday.

The linchpin gift of $350 million came from Stephen A. Schwarzman, chief executive of the Blackstone Group, the big private equity firm. The college, called the M.I.T. Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing, will create 50 new faculty positions and many more fellowships for graduate students.

It is scheduled to begin in the fall semester next year, housed in other buildings before moving into its own new space in 2022.

MIT to Use $350 Million Gift to Bolster Computer Sciences

"exec" writes:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

The campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge will soon be home to a new college of computer science, which will get its own building.

A $350 million gift from investment banker Stephen Schwarzman will allow the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge to "rewire" how it educates students in this foundational subject, school officials announced today.

The money will help finance a new building that will house a college of computing named for its major donor. It will also allow MIT to cope with the rising demand for computer science courses from students majoring in any number of disciplines by paying for 50 new faculty members.

"Roughly 40% of our current undergraduates are majoring in computer science or computer science and X," says MIT Provost Martin Schmidt. With only 10% of the university's 1000 faculty capable of teaching computer science courses, Schmidt says, "having them teach 40% of the undergraduates has created a huge load imbalance."

Computing is now part of the department of electrical engineering and computer science within MIT's school of engineering. It is by far the largest of MIT's five schools, serving 70% of undergraduates and 45% of graduate students.

"It no longer makes sense to have computer science within electrical engineering," says Michael Stonebraker, one of seven MIT computing faculty members who wrote an open letter last year asking MIT to consider creating a separate school of computing. Computing was being taught "in a haphazard fashion" across many departments, he says, an "inefficient and fragmented approach" that undermined the quality of instruction.

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