Portrait: Barry FallsThe AI revolution is here, bringing both promise and challenges to our workforce and daily lives, as explored in the previous issue of the Stevens Indicator. Driven by AI innovation,  a far-reaching workforce disruption could be larger than that unleashed by the advent of the internet and could last well into the next decade or more. 

AI has the potential to either augment or totally replace jobs that are physically or cognitively repetitive, as I mentioned in a CBS News interview last summer about AI’s impact on the job market.  

Stevens began preparing for this revolution a decade ago, and today we are nurturing qualities in our students that are essential for them to succeed in an AI-integrated world. This applies to our iSTEM students, who are featured in this issue, and extends to every Stevens undergraduate, no matter their area of study. 

All Stevens undergraduates — through required rigorous coursework, research, capstone projects and other campus experiences — acquire ways of thinking that are essential in the age of AI: creative problem-solving, innovation, an entrepreneurial approach and technological fluency. All students now experience our new SUCCESS core curriculum, where they take courses in AI and machine learning, data science and analytics, biotechnology and other emerging technologies. They also take classes in entrepreneurship, leadership, communications and ethics — all designed to help them develop skills that they will need to best harness AI and thrive alongside it.  

Importantly, in our students we are also nurturing those uniquely human skills — innovation, intuition and entrepreneurial thinking — that can’t be replicated by machines. While others worry about AI taking jobs, our students will use these skills to leverage AI’s power as they tackle the world’s pressing challenges and build solutions. 

Our commitment to equipping students to flourish in the age of AI — with the capability to continue learning for the rest of their lives — is unwavering. Our students are the instruments of change who don’t fear the future. They build it. 

Per aspera ad astra, 

Nariman Farvardin 
President, Stevens Institute of Technology 
[email protected]