Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences has announced a new master’s degree in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, set to begin in fall 2027. The program will be offered through a collaboration between the Computer and Information Science and Electrical and Systems Engineering departments, providing students with an interdisciplinary foundation while allowing them to specialize in either data science or artificial intelligence.
Program co-director Linh Phan emphasized that this degree represents an evolution of the existing master’s program in data science. Coursework will focus on applying AI and data science to real-world challenges, with an integrated approach to data, algorithms, models, and infrastructure.
Students currently enrolled in the data science program will have the option to transition into the new degree, which reflects the growing interconnectedness of data science and AI. Co-director Susan Davidson stated that understanding how to build systems that can reason with data is crucial in today’s context.
The program will also allow for interdisciplinary coursework in fields such as social science, medicine, and business. The design of the degree takes into account the rise of generative AI, aiming to equip students with a deep understanding of how these systems work, their potential risks, and how to improve them.
This initiative supports Penn’s broader goal to enhance access to artificial intelligence across the university, with recent efforts to provide community access to tools like Anthropic’s Claude Enterprise.
