When the School of Computer Science launches its Master of Science Artificial Intelligence Stream in Fall 2020, five members of the first cohort will bring with them a total of $87,500 in scholarship money from the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence.

“To receive five scholarships in the first year this stream is offered gives Windsor recognition as a destination to study AI and credibility in the industry,” says Ziad Kobti, director of the School of Computer Science.

“With recognition from Vector, we can recruit the best students — they don’t need to go to elsewhere to get an excellent higher-level education that will afford them employment opportunities as AI experts in a growing industry.”

Computer science professor and graduate chair, Alioune Ngom, says the program will introduce students to advanced topics in AI and related subjects and applications, as well as to new technologies that are in high demand for computer professionals in industry.

“By the end of this program, graduates will have a comprehensive understanding of leading-edge AI techniques and will be able to apply this knowledge to solve real-world problems,” says Dr. Ngom.

The stream also offers an optional co-op placement. Ngom says students can go anywhere in the world for these positions.

“This will put them ahead of the curve when they compete globally with other AI graduates for employment in government and private industry as machine learning scientists, consultants, data scientists, and software engineers,” he says.

Dr. Kobti says although the AI stream is new this year and has no graduates yet, the School of Computer Science is already graduating highly qualified individuals in the field.

“Earlier this year, my former student Kumaran Ragunathan (MSc 2020) called me just two weeks after his thesis defense to say he got a job as an associate data scientist at Quicken Loans Rocket Innovation Studio. This new stream will just continue this successfully trend.”

The 2020-21 Vector Scholarship in Artificial Intelligence awards $17,500 per recipient for one year of full-time study at a Vector accredited institution. The university’s new professional stream is a research thesis-based program. The five UWindsor scholarship recipients are: Sheena Hora, Vishakha Gautam, Shuvendu Roy, Nazia Siddiqui, and Farzaneh Jouyandeh.

—Sara Elliott