LSU will begin offering a bachelor of science in artificial intelligence this fall, making the program the first of its kind in Louisiana.
The Louisiana Board of Regents approved the new four-year degree track during its meeting last month, and the degree is now listed in LSU’s 2025–2026 Academic Plan.
The new program, housed within the College of Engineering, aims to address the growing need for technical talent in Louisiana’s energy, healthcare and logistics sectors.
It plans to transform students from users of AI into engineers who create and implement it. The degree will use a hands-on approach including internships, research programs and a capstone project.
Dean of the College of Engineering Vicki Colvin said she and Ibrahim Baggili, chair of the Division of Computer Science and Engineering, started talking about AI when Colvin started 18 months ago.
“He and I immediately started talking about artificial intelligence because a lot of the guts of how you build AI systems is computer science,” Colvin said.
LSU officials say the curriculum will combine rigorous mathematical foundations with a particular focus on ethics and security, making LSU one of only a few national universities offering a stand-alone AI undergraduate major.
“We wanted to move early and fast to prepare students to create and use AI to drive growth and innovation in whatever field they choose,” Interim Provost Troy Blanchard said. “We’ve built an excellent program that will help students create accurate, reliable, efficient and safe AI solutions.”
The new degree program is built on the same rigorous foundation as LSU’s computer engineering program. Its curriculum is uniquely focused on machine learning’s internal structure.
LSU is becoming a pioneer in the Gulf South by integrating this curriculum, which features 20 newly-developed courses covering specialized topics such as neuromorphic computing, AI security and a dedicated three-hour ethics requirement.
AI majors will be trained to become the architects who build the frameworks and security protocols that power modern AI systems, rather than just the programmers who use them.
By joining a select group of national institutions like Carnegie Mellon and Purdue that offer standalone AI majors, LSU aims to position its graduates at the forefront of economic development.
With an average starting salary of $69,500, LSU engineering graduates outperform the competition, surpassing the national average. This earning potential is set to soar with the introduction of the AI degree program.
“As you start a degree program, you want students to be thinking about where they’re going,” Colvin said. “It’s a very technical degree and would be in huge demand because AI systems are powerful, but they’re really important to customize.”
