Applications of AI
Minor

Learn to leverage AI tools and techniques.

You’ve heard the hype—now discover how AI can actually impact your field. The Applications of AI Minor explores how artificial intelligence is transforming industries everywhere, from business and healthcare to the arts and social sciences. Designed for students of any major, this program helps you understand and apply AI in meaningful ways, enhancing decision-making, creativity, and problem-solving. You’ll also examine its ethical and societal impacts, giving you the knowledge to navigate an AI-driven world with confidence. No matter your career path, this minor equips you with the skills to make AI work for you.

  • Identify and analyze potential ethical considerations in AI development and deployment
  • Articulate the nuances of human-AI interaction to improve collaboration between humans and AI
  • Critically evaluate AI applications and conceptualize potential future developments in the field
Quick Info

6 Courses / 18 Total Credit Hours

Courses & Curriculum

The minor Applications of AI is 18 credits and combines a primary and elective core with the choice of 9 credits worth of electives to give you a strong AI foundation with a focus of your choosing.

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Core Courses – 6 Credits

IST 314 | 3 CREDITS

This course helps students gain AI literacy. This course interweaves experiences working with a variety of AI tools, from text to art and voice to video, with critical interrogation of these AI tools, inviting students to consider the implications of AI use in a variety of contexts.

IST 320 | 3 CREDITS

This course provides a comprehensive understanding of Artificial Intelligence to students from different backgrounds and disciplines, including key concepts, techniques, and technical infrastructure, along with their social, environmental, economic, legal, and cultural context of emergence.

Core Elective – 3 Credits

IST 375 | 3 CREDITS

“Artificial Intelligence” is a broad field that brings together studies and practices around technology, information, sociology, law and ethics, and psychology—in particular the psychology of human-machine interaction. In this class, we will focus on understanding, analyzing, and critiquing scientific and practical perspectives on what counts as “interactivity” and what counts as “intelligence” when AI-driven agents interact with humans.

IST 488 | 3 CREDITS

Learn to build Generative AI applications leveraging large language models. Through hands-on projects, students will use libraries and APIs to create conversational agents, Q&A bots, and goal-oriented assistants. Topics covered include prompt engineering, AI conversational memory, output evaluation, and responsible AI practices.

Electives – 9 credits

BPS 430 | 3 CREDITS
Explore how Generative AI technologies can be leveraged to enhance organizational performance and efficiency. Learn the principles and practices of applying AI in various business scenarios, understanding its potential and limitations, ethical considerations, and its transformative impact on industries.

IST 341 | 3 CREDITS
Students will learn concepts, methods and tools for designing ethical and equitable human-center Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for individuals, groups, organizations, and society more broadly.

IST 343 | 3 CREDITS
Students will critically examine how individuals, groups, and society create and are created by digital data and algorithms.  Students will explore social, political, legal, and professional issues across varying contexts including social media and the Internet of Things.

IST 349 | 3 CREDITS
Students will learn to critically evaluate existing Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), and how to design ethical and equitable ICTs utilizing user-centered design perspectives and methods.

IST 387 | 3 CREDITS
Introduces students to fundamentals about data and the standards, technologies, and methods for organizing, managing, curating, preserving, and using data. Discusses broader issues relating to data management, quality control and publication of data.

PAI 300 | 3 CREDITS

PHI 378 | 3 CREDITS
Philosophical issues concerning artificial intelligence. Can machines understand, learn, think rationally, and be self-conscious? Critique of the computational theory of mind.