NATIONAL APPLIED ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CONSORTIUM
The National Applied Artificial Intelligence Consortium (NAAIC) is a collaboration led by Miami Dade College (MDC), Houston Community College (HCC), and Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) to provide leadership, training, and guidance for educational institutions and companies in the development and growth of technician-level AI professionals nationally.
The overall goal of NAAIC is to advance the education and training of a diverse and highly skilled technical workforce in the field of AI and prepare students for rewarding careers in AI-related fields. The project already has the support of an expansive network of industry partners like Intel, AWS, Microsoft, Dell, IBM, NVIDIA, among others.
NAAIC is funded with $2.8 million from the National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education (NSF ATE), to start implementing the Consortium on October 1st, 2024.
CONSORTIUM OBJECTIVES
As part of this National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, NAAIC will focus on the following objectives:
- Cultivate and engage a National AI Business & Industry Leadership Team (AI BILT) to identify, update, and disseminate the evolving and emerging requisite knowledge and skills that industry believes will be required of workforce-ready graduates from 2-year programs in applied AI.
- Support community colleges in the development and implementation of ethical and responsible technician-level AI courses, certificates and degrees.
- Advance the development of faculty qualified to teach AI within two-year colleges.
LEADERSHIP TEAM
- Eduardo Salcedo, (P.I.), AI Faculty, MDC
- Antonio Delgado, (P.I.), VP of Innovation and Technology Partnerships, MDC
- Dr. G. Raymond Brown, (Co-P.I.), Lead Faculty AI, HCC
- Habib Matar, (Co-P.I.), AI Director, MCCCD
- Daniel Barajas, Chief Officer for Workforce & Economic Development, MCCCD
- Samir Saber, Dean, Digital & Information Technology, HCC
- Dr. Ann Beheler, Founder BILT
Sponsor
Full support for this work was provided by the National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program under Award No. 2350120. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
