By Clarissa Piatek,
Special to Rice News
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a core enabling technology for nearly every discipline, from engineering to health care to finance. To prepare the next generation of innovators and thought leaders in AI, Rice University will offer a Bachelor of Science in AI beginning in the fall of 2025.
“This program exemplifies how Rice is translating its strategic vision into action, as well as our commitment to lead in areas of national and global importance,” said President Reginald DesRoches. “Our responsibility is to help set the standard for how AI is developed, applied and governed in the years ahead.”
The new major reflects Rice’s university-wide commitment to shaping the future of computing through responsible and interdisciplinary approaches to AI. As part of its strategic plan, Rice has identified responsible AI as a catalyst for discovery and impact across fields — a priority also central to the George R. Brown School of Engineering and Computing, which leads many of Rice’s efforts advancing computing for societal good.
“We are in a moment of rapid transformation driven by AI, and Rice is committed to preparing students not just to participate in that future but to shape it responsibly,” said Amy Dittmar, the Howard R. Hughes Provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. “This new major builds on our strengths in computing and education and is a vital part of our broader vision to lead in ethical AI and deliver real-world solutions across health, sustainability and resilient communities.”
Luay Nakhleh, the William and Stephanie Sick Dean of Engineering and Computing, said the new major will prepare students to shape the future of AI — not just as skilled practitioners but as thoughtful and strategic leaders.
“At Rice, we challenge students to not only master the technical expertise but to think critically about how to use new technologies to advance the greater good,” Nakhleh said. “We seek to empower students to think independently and creatively. This major is designed to give students the tools to understand AI deeply and the space to explore how it can be applied in unexpected, meaningful ways.”
The major, which will be housed in the Department of Computer Science, provides undergraduates a cohesive program that covers an array of approaches to AI “so that they are prepared for the breadth of what’s going on in AI,” said John Greiner, an assistant teaching professor of computer science who has been named director of the new program.
“We see AI being discussed a lot in the media, in public policy. AI has been made a national priority for not just the United States but around the world,” said Vicente Ordóñez-Román, associate professor of computer science who was instrumental in the new major’s development and approval. “There have been a lot of developments in the past 10 or so years that have put AI in the mainstream,” and Rice is offering the major so students are “more directly prepared for careers in artificial intelligence,” he said.
“Students who take the major will be at the vanguard of one of the most significant intellectual developments of the past 50 years,” said Chris Jermaine, chair of computer science.
One cohesive program — no graduate degree required
Currently, Rice computer science students need to take several AI-related elective courses or even pursue an advanced degree to immerse themselves in AI, Ordóñez-Román said. And, Greiner added, these electives wouldn’t necessarily provide a broad background in the field.
“We thought that something could be done at the undergraduate level” to give students more options, Ordóñez-Román said.
“With the major, we’re really setting out a curriculum that makes sense as a whole,” Greiner said. “We are not simply taking a collection of courses that have been created already and putting a new wrapper around them. We’re actually creating a brand new curriculum. Most of the required courses are brand new courses designed for this major.”
Like computer science but different
Because many of the necessary skills and prerequisite courses for a degree in computer science overlapped with those for an AI major, it made sense to house the new program in the computer science department.
“In computer science, there are three big areas: artificial intelligence, systems development and algorithms and theory. I think they’re all covered” in both the computer science major and AI major, Ordóñez-Román said. “Artificial intelligence will be more at the core of the AI major than systems or algorithms, but they all will be present in both majors.”
The AI major “starts out with similar math requirements and some of the same programming courses,” Greiner said, “but at the sophomore level starts becoming an entirely different set of classes that are much more specialized to AI and have a stronger mathematical background.”
Beyond its specialized focus, the AI major will also incorporate disciplines outside of engineering.
“Artificial intelligence relies on the notion of ‘intelligence,’” Ordóñez-Román said, so a course on cognitive psychology will be included in the AI core curriculum. “That is a foundational course that touches on what intelligence is from a more human perspective, and it also opens up the avenue for students in the major to take other, more advanced courses on cognitive psychology.”
“In addition, we are including an ethics course from philosophy that’s being developed specifically for the AI major,” Greiner said.
These courses could make the major appealing to nonengineering students.
“People who might be taking either cognitive psychology or neuroengineering, neuro-based majors, some of those might move over” to AI, Greiner said. “I think there’s going to be broad interest, but at the same time, the skills being taught are still very engineering oriented. There’s still a lot of math, a lot of programming. The expectations are going to be similar to other engineering majors.”
Playing to Rice’s strengths
Few universities offer AI as a standalone undergraduate major.
“It’s not a very common program you will find yet,” Ordóñez-Román said.
The combination of faculty expertise in AI and an unflagging commitment to undergraduate education make Rice a good fit for this new major. Students will also benefit from being part of Rice’s growing AI ecosystem, including resources and opportunities offered through the Ken Kennedy Institute.
“We have been building expertise in artificial intelligence,” said Ordóñez-Román, whose own research focuses on the AI-intensive fields of computer vision, natural language processing and machine learning. “There are people working here on natural language processing, information retrieval systems for machine learning, more theoretical machine learning, quantum machine learning. We have a lot of expertise in these areas, and I think we’re trying to leverage that strength we’re building.”
Rice also has “a tradition of doing things our own way and creating new courses and new ways of educating students,” Greiner said. “Rice has always been very strong in undergraduate education, and part of that is that we have always been unafraid to create distinctive courses.”
Greiner predicts students will be drawn to the new major. “AI is in the news. It’s a very popular area, and for our students who are interested in that area, this gives them a coherent program that will support their goals.”