IST makes a statement on AI education at national computing conference

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) has been a member of the Computing Research Association (CRA) since 2017. Last month, the college sent a contingent of leaders and faculty to the CRA Summit to explore how artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping computing research, education and workforce development.

It was IST’s first official trip to Silicon Valley and proved to be a winning experience, according to Andrea Tapia, dean of the College of IST.

CRA represents the computing research community with more than 300 members from academia, industry, government and affiliated professional societies, according to its website. The main theme of the 2025 CRA Summit, held July 28-31 in San Francisco, was artificial intelligence. One of the days was dedicated to undergraduate AI education.

“The timing of this was perfect for IST,” Tapia said. “We just launched our bachelor of science degree program in AI, and we walked away from the conference feeling confident that we’re moving in the right direction.”

Hadi Hosseini, associate professor in the College of IST, was one of the attendees.

“Universities and institutions of all sizes have recognized the importance of AI education,” he said. “At the summit, we came together to discuss roadmaps for developing AI majors, minors and certificates. IST is now a solid presence in the field — one of just a few universities across the nation that offer a foundational undergraduate artificial intelligence major.”

According to Lisa Lenze, associate dean for undergraduate studies in IST, the CRA Summit was crucial for engaging in the national dialogue on AI and undergraduate curricula.

“Faculty and industry leaders were focused on education and job opportunities,” Lenze said. “Industry wants academia to teach AI across all curricula — 100% of new employees will need to be savvy AI users.”

Roderick Lee, affiliate faculty and program coordinator for the AI degree at Penn State Harrisburg, said the conference was critically important to engage with national leaders who are shaping the future of AI.

“I especially benefited from the practical strategies shared for building scalable AI education pathways, fostering inclusive access and success for historically underrepresented students and equipping graduates with the skills needed to excel in an AI-driven workforce.”

IST for the win

The summit featured the "CRA Curriculum Smackdown," a worldwide wrestling simulation that asked the question: How should we prepare future generations? The event pitted AI degree programs against computer science degree programs. Vasant Honavar, professor in the College of IST — dubbed “Causal Thunder” for the smackdown — argued for AI degrees.

“This panel was charged to discuss the pros and cons of undergraduate artificial intelligence degree programs in light of the fact that most schools have long-established computer science degree programs,” Honavar said. “In the spirit of the wrestling scenario, we took somewhat extreme positions to provoke debate.”

Having just played a key role in the development of IST’s new AI degree program, Honavar anticipated that the computer science side would argue that there is no need for AI degrees because AI is just a subspecialty of computer science.

With wrestler energy and a bit of smack talk, Honavar advocated for AI as a separate degree. His argument: “Ladies and gentlemen, long before computer science (CS) was born, dreams of artificial intelligence (AI) occupied the minds of philosophers, mathematicians and logicians.

“When Turing devised the Turing Machine, his goal was not to build software libraries, network protocols, GPUs or databases," Honavar continued. "Turing’s goal was to answer much deeper questions about the nature of intelligence, to solve Hilbert's decision problem, to automate reasoning, model cognition and to build machines that think.

“Sure, AI uses tools from CS today, just as physics uses tools of mathematics. But AI inspired the invention of such tools yesterday, and AI will almost certainly catalyze CS advances of tomorrow.

“Ladies and gentlemen, contrary to what my opponents claim, AI is not a subfield of CS. It is definitely not an ugly stepchild of CS. AI is the mother of CS — it is the reason why CS exists.

“Ladies and gentlemen, as a child, I was taught that a child should always respect his or her mother. CS is an ungrateful child who, during the infamous AI winters, left AI out to die in the cold. Now with the AI winter behind us, AI spring is here. It is time for CS to give AI the respect she deserves.

“The choice between AI and CS is a false one. CS would not exist without AI. Advances in AI require advances across all areas of CS. We need both CS programs and AI programs. We need AI and CS to advance as part of a happy family.”

While Honavar took home the belt for his “AI is the mother of CS” argument, he didn’t sway everyone in the predominantly computer science audience. The poll at the end of the debate indicated that a slight majority were persuaded that computer science and artificial intelligence are equally important, and AI should be a standalone major as opposed to being part of CS.

The IST attendees expressed excitement about the college's new AI degree and Honavar's win.

“Vasant was the complete package — great in the ring and great on the mic!” said Lenze, admitting bias. “In our estimation, it was Causal Thunder for the win!”

In addition to Tapia, Hosseini, Lenze, Lee and Honavar, IST attendees included Guoray Cai, associate professor; Curtis Cain, associate professor; Dongwon Lee, professor; and Tom Maatta, director of development and alumni relations.