UTSA is planning to open a new college focused on artificial intelligence and data science next year, aimed at attracting the increased number of students studying the subjects since 2019.
The new college will centralize programs that are currently distributed across four separate colleges. UTSA launched the School of Data Science a year ago welcoming hundreds of students to participate in five data science graduate programs. Officials said how the school will mesh with the new college has not yet been decided.
UTSA President Taylor Eighmy said in a statement that the move is in response to what he called the “fifth Industrial Revolution” ushered in by the fields of artificial intelligence as well as cybersecurity, computing and data science.
“These disciplines will remain intertwined for the foreseeable future,” he said. “With an escalating demand for emerging technologies, their applications, and the demand for a skilled workforce, this new college will greatly accelerate UTSA’s economic and workforce impact here in San Antonio, across Texas and nationally.”
According to a press release, nearly 6,000 students are enrolled in AI, cyber, computing and data science-related degree programs at UTSA, reflecting a 31% increase since 2019. The college graduated more than 1,000 students from those programs in 2022-2023.
The rapid growth of AI, catalyzed by the introduction of Chat GPT at the end of 2022, has led to an unprecedented demand for skilled labor, according to the university. There are approximately 3.5 million open positions in cybersecurity and data science globally, according to data compiled by the research firm Cybersecurity Ventures and cited by UTSA.
While the college is at least a year away from welcoming its first cohort, UTSA Interim Provost and Senior vice President for Academic Affairs Heather Shipley announced a task force to lead the planning process. The group will survey student interest and regional workforce needs, identify partnership and multidisciplinary research opportunities and think through an organizational structure, she told faculty members in an email.
Members of the task force will be announced later in January with a final report expected in June, according to UTSA. Jonathon Halbesleben, the dean of the Carlos Alvarez College of Business, and Jianwei Niu, interim dean of University College, will serve as task force chairs.
As part of the process, the founding director of the UTSA school of data science David Mongeau will gather feedback from San Antonio stakeholders and survey best practices at “peer and aspiring institutions,” according to the university.
Similar processes have led to the creation of other colleges at UTSA, including the creation of the College for Health, Community and Policy in 2019 and the Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design in 2021.
In an interview, Halbesleben said the rapid growth of AI in recent months and years is one of the reasons the university is creating the college.
“We currently have quite a number of faculty that are working with AI, studying AI, teaching elements of different AI in our courses,” he said. “Bringing them together under one umbrella really helps to bring that capacity together, and better prepare us to understand those changes and understand how what changes in one area might impact changes in another area.”
