The AI4OPT Faculty Training Program welcomes its first cohort in June 2022. The participants are faculty members at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) throughout the country, including Georgia, California, Texas, and Virginia. During the three-year program, they will take courses in data science, artificial intelligence, and course design with the ultimate goal of establishing a minor or major data science program at their home institutions. The participants will set up joint research projects with AI4OPT researchers at Georgia Tech, UC Berkeley, and the University of Southern California, and will host their own seminars and workshops to promote data science at their schools.

This summer, the participants take the courses “Data Mining and Engineering I” and “Statistics with Python”, and start with the design of their own courses. The courses have been developed specifically for the target audience by Dr. Charles Pierre and his team at Clark Atlanta University. During the first four weeks, the participants are hosted at Georgia Tech, and Dr. Pierre and his team will provide them with an in person training. AI4OPT researchers will visit in the afternoons to give research talks and to make connections. After the visit to Georgia Tech, the participants will be virtual for another four weeks to complete their first courses. This kicks off a multi-year collaboration during which the participants will take more courses both in person and online, keep working with AI4OPT researchers, and work continuously on implementing AI and data science programs at their schools.