A UF club is teaching students about creating systems with artificial intelligence.
Nicholas Kroeger, a UF computer science sophomore, and John Henning, a UF computer science and mathematics junior, recently established an artificial intelligence club after realizing UF doesn’t offer courses on AI for undergraduate students. The club, which will meet Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m., teaches students how to build computers and software capable of intelligent behavior.
“There’s no undergraduate classes that I saw that I could take for AI and there’s no AI undergraduate major, which I think is really important,” Kroeger, 19, said. “I’d like to create those later on in life if I choose to pursue a Ph.D.”
Bernard Marger, a UF computer engineering senior, said UF used to have an undergraduate artificial intelligence curriculum, but it discontinued when the professor retired.
In past years, Douglas Dankel II, a retired UF assistant professor, taught courses on artificial intelligence, artificial intelligence for computer games and knowledge-based systems.
Kroeger said he reached out to Marger, 21, to establish the AI Club after attending an Association for Computing Machinery meeting, of which Marger is president. They established the club as a sub-organization of ACM.
“On campus, (ACM) serves as the predominant pre-professional organization for computer scientists and programming enthusiasts,” Marger said. “The Artificial Intelligence Club serves as a connection between the ACM general body and that technical concept area.”
Marger said he hopes the club teaches students skills they can apply to future careers and internships. During the first two meetings, the club taught about 15 members about artificial neural networks, a series of models that simulate brain functions and are the building blocks of AI.
While Henning said the group is only focusing on teaching students about AI for the moment, they might change their goals in the future. They currently aren’t planning on trying to add AI classes to UF’s curriculum.
“As the world keeps going, AI is becoming more prevalent,” the 20-year-old said.
