EDMOND, Okla. (KOKH) — The University of Central Oklahoma is offering two new degree programs centered on artificial intelligence beginning this fall.
UCO is now offering a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science–Artificial Intelligence and Master of Business Administration with Emphasis in AI Management.
“In the College of Business there’s an MBA program in AI Management, and in looking at that one, that one is really specifically addressed to legal and ethical issues around AI, using AI for strategic thinking and driving the organization forward and some other similar topics,” Dr. Evan Lemley said.
Lemley is the Dean of the College of Mathematics and Science at UCO.
“In the College of Math and Science, we have a software engineering program that has developed a new major in AI, and it’s kind of been an evolving program over the last couple of years, where the program started adding a few classes, really to deal with input from industry,” Lemley said. “And so we have a lot of advisory boards and other mechanisms for getting industry input into our curricula. And some of those really started to see that even entry level software engineers needed some AI training, because AI was being integrated into their software development programs.”
Students are able to dive into these new degree programs as early as this fall.
“When something is a new program usually it starts off with sort of a handful of students that are aware of that, but then over the course of a couple or three years it can grow very quickly,” Lemley told FOX 25. “We expect this one will grow fast, and that the software engineering program is around 100 students total. I suspect that you could end up with half of those students being enrolled in that particular major.”
UCO said the new programs align with the needs of Oklahoma’s expanding technology, aerospace, defense and business sectors.
“I would say in software engineering we’re leading this. There’s some new programs cropping up that are being proposed right now. So I think that we will not be alone for long and unique for very long because other institutions are seeing, hearing the same things we’re hearing from industry and sort of watching the trends in the workforce,” Lemley said.
Lemley said it is still possible to get admitted and enrolled for fall 2026 and fall 2027.