Employers, alumni and current students have expressed the necessity of understanding AI in an evolving workplace.

“The College of Engineering and MSU recognize that our graduates will be entering a world where AI literacy is an expectation,” Associate Dean for Academic Programs, College of Engineering S. Patrick Walton said to The State News via email. “It is therefore essential to educate students in how to responsibly and productively apply these tools to augment their work.”

Additional courses centered around AI fundamentals were ideated in 2025 and were able to launch due to the university’s AI Ready Spartans Initiative, which funds faculty proposals to integrate AI responsibility into undergraduate learning. 

The initiative was launched in April by the Office of the Provost and Green and White Council — a team of 18 statewide business and civic leaders partnering with the university to prepare students for future jobs. President Kevin Guskiewicz created the council in April 2025. 

A $5 million donation from an anonymous Eli Broad College of Business alumnus helps support the council’s initiatives. 

AI Minor

The College of Engineering spent time developing the AI minor in 2024, talking to various departments across MSU in order to support disciplines outside of computer science. The minor was formally proposed last fall and launched this academic year.

“We need to make sure that students are well equipped to use these tools so they don't get left behind by people who are using them,” Marilyn Wulfekuhler, a professor of instruction in the College of Computer Science and Engineering said. “The AI minor in computer science is going to be geared towards people who want to work on improving AI itself. They really need to understand the theory behind how it works and what it's doing, so that they can continue to advance the field.”

The minor consists of 22 credits and is designed to provide the fundamentals of computing and an understanding of how AI systems develop and operate. Most of the minor’s requirements are computer science classes.

“The core of the minor is CSE 345, Fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence, which introduces the fundamental concepts and techniques used in artificial intelligence,” Walton said. “Students then select an elective from a range of advanced AI topics, including AI agents, deep learning, biometrics and autonomous vehicles.”

Increased AI in core engineering classes

Most first-year engineering students will now be exposed to AI in their introductory courses, EGR 100 and 102. 

“Students in EGR 100 will learn to compare the outputs of different genAI tools, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses,” Walton said. “The assignments will also provide an introduction to prompt engineering and ask students to consider the ethical ramifications of using AI tools.”

EGR 102 will include a 2-3 week project where students use Large Language Models — artificial intelligence that is designed to understand, summarize and generate human-like text — to help develop models of engineering systems. 

“Students will first be asked to develop their own algorithm,” Walton said. “Students will then use the LLMs to generate code to enact the algorithm. Students will then be asked to evaluate the accuracy and utility of the LLM-derived model.”

Brand-new classes: AI Literacy and AI Essentials

While the minor and engineering courses are geared towards several scientific disciplines, MSU’s newest AI courses are designed for all students. Both classes lack prerequisites and are CSE 291, although they have different section numbers. 

Computational and AI Literacy for a Modern Workforce (CSE 291, Sec. 001) is a three-credit, in-person course that developed last summer but failed to launch in either semester of 2025 due to a lack of course enrollment. The AI Ready Spartans Initiative helped support the class which is now full with 30 students.

The course includes how to interact, create and problem solve with AI to obtain best results, as well as some Python programming.

AI Essentials: What Every Spartan Should Know (CSE 291, Sec. 730-732) is a one-credit, asynchronous course that serves as a general overview for using AI responsibly on campus. 

“The one credit course is really useful by showing the limitations and how AI really works,” Wulfekuhler said. “It demystifies the magic, so that you understand you're not really getting an answer. It's not really intelligent. It's making predictions, and those predictions may or may not be correct.” 

Wulfekuhler teaches CSE 291, Sec. 001 and is equipped to teach Sec. 730-732 as well. She obtained a doctoral degree in computer science from MSU, studying AI in the earliest days of the web. Wulfekuhler worked with “a very distant ancestor to the large language models of today” before running her own software company for 15 years prior to teaching at MSU. 

She has watched AI grow from its earliest form to the sensation that it became in late 2022. Wulfekuhler has also heard from students about their experiences with AI in the workforce. 

One student told Wulfekuhler that AI in the computer science industry is very different from the public AI because it is trained on a non-public, regulated code — meaning the margin for error is significantly smaller because the AI does not have incorrect information to misguide it. The student’s experience in their internship highlighted the impact of education on responsible AI use for career preparation. 

The introduction of AI topics is meant to prepare students for graduation. Consequently, instructors have designed classes that both incorporate and inhibit the use of AI, in order to prevent cheating. Wulfekhuler teaches an introductory Python course that limits the use of AI until after the first exam to ensure students understand fundamental concepts.

“We always compare it to learning to play basketball or play an instrument,” Wulfekuhler said. “It's not going to do any good to sit in the bleachers and watch all the plays. Even if you have a coach sitting there explaining them all, you have to go out and do it yourself.” 

After students know how to do things themselves, they can utilize AI to save time, like a calculator.

“I still know how to add and multiply, but if I can use a calculator, I can do it a lot faster,” Wulfekuhler said. “That's the same thing with what I see in my field, creating software that can save you time so you don't have to worry about the tedious parts.” 

Walton stated that universities worldwide are still figuring out “the best ways to use AI tools to enable and enhance student learning rather than replace it,” but that “ethical and responsible use of AI tools is at the cornerstone of (their) plans for AI instruction.” 

Wulfekuhler hopes her one-credit course on AI essentials and ethics will expand and become required for all students at MSU,  and that her three-credit course will grow to multiple sections.  

“We want these courses to continue to evolve and grow as the expectations for our students change,” Walton said via email. “Given the pace with which AI tools and use are changing, no one can really predict what the future holds.”