Florida Atlantic University’s Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing, and the College of Engineering and Computer Science, have collaborated on several projects in the past. One of those projects is a study detecting patterns in elderly drivers related to dementia or Alzheimers.
Last week, the colleges announced two new degree programs: Nursing and artificial intelligence along with nursing and biomedical engineering.
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Students pursuing the degree will first get a B.S. in nursing, then continue to complete a master’s in artificial intelligence or biomedical engineering.
Dr. Javad Hashemi, the associate dean for research and a professor with FAU’s engineering school, says nurses with engineering knowledge will have better career prospects.
“This reliance on data is going to change everything in the future. You're going to have self-driving cars, self-driving trucks, automation of factories, that will change the type of workforce that we need,” Hashemi said.
According to the FAU News Desk, the programs will teach algorithms, pattern matching, deep learning and cognitive computing to learn how to understand complex data.
"If the nurses are aware of this type of technology, they can do it on their own instead of trying to call somebody who is a trained specialist in data analytics,” Hashemi said.
Students will be able to start these programs beginning this fall.
“We believe that what we are doing with nursing is just that we are trying to create the next generation of the workforce for the future,” Hashemi said.
He added that the colleges are also working on a data project predicting outcomes of COVID-19 patients.
