Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an emerging engineering discipline that focuses on the technological innovations in enabling computing systems to behave and discover new knowledge with human-like intelligence. It is a broad area that covers many specializations, such as machine learning, deep learning, knowledge representation/inference, large scale computing systems and distributed systems, logic/constraint programming, human-computer interactions, natural language processing, big data analytics, etc. It has evolved in multiple disciplines, such as finance, medicine, manufacturing, robotics, multimedia, telecommunications, computational linguistics, etc., and there is now a huge demand of AI specialists in both local and global employment markets. On the other hand, there are critical challenges on how to innovate and design solid and rigorous solutions for AI, as well as how to properly address the ethical and societal issues with AI.
The AIST programme is designed to meet today's tremendous need of well-trained talents in AI and related specializations. It aims to equip students with the capabilities of designing and implementing AI systems and technologies that can analyze, reason, and infer knowledge from massive information, backed by rigorous foundations of mathematics, basic sciences, data structures, statistics, algorithms, distributed computing, etc. Such capabilities enable students to develop cutting-edge AI solutions that are of practical interest to academia, industry and society.
The AIST programme emphasizes on fundamental mathematics, sciences, theories, and complement the knowledge with practical systems skill sets. Four optional specialized streams are offered for students to choose according to their own interests:
Note that the AIST programme aims to admit high caliber students who demonstrate outstanding abilities in English, mathematics and science subjects. Excellent academic backgrounds, together with a problem-solving mindset, will be essential to comprehend the knowledge and tackle the future challenges with AI.
