Tech-savvy professionals looking to stay ahead in three fast-moving fields need look no further than Carnegie Mellon University.  
  
Combining its strengths in learning science and a rich ecosystem of educational technologies, CMU has launched graduate certificate programs in artificial intelligence, 3D bioprinting and biofabrication, and computational data science.

Marsha Lovett(opens in new window), vice provost for Teaching and Learning Innovation, said the programs are designed for busy, working professionals who want to deepen or expand their knowledge to include modern methods and apply that new knowledge at work.   

“These are not your typical online classes. Students are going to be working directly with CMU’s world-class faculty who are experts in their fields, and they are going to be learning by doing,” Lovett said. “They’ll be seeing lots of examples and applications, and they’re going to be using tools that allow them to interact with each other and with the instructor, as well as tools of the trade that a designer or engineer would use, making it an authentic learning experience.” 

"Students are going to be working directly with CMU’s world-class faculty ... and they are going to be learning by doing." — Marsha Lovett

Throughout the AI Engineering Fundamentals — Mechanical Engineering(opens in new window) online program, students will practice solving problems with the most commonly used machine learning algorithms. By the end of their coursework, they will be able to describe and compare these algorithms, know their theoretical underpinnings and understand how to apply them to solve real-world engineering problems. 
  
“Companies and organizations of all sorts are very much looking to upskill their workers so that AI and machine learning can be appropriately and effectively infused into the working of the organization. They need people who understand it in a way that is tied into its application,” Lovett said.

In the 3D Bioprinting and Biofabrication(opens in new window) online program, students will take an intense hands-on approach learning how to work with appropriate materials, choose the right cells for tissue engineering, perform fabrication methods and communicate their results to experts. At the end of the coursework, they will be well positioned to apply this knowledge to a real-life laboratory.

“Students will basically take an off-the-shelf, everyday 3D printer and they’ll be converting it into a bioprinter as part of their coursework,” Lovett said. “The main course project will be to actually work through the phases of designing a 3D bioprinted object or material, so that learners actually see the full process all the way to thinking about how they might test it in the lab and in vivo.” 

Finally, the Computational Data Science(opens in new window) online program prepares students to work with large-scale data sets, bringing them through all of the processing steps to where they get actionable insights from the data.  
  
“Nowadays, the variety, size, breadth and depth of data sets are so large that if you want to analyze them, you not only need to know the data analysis techniques, but you need to know computationally how to do this in a way that can handle such large databases,” Lovett said. “So, there’s a lot of learning in this program about how to use cloud services and large-scale computational methods to work with real world data sets.” 

Lovett stressed the need for access to online programs at CMU, noting AI and machine learning were not even part of the curriculum when many working professionals studied their discipline. 
  
“CMU is the leader in AI and founder of many AI principles and research and a world-class research institution, but not everyone can pick up their family and move to Pittsburgh for a degree, or even part of a degree,” she said. “These programs are designed to enable the working professional to deepen their technical expertise in these modern methods and modern approaches in a way that fits with their busy, day-to-day lives, so they can contribute this new knowledge to their organization.”