Arizona State University’s business school is launching a Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence in Business degree. Applications for fall 2024 admissions are now being accepted.
The school announced Monday that the W. P. Carey School of Business will present the first AI graduate degree program from a business school in the United States.
“There is no doubt that AI is quickly becoming a vital business skill. We are excited to meet the needs of students and employers through our new graduate degree program within our top-ranked information systems department,” said Ohad Kadan, Charles J. Robel dean and W. P. Carey distinguished chair in business.
The program will be held on the Tempe campus. It incorporates an applied curriculum and career coaching.
The degree aims to help students develop technical AI and professional skills needed to thrive in the technology and business world.
“Students will learn to understand and plan for the implications and possibilities enabled by artificial intelligence, in addition to the importance of governance, ethics and principled innovation,” said Pei-yu Chen, chair of the Department of Information Systems and Red Avenue Foundation professor. Chen also serves as the co-director of the Center for AI and Data Analytics for Business and Society.
Students in the program will learn to analyze diverse business situations and apply AI to further business goals; understand and effectively communicate the impact of AI transformations; practice mindful AI and pay attention to ethics, bias, welfare, privacy and trust; and lead cross-functional conversations and collaboration for effective implementation.
“W. P. Carey has been at the forefront of integrating AI into its academic programs, showcasing a commitment to leadership in AI education and its applications in business,” said Dan Mazzola, faculty director of the MS-ISM program. “The school’s offerings of AI-focused degrees, alongside various AI-related certificates and concentrations, highlight its active role in shaping the conversation around AI and fostering innovation and entrepreneurship in technology.”
W. P. Carey also offers a certificate in artificial intelligence in business. Credit completed in the certificate program can later be transferred toward several W. P. Carey master’s degrees.
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
A coalition of Arizona State University (ASU) students, Students Against Apartheid at ASU (SAGA), plan to protest the suspension of a pro-Palestine student group, MECHA de ASU.
The planned protest to reinstate MECHA de ASU is scheduled to occur on Thursday at 11:30 am on the student services building lawn. ASU suspended the group for a since-deleted Instagram post calling for the death of certain groups in February. The university’s Student Rights and Responsibilities Office and police force are investigating the incident.
“Mecha believes in revolution. Not reform. We do not condemn the Al Aqsa flood. We do not condemn Hamas. We do not condemn resistance. Death to boer. Death to the Pilgrim. Death to the zionist. Death to the settler. Glory to the Martyrs! Freedom to the prisoners! Victory to the resistance!”
The campus left keeps sharing its violent fantasies.
Arizona State University has suspended its student chapter of MEChA, the national Latino organization, for the following Instagram message: pic.twitter.com/ACprNXmVGN
“Al-Aqsa Flood” was the formal operation name for the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel last October. “Death to boer” is a reference to a traditional chant calling for the genocide of white South African farmers, famously sang last fall by Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) at a political rally. Based on the inclusion of the “boer” reference, then, “death to the Pilgrim” could be referring to those who make their pilgrimage to Israel to worship, or it could be referring to America’s first English settlers.
In a press release issued on Sunday, SAGA said that MECHA de ASU’s post was mainly about comparing police brutality in Arizona to the violence of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
SAGA also took issue with the amount of time ASU has taken to conduct its investigation into the incident, specifically its delay in responding to MECHA de ASU’s appeal of their suspension. ASU reportedly promised to respond within five business days of the appeal, but had yet to do so as of SAGA’s press release.
“The university is using this fraudulent investigation process to silence and surveil MECHA for protesting an ongoing genocide ASU is complicit in,” said SAGA.
SAGA has the explicit goal of stopping “ASU’s investment in the settler colonial state known as ‘Israel’.” In a more recent statement, the coalition accused ASU of being complicit in “the zionist occupation and genocide of Palestinians.” SAGA demanded that the university cease all partnerships and investments with companies and institutions supportive of Israel, as well as cease its investigation and suspension of MECHA de ASU.
Masks will be required for Thursday’s protest, as a means to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 and other communicable airborne diseases.
In addition to advocating for MECHA de ASU’s return, SAGA has been coordinating in a boycott of Starbucks for its support of Israel. Like with Thursday’s protest, SAGA meetings and events have required masking.
Skoden served coffee on my campus as part of a Starbucks boycott event w Students Against Apartheid. I've had their coffee, it's really good and definitely worth the visit. https://t.co/O6KSdGwyse
Arizona State University requires employees to complete inclusiveness training every two years.
This includes three modules: Inclusive Communities, preventing harassment and discrimination, and Title IX duty to report.
Mandatory training videos include “Fighting Gender Bias at Work,” and “Understanding Intersectionality.”
“The view here is actually an expansive view of inclusion, not a very narrow one,” said Bryan Brayboy, vice president of social advancement at ASU in an introduction video.
The stated goal of training on inclusive communities is to “help create awareness, develop skills to meet the needs of diverse students and develop teams of people capable of working together to advance the ASU mission,” according to the webpage with the training modules.
Other available trainings at ASU include:
Affirmative action
Age discrimination
Americans with Disabilities Act
Diversity in the workplace
How to strategically address social justice matters in the workplace
Implicit bias and microaggressions
Implicit bias in recruitment
Tackling implicit bias and microaggressions
The webpage says ASU has more than 80,000 students on its campuses and more than 90,000 learners online. ASU is home to students from all 50 states and nearly 150 different countries.
“That creates a rich blend of backgrounds, making ASU highly inclusive and socioeconomically diverse,” the site says.
Arizona’s three public universities all promote diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, according to a Goldwater Institute report.
In the fall of 2022, ASU began requiring diversity statements from approximately 81% of job applicants.
Northern Arizona University required diversity statements from almost 73% of job applicants, and the University of Arizona required diversity statements from almost one third of job applicants.
The universities also encouraged applicants to incorporate critical race theory in written portions of their applications.
In August 2023, all three universities eliminated the use of diversity statements for job applicants after the Goldwater Institute’s report.
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
An Arizona State University (ASU) professor is among the 38 law professors petitioning the Department of Justice (DOJ) for the release of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
ASU law professor Gregg Leslie and 37 other professors submitted their petition days ahead of Tuesday’s hearing on Assange’s extradition from the U.K. Should the court deny his request to block his extradition, Assange will be taken to the U.S. to face 17 espionage charges over his 2010 publication of classified materials.
Among the leaked materials were footage of a 2007 airstrike in Baghdad revealing that soldiers shot 18 civilians from a helicopter, including a Reuters journalist and his assistant; nearly 391,900 Iraq War logs spanning 2004 to 2009; and the “Cablegate” files consisting of diplomatic cables revealing U.S. espionage against the United Nations and other world leaders, tensions with allies, and corruption in other countries.
The DOJ accused Assange of working with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to obtain classified information. The DOJ charged Assange with espionage in 2019, alleging that he used Manning to secure certain sets of classified Secret documents: about 90,000 Afghanistan war-related significant activity reports, 400,000 Iraq war-related significant activities reports, 800 Guantanamo Bay detainee assessment briefs, and 250,000 State Department cables.
In 2020, the DOJ issued a second superseding indictment broadening the scope of the charges to include allegations that Assange recruited computer hackers to benefit Wikileaks. The indictment cited an alleged unauthorized access to a government computer system of a NATO country in 2010, and a contract with a hacking group to obtain materials from the CIA, NSA, or New York Times.
Last week’s letter from the 38 law professors made the case that Assange qualified as a journalist and, therefore, the First Amendment protected Assange’s actions. The law professors countered that Wikileaks’ openness to receiving information didn’t qualify as Assange recruiting sources or soliciting confidential documents
“Award-winning journalists everywhere also regularly ‘recruit’ and speak with sources, use encrypted or anonymous communications channels, receive and accept confidential information, ask questions to sources about it, and publish it,” said the professors. “That is not a crime — it’s investigative journalism. As long as they don’t participate in their source’s illegality, their conduct is entitled to the full protection of the First Amendment.”
The law professors further warned that Assange’s prosecution served as an “existential threat” to the First Amendment and would, in time, enable the prosecution of other reporters. They cited the police raid of a local Kansas newspaper that occurred last August based on verbal allegations of identity theft.
“It could enable prosecution of routine newsgathering under any number of ambiguous laws and untested legal theories,” said the professors.
In that case, a disgruntled local restaurant owner had told the city council and the county attorney — the brother-in-law of the hotel owner housing her restaurant — that the local newspaper had illegally obtained documentation of an unresolved DUI charge that proved she had been driving without a valid license for over a decade. At the time, the newspaper had also been investigating claims of sexual misconduct by the police chief. Within days, the police conducted their unlawful raid. The newspaper had obtained the documentation legally through public records.
Similarly, editors and publishers of a number of news outlets, including The New York Times and The Guardian, argued that Assange engaged in journalism by obtaining and disclosing sensitive information for the public interest.
In a 2019 press release announcing Assange’s charges, the DOJ dismissed the claim that Assange qualified as a journalist.
“Julian Assange is no journalist. This is made plain by the totality of his conduct as alleged in the indictment — i.e., his conspiring with and assisting a security clearance holder to acquire classified information, and his publishing the names of human sources,” stated the DOJ.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
The Biden administration awarded Arizona State University (ASU) $15 million to lead a project tackling climate change in an equitable manner.
On Monday, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced that ASU’s $15 million, two-year award was one of 10 inaugural Regional Innovation Engines (REIs) across 18 states: the Southwest Sustainability Innovation Engine (SWSIE). SWSIE has the specific goal of ensuring “equitable water and energy access,” per the recent White House briefing on the initiative, which characterized the southwest’s dry and hot climate as “extreme.”
ASU explained in a press release that it will lead the SWSIE using researchers from the University of Utah, University of Nevada Las Vegas, the Desert Research Institute, Water Research Foundation, SciTech Institute, and Maricopa Community Colleges.
SWSIE deputy CEO and School of Sustainability foundation professor Diane Pataki said that she chose Arizona, Utah, and Nevada because they had the potential for leading in progressive sustainability measures as three of the fastest-growing states in the country.
“We see those challenges as an opportunity to become the national leader in water security, renewable energy and carbon capture so this region can continue to thrive,” said Pataki.
Peter Schlosser, SWSIE principal investigator and ASU Global Futures Lab vice president and vice provost, said that the current climate conditions would result in “a planetary emergency” if left unaddressed.
“They require immediate action, and the NSF Regional Innovation Engines award offers a new, transformative avenue to apply our holistic sustainability innovation approach to the Southwestern United States to keep this region on a path of economic growth,” said Schlosser.
In order to carry out the REIs in an equitable manner, the NSF and awardees arranged for workforce programs “designed specifically to be inclusive of underserved populations to build generational wealth in historically excluded communities.” The Department of Labor is assisting in this effort.
This includes specialized education for certain K-12 students; exclusive career portals for certain jobseekers, which contain special offerings of access to education partners, certificate programs, and fast-tracked trainings; an exclusive certificate program offering exclusive entrepreneurial opportunities related to climate change initiatives; exclusive executive-level internships; and a special pipeline for certain workers to receive technical and university educations.
SWSIE’s $15 million is the low end of the cost. All REIs may be renewed for up to a decade, with $160 million in funding available for each REI.
Additionally, NSF reports that the $15 million in federal funding is matched nearly two to one in commitments from state and local governments, along with other federal agencies, philanthropy, and private industry.
The city of Phoenix is serving as an SWSIE core partner, as well as the Greater Phoenix Economic Council and Maricopa Community Colleges.
Other SWSIE core partners include Arizona Public Service, Arizona Technology Council, Arizona Municipal Water Users Authority, Salt River Project, and Starbucks.
In a press release on Tuesday, Reps. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ-03) and Greg Stanton (D-AZ-04), along with Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) said that the NSF grant also served as an economic booster and means of improving the state’s water supply.
The $150 million REI funding came from the CHIPS and Science Act.
In addition to ASU, the other REIs are: Central Florida Semiconductor Innovation Engine, Wyoming Climate Resilience Engine, Great Lakes Water Innovation Engine, Louisiana Energy Transition Engine, North Carolina Textile Innovation, North Dakota Advanced Agriculture Technology Engine, Paso del Norte Defense and Aerospace Engine, Piedmont Triad Regenerative Medicine Engine, and Upstate New York Energy Storage Engine.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
