This semester, Howard University is ensuring students are prepared to enter a workforce dominated by artificial intelligence. In a partnership with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and the computer science education nonprofit CodePath, the university has redesigned its “Intro to AI” course, which will instruct students on the fundamentals of AI-assisted software development and give real-world experience, introducing them to the AI tools and methods used by professionals today. 

The revamp of the course is just one part of a greater shift in AI education at Howard. As part of its larger AI Initiative, the university is also rolling out two new courses designed for all students — one providing a basic framework on how AI works, and one focused on the ethical and societal considerations of the technology — and a path toward an AI certificate, and most recently announced a $4 million partnership with Bowie State University to integrate AI education into other courses through the ASCEND-AI initiative.  

A New Direction for AI Education

So many of the tech firms are saying very clearly that our students, if they don't have these skills in AI, will not be candidates for a job interview.

Along with Howard faculty, the new Intro to AI course will be led by instructors from CodePath’s network of industry-connected professionals. The course will cover everything from data structures to AI literacy and agentic workflows, culminating in the students preparing a portfolio-ready project demonstrating their ability to apply AI responsibly and effectively within real software development contexts. The goal is to ensure they are ready for a job market that increasingly demands AI skills.

“Given that reality of what's happening today, it's clear that to equip our students with these skills as part of our mission here at Howard,” said Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Chair and Associate Professor Dr. Harry Keeling.
“So many of the tech firms are saying very clearly that our students, if they don't have these skills in AI, will not be candidates for a job interview.”

The Intro to AI class is intended for computer science students and will go into great detail on the history and ethical considerations of AI before diving into best practices for incorporating the technology into computer science practices. The undergraduate courses are open to all students and intended to provide a broad overview of AI, establishing a baseline knowledge of the technology and how it can be incorporated into their respective fields. 

Keeling and other Howard faculty spent months designing appropriate curricula for each course, trying to pin down what is appropriate for graduate computer science students versus undergrads who may have no AI experience. He likened the different approaches to driving a car. 

“Everybody should be able to drive the car,” he explained. “You should know the basic parts. You should understand the basic functionality of the controls and how to follow a map. But a computer scientist would know how to drive a car, go underneath the hood and know where the engine is and how it works and to be able to identify an electric engine from a combustion engine, where the brakes are, and how to take the car on a very specific journey.”

Preparing Students for a Rapidly Changing World 

Along with co-teaching the course, Keeling developed his curricula into four chapters of a forthcoming book. Across his 15 years of teaching newcomers and computer scientists alike, he’s seen the AI field rapidly move from the theoretical to the practical. 

“When I graduated with my degree, at that point in time, it was just a group of concepts and a group of principles and a group of ideas that could be useful, and they put those under the umbrella of artificial intelligence,” Keeling said, the technology initially limited to a handful of academic and technical uses. 

But with the 2022 launch of ChatGPT, AI suddenly landed in the pockets of millions of young people. As the technology becomes a part of everyday life and critical in the workplace, these classes are essential to ensuring all students not only understand how to use AI, but how to do so ethically. As the world grapples with how to regulate AI, Keeling says the question of ethics largely falls on the students.

“I tell students the ethics of AI are dictated not necessarily by a policy that you would inherit from someone else,” he said. “It goes to your core values and your honesty and your ability to make wise judgments based on your value system.”