Experiential Learning
Effective AI leaders and managers must know how to deliver on their ideas in a measurable way, clearly communicate with all stakeholders, and understand how their roles and decisions fit into the broader landscape of their chosen field. To achieve these competencies, there is no substitute for meaningful hands-on learning experiences that bridge learned theories and best practices.
AT HEINZ, YOU WILL:
- Move beyond the classroom and gain tangible skills through work opportunities both on- and off-campus, including research and teaching assistantships alongside our faculty experts.
- Solve a real-world problem for a real-world client in your team-based Capstone Project, collaborating with our top industry and government partners.
- Apply your newly earned knowledge from class to immersive activities, workshops, events, and student clubs.
Not only do these opportunities crystallize concepts and strategies learned in coursework, they add highly marketable industry experience to your résumé prior to graduation.
Hands-on classes
This whole Gen AI thing, it’s like a black box. If you only know how to plug something into an API and run it, it’s not enough for you to understand why sometimes this model performs well in certain situations but not others, or how you can improve the performance when you need it.Beibei Li | Professor, Generative AI Lab
To understand the models at the vanguard of generative artificial intelligence, the Generative AI Lab takes you to the beginning, covering both the theoretical underpinnings and practical application of generative AI tools. You'll gain experience with with generative AI tools and platforms, such as OpenAI's GPTs, Llama, Stable Diffusion, and Hugging Face.
Through weekly labs that range from prompt engineering to a final project involving text and image generation, you will emerge from this course armed with the knowledge of not only how to use generative AI models, but how they work and how they've evolved. You'll leave this class knowning how to use them safely and effectively.
In Applications of NL(X) and LLM, you'll participate in hands-on exercises to learn about the expansion of natural language processing, including techniques for sentiment analysis, named entity recognition, and question answering. As the course progresses, you will explore the world of chatbots, conversational AI, word embeddings, vector databases, and the revolutionary transformer models like BERT. Learn more about our curriculum.
CAPSTONE PROJECTS
As a Heinz College AI Management student, you will complete a team-based project, working in close collaboration with a real-world client. Heinz College sources these clients—businesses, governments, and startups—to find projects that benefit both you and client. The ideal project forces you to expand beyond your comfort zone, work with imperfect data, learn to work in a group setting, and apply the skills you acquired in class to an actual business challenge. It also provides something of value to the client.
No other graduate program provides this level of curation or simulation of the workforce.
The AI Master's degree is a new program at Heinz College. Recent Heinz College students in other programs have completed Capstone projects with the following clients:
- BBC Worldwide
- Uber
- Disney
- PwC
- Deloitte
- IBM
- Sony Music
- Legendary Entertainment
- Thomson Reuters
- Token Dynamics
- Allegheny Health Network
- University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
- The New York Mets
- Johnson & Johnson
- Pittsburgh International Airport
- Headstorm LLC
- GE Transportation
- Proctor & Gamble
- Wounded Warrior Project
- Capital One
- Bipartisan Policy Center
- Harvard Management Company
- Cohen Veterans Network
- Federated Hermes
- PayPal
Our faculty are more than researchers and instructors. They are innovators and mentors who work to solve major problems facing companies, governments, and society. Most importantly, our faculty are uncommonly accessible and include students in their groundbreaking work.
As a Heinz College student, you have many opportunities to enrich your grad school experience by working closely with world-renowned faculty:
- Collaborate one-on-one with a faculty member on an independent research project
- Contribute to a faculty member’s work as a research assistant
- Get involved with faculty projects through a CMU research center, including Metro21 Smart Cities Institute, the Block Center for Technology and Society and the Digital Transformation and Innovation Center.
SPEAKER SERIES
Carnegie Mellon, Heinz College, our programs, and our student organizations host a wide variety of speakers and guest panels touching on the subject of AI. These speakers provide valuable industry insight and networking opportunities as they lead riveting discussions on current topics, trends, and issues relevant to AI Master's students both academically and professionally.
ON-CAMPUS POSITIONS
- Research Assistantships pair students with faculty and research centers to pursue topics of interest.
- Teaching Assistantships are available to students in the final two semesters of their program.
APPRENTICESHIPS & FELLOWSHIPS
U.S. Citizens enrolled in the AI Master's program can work part-time for organizations in the Pittsburgh region, and work for public and non-profit firms is often eligible for Federal Community Service Work Study.
See the AI Management Student Finances page for more information about work study and fellowship opportunities.