To meet employer demand, the number of skilled people in AI and data science needs to increase by 70% by 2020, just to keep pace with demand. There is also an acknowledgement that increasing diversity in the AI workforce is vital to ensure that everyone with the potential to participate has the opportunity to do so, in order to reflect the needs and make-up of society as a whole. This course therefore, has been developed with an Employer Steering Group including organisations such as Synectics Solutions Ltd, Powelectrics, Aspire Housing, SSE Enterprise Energy Solutions, Santander, Caja Ltd Astec IT Solutions, Teal Legal, Hildebrand Technology Limited, Rushkeep, Digital Law UK & Anson Evaluate, so that it not only meets the current demands of industry but also the skills that future industrial AI and data science will require.

We have then combined this with our own research into the barriers that underrepresented and non science, technology, engineering and mathematics STEM) students face when studying AI/Data Science courses, to create the course content, state-of-the-art delivery design, contextual assessments and pastoral support.

This course aims to support students, from both STEM and non-STEM disciplines by providing those without prior experience, the foundations of areas such as programming and mathematics, so that all students can then progress to more advanced areas such as Machine Learning, Data Analytics, Visualisation, Cloud Computing, the “Internet of Things” and Intelligent Systems. During the course, students will also further develop their academic and professional skills and get the chance to work with other students and external organisations to make real interdisciplinary and societal impact in taught modules, an A.I. and Data Science ambassador scheme and as part of an industrial project/placement.

Through our close collaboration with industrial partners, we continually seek to ensure that the MSc in A.I. and Data Science gives our students appropriate technical skills and knowledge - as well as the consultancy, team and project management skills that are required for success in careers where A.I. and Data Science are being developed or used.