PROGRAM

B.Eng. in AiCE Degree Requirements


Overview
AiCE students must satisfy multiple requirements before the Bachelor of Engineering degree is certified. The AiCE undergraduate curriculum requires at least 360 credit units. This includes 66 units of arts, humanities, social science and communication electives, 90 units of math/science, 132 units of core technical fundamentals, and 54 units of undergraduate research and development.

The maximum number of credits a student can earn is 400.

All requirements are expressed via the AiCE competency scheme. Some competencies are required, meaning that every AiCE student must demonstrate this competency in order to graduate. Others are optional. In some cases, optional competencies form a set from which the student is required to select a subset to complete.

Because of the individualized nature of the AiCE program, the pattern of study for each student will be different. Furthermore, students who receive credit upon entry to the program for advanced placement or other prior experience will experience a different learning path than students without these pre-existing skills.

The section below entitled AiCE Competencies presents the full set of currently defined competencies and the amount of credit associated with each one, with an indication of whether the competency is required in order to graduate. We expect that these lists will change somewhat as the AiCE program becomes more established.

Undergraduate Research and Development
The AiCE program is designed to provide students with opportunities to solve real world problems in collaboration with external stakeholders from industry, government and/or non-governmental organizations. Starting in their first semester, students will devote at least 7-9 hours per week working on projects in three tracks:

We call this project work “Undergraduate R&D”, though depending on the project, the work may tend more toward research or more toward development. The students are expected to participate for at least two semesters in each track. AiCE students must complete all three tracks to satisfy their graduation requirement. AiCE program will designate a track manager to help facilitate relevant activities and stakeholder-matching for each track. Expected output from the completion of each of these projects is comparable to completing a capstone design project. Hence AiCE graduates will have significantly more real-world research and development experience than students who earn bachelor’s degrees from most other computer engineering programs.

The projects will be designed by the organizational stakeholders in collaboration with CMKL University faculty; however, students will be encouraged to provide input and suggestions. If they have some original ideas they would like to pursue, students can also propose their own project topics to potential stakeholder organizations.

Once the scope and high-level problem for a project has been defined, the CMKL faculty will map the project to a set of associated competencies, based on the knowledge and skills that the project requires. These competencies may be either required or optional competencies. Thus, project work may overlap with more traditional study activities in satisfying the graduation requirements.

Credit for undergraduate R&D work will depend on the underlying competencies. Even if a project specifies a competency that the student has already demonstrated via more traditional study activities, the student can receive additional credit for this competency. This recognizes the fact that the level of mastery required by a real-world project will usually be higher than necessary to pass the initial competency assessment.


AiCE Competencies
The AiCE competencies are organized according to knowledge pillars. Each pillar represents a broad set of topics and concerns. There are five central pillars in the program: Artificial Intelligence Core, Human-Centered Design, Cybersecurity, Scalable Systems, and Entrepreneurship and Innovation. In many cases these major categories are divided into subcategories called subdomains.

In addition to these central pillars, we also incorporate science, mathematics, humanities, and other competencies, which would normally be viewed as external electives or general education, into our scheme. Additional competencies may be available through AIEI university network and student can request for competency credit transfer through AIEI system.

The tables below list the currently defined competencies for each pillar.


Pillar: Artificial Intelligence Core
Total credits: 130  Required: 90

Subdomain

Competency

Credits

Required?

Programming Fundamentals

Algorithmic Thinking

2

Yes

Intro to Programming

4

Yes

Programming Multi-module Applications

4

Yes

Object Oriented Programming***

4

Yes

Functional Programming***

4

Dataflow Programming***

4

Algorithms and Data Structures

8

Yes

Mathematics for AI*

Probability and Statistics

12

Yes

Discrete Mathematics

12

Yes

Matrices and Linear Transformations

12

Yes

Data Domains | Time/Frequency Domain

4

No

Artificial Intelligence

Logic-based Models

6

Yes

Probability-based Models

4

No

Planning and Search Strategies

4

Yes

Neural Networks and Deep Learning and CNN

4

Yes

Data Mining

Information Extraction and Retrieval, Search and Indexing

4

No

Proximity Measurement and Cluster Analysis

4

No

Classification and Regression

4

No

Machine Learning

Supervised and Unsupervised Learning

6

Yes

Reinforcement Learning

4

Yes

Transformer Network

4

Yes

AI Applications **

Recommendation Systems

4

Natural Language Processing (NLP)

4

Autonomous Agents

4

Computer Vision

4

* Mathematics for AI competencies are counted toward 90 credits of math and science competency requirement.
** Students must complete at least one AI Application competency. This may be in the context of undergraduate R&D.
****Students must choose 1 of these optional programming competencies.



Pillar: Human-Centered Design
Total credits: 42 Required: 18

Subdomain

Competency

Credits

Required?

Analysis and Presentation

Visualization

4

Yes

User Experience and Interface Design

4

Yes

User Interface Design and Evaluation

6

No

Immersive Environments (AR/VR)

6

No

Understanding Context of Use

Accessibility and Universal Design

4

Yes

User Research Methodologies & Data

4

No

Design for Human-Machine Teaming

Ethics in Computer Engineering

2

Yes

Creating Explainable AI

4

Yes

*** Human Psychology for User Interface Design

4

No

Engaging in Critical Oversight

*** Ethical Principles for AI (Fairness, Accountability, Transparency, Ethics)

4

No

*** Competencies can be counted toward communication, humanities and social sciences distribution requirements



Pillar: Cybersecurity
Total credits: 42 Required: 24

Subdomain

Competency

Credits

Required?

Data Acquisition, Management and Governance

Data Acquisition, Preparation, Transformation and Cleaning

4

No

Data Reduction and Compression

4

No

Data Governance

2

No

Data Privacy, Security and Integrity

Data Privacy, Security and Integrity

4

Yes

Creating Secure Software

4

Yes

Securing System Infrastructure

6

Yes

Security Policy and Processes

4

No

Distributed Ledger and Blockchain

4

No

AI System Security

Security Challenges in Modern AI Systems

4

Yes

Robustness of AI Components and Systems

6

Yes


Pillar: Scalable Systems
Total credits: 78 Required: 32

Subdomain

Competency

Credits

Required?

Computing and Computer Fundamentals

Operating Systems (Unix Basics)

4

Yes

Real Time Operating Systems*

4

Yes

Linux Kernel Hacking*

4

Computer Architecture (assembly programming)

4

Yes

Computer Design: Processor Architectures**

2

Yes

Computer Design: Digital Design using HDLs**

2

Web Architecture

4

No

Storage and File Systems Fundamentals

2

No

Networks

4

No

Software Development and Maintenance

Software Engineering Processes

6

Yes

Software Testing

4

No

Software System Design

4

No

Designing and Implementing Data Bases

6

No

Computer System Fundamentals

Cyber-Physical Systems

4

Yes

Cloud Computing

4

Yes

Scalable Management of Data and Models

4

No

Scalable Algorithms and Infrastructure

4

No

Big Data Systems

Parallel Computing

4

Yes

Distributed Data Storage

4

No

Big Data Computing

4

No

*Students must choose 1 of these operating systems optional competencies.
**Students must choose 1 of these computer architecture optional competencies.


Pillar: Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Total credits: 68 Required: 26

Subdomain

Competency

Credits

Required?

Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Create Innovation-driven Enterprise (Path Selection)****

4

Yes

Product Design and Development (Including Design Thinking)

8

Yes

Intellectual Property

2

No

Startup from Idea to Impact

8

Yes

Building Effective Teams to drive Innovation

2

Yes

Entrepreneurial Finance

2

No

Strategy and Innovation

Strategic Innovation Development

4

Yes

Strategy and CEO****

2

No

Platform Strategy

2

No

Leadership and Communication

Inclusive Leadership

2

No

Persuasive and Leadership Communication***

4

No

Negotiation

4

No

Business Application Domains ***

Retail and Services Applications

4

No

Logistics

4

No

***** Biomedical, Bioinformatics and Health

4

No

Gaming and Creative Industries

4

No

***** Fintech

4

No

Educational Technology

4

No

** Students will usually choose one of these application domains in the context of undergraduate R&D. Other competencies in this pillar may also be addressed via R&D projects.
*** Competencies can be counted toward 66 credit social science/communication distribution requirement.
**** The list of business application domains may be expanded. Students will normally address these competencies in the context of undergraduate research projects.
***** Competencies can be counted toward math and science requirements. Other scientific application domains proposed by students or stakeholders may also provide math/science credits



Pillar: Science
Total credits: 60

Subdomain

Competency

Credits

Required?

Science

Fundamentals of Biology

12

No*

Fundamentals of Chemistry

12

No

Physics I

12

No

Physics 2

12

No

Quantum Physics

12

No

* Students must complete a total of 90 credits of math and science competencies. This includes the Mathematics for AI competencies under the AI Core pillar as well as some other designated competencies within the five main pillars.



Pillar: Mathematics
Total credits: 36

Subdomain

Competency

Credits

Required?

Mathematics

Differential Equations and Approximation

12

No*

Differential and Integral Calculus

12

No

Calculus in Three Dimensions

12

No

* Students must complete a total of 90 credits of math and science competencies. This includes the Mathematics for AI competencies under the AI Core pillar as well as some other designated competencies within the five main pillars.



Pillar: Communication and Presentation
Total credits: 41

Subdomain

Competency

Credits

Required?

Communication and Presentation

Research and Technical Writing

8

No

Creative Writing

8

No

Improvisational Acting

9

No

Graphics and Visual Storytelling

8

No

Thinking skills

8

No


Pillar: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Total credits: 72

Subdomain

Competency

Credits

Required?

People, Places and Cultures

Sociology and Cultural Anthropology

9

No

Social Psychology

9

No

Political Studies

9

No

Human Geography

9

No

Global Histories

9

No

History of Visual Arts

9

No

History of Music

9

No

Economics

9

No


Pillar: Soft Skills
Students do not sign up for the competencies under the “soft skills” pillar. However, all students are required to demonstrate these competencies during their undergraduate career. Usually, soft skills will be evaluated by instructors or industry mentors as part of the student’s work on projects or undergraduate R&D.

To facilitate this evaluation, the full AiCE curriculum model breaks down each of these soft skill competencies into a set of observable behaviors that will allow objective assessment of the degree to which the students demonstrate these competencies.

Subdomain

Competency

Credits

Required?

Adaptability

Creative flexibility

Yes

Working flexibility

Yes

Empathy

Human-centered focus

Yes

Respect for diversity

Yes

Ethics

Social consciousness

Yes

Honesty

Yes

Fairness

Yes

Respect for privacy and confidentiality

Yes

Proactiveness

Service orientation

Yes

Continuous improvement focus

Yes

Professionalism

Responsibility

Yes

Compliance with organizational norms

Yes

Time management

Yes

Quality focus

Yes

Professional awareness

Yes

Interpersonal relations

Yes

Self-Learning

Motivation to learn

Yes

Active learning

Yes

Teamwork

Attention

Yes

Respect and courtesy

Yes

Openness

Yes

Team spirit

Yes

STUDY PLAN

4 YEARS

B.Eng in AiCE Roadmap

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3 YEARS

Accelerated Study Plan

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Integrated Master and Bachelor Degree Program (IMB)

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Questions?

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us.

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