The course introduces AI directly into instruction through hands-on, industry-aligned training, according to a news release Tuesday.
Developed in partnership with CodePath, the course draws on curriculum originally designed by the industry-aligned education nonprofit and is co-taught by Howard faculty alongside an instructor from CodePath’s faculty network. CodePath shapes its courses around employer needs, which its surveys indicate are internship experience, technical interview performance, and side projects or portfolios. CodePath has supported AI instruction at more than 100 colleges, according to the company’s website.
“As AI reshapes the world of work, employers’ expectations are only going up,” Chris Coleman, chief product officer at CodePath, said in a public statement. “Colleges have a unique opportunity to respond to that shift by equipping their students with the skills the fast-changing tech industry needs.”
With the redesigned course, students will be introduced to AI-augmented coding and responsible use of agentic workflows. Students in the course will create workforce-ready portfolios with projects demonstrating their applied work.
“Building on many years of introducing students to traditional AI concepts, this course has been reimagined to reflect AI’s ongoing evolution and respond to what our students are asking for, and what employers now expect,” Kimberly Jones, dean of the College of Engineering and Architecture at Howard, said in a public statement. “By embedding applied AI directly into the curriculum, students who have successfully completed the class have both the foundational knowledge and the practical experience to lead in an AI-driven world of work.”
The course connects to Howard’s broader AI ecosystem, which includes the Human-Centered AI Institute, the Center for Applied Data Science and Analytics, the Natural Language Processing Group, and interdisciplinary research centers spanning medicine, defense, business and the humanities. For more than a decade, Howard has partnered with industry and peer institutions to align curriculum with workforce technologies, from information security collaborations with Carnegie Mellon University business programs that embedded corporate tools, to its campuswide AI strategy, to working with Amazon Web Services last year to host a machine learning boot camp for 200 faculty.
In 2024, Howard formally launched a campuswide AI initiative that centered around four pillars: ethics and societal benefit, research and innovation, education and workforce development, and operational efficiency.
“Through prioritizing education, research and societal impact, the AI initiative at Howard University will contribute significantly to preparing the next generation of AI professionals, advancing the state of the art in AI, and fostering a more inclusive and ethically grounded AI ecosystem,” Howard leaders wrote in a 2024 public statement announcing the initiative.
