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The interdisciplinary minor will give students in every major the opportunity to build artificial intelligence skills, explore ethical impacts, and use that information in fields ranging from business and public policy to music and filmmaking.
This summer, Virginia Tech is launching a new undergraduate minor in artificial intelligence (AI) open to students in any major. It’s designed to help them build AI skills and literacy they can apply to any field of study and to their careers after graduation. Applications to join the minor program will open in August for all undergraduates. Incoming students can add some of the minor’s classes to their schedules starting this month. Christine Julien, head of the Department of Computer Science, stated that today's students are entering a workforce where AI will be part of nearly every profession, and the goal is to ensure Virginia Tech graduates understand how these technologies work, how to evaluate them critically, and how to apply them responsibly in their own fields. Julien led a group across the university to build an intentionally interdisciplinary minor, designed from the start for the entire university rather than just computer science students. Collaborating with colleagues in arts, social sciences, philosophy, and public policy ensured that students from diverse fields, like animal science, music, and computer science, could find meaningful paths into AI directly connected to their respective areas. Jeffrey Loeffert, director of the School of Performing Arts, emphasized that combining expertise from different disciplines creates opportunities for students to explore new ideas and develop unique skills. He highlighted the need for graduates to have high AI literacy to adapt to changing tools and technologies, as industry partners frequently express this demand.
The artificial intelligence minor is an 18-credit-hour program offering diverse course options. It requires all students to build a technical foundation encompassing programming, computational problem-solving, and practical AI concepts. An essential ethics component is integrated, drawing from courses in computer science, philosophy, and business. Furthermore, the minor features interdisciplinary application modules with specially designed pathways in the arts, social sciences, and humanities. Examples of selected course options include: AI, Creativity, and the Art of Being Human (ENGL 2024), AI and Global Languages (FL 2744), The Skeptic’s Guide to AI (PHIL 1404), AI in Filmmaking (CINE 2014), AI in Music (MUS 2014), Algorithms and Society (CS/STS 4014), Ethical Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence (PHIL 3334), and Data Governance, Privacy, and Ethics (BIT 4604). This structure enables students, such as a theatre major exploring AI in creative practice or a public policy student examining AI’s impact on governance, to directly link AI concepts to their academic interests and career aspirations. Christine Julien also noted that the minor's course offerings are continually expanding, with new classes like 'AI in Theatre: Applications and Impacts' already under review. Incoming students interested in the minor can begin enrolling in eligible prerequisite-free courses, and all students can formally declare the minor through the College of Engineering starting August 3.