Florida Atlantic University
FL · AI Readiness #44 of 227
AIREDEX™ Score: 8.4 /10
FAU became one of the first Florida universities to offer a standalone Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Artificial Intelligence, approved by its Board of Trustees in 2026 and designed to pair technical AI training with a second discipline such as philosophy or linguistics.
FAU undergraduates can also pursue the B.S. in AI with Economics or the B.S. in AI with Linguistics, add an AI minor through two tracks open to any major, or earn an undergraduate AI certificate from the College of Engineering. The owlONE platform, built by FAU itself, lets students interact with custom AI agents without writing code, and the AI PlAIground series offers hands-on workshops every two weeks at no cost. AI coursework reaches the College of Business, the College of Arts and Letters, and the School of Architecture, which received a national award for embedding AI throughout its undergraduate curriculum.
Pillar grades
- Commitment: B
- Curriculum: A-
- Partnerships: B+
- Research: A
A(I)ttitude™: progressive
Selected Highlights
- AI Task Force established 2023 produced public policy outputs including revised Academic Integrity Regulation 4.001 and AI syllabus guidance; Academic Technology Committee confirmed as cross-campus body with 13 voting members across all colleges and CIO co-chair.
- AI @ FAU portal (fau.edu/ai) covers all 12 policy categories including academic integrity, governance, research, and teaching; multi-document framework confirmed.
- Named AI-specific gifts totaling ~$2.5M confirmed: $1M Levine Family Foundation (Michael R. Levine AI-Enabled Hands-On Engineering Lab, June 2026) and $1.5M Aaron Family Foundation/Ubicquia (UICII, November 2025).
- Four named AI centers confirmed with named directors: CA-AI (Dr. Dimitris Pados), UICII (Dr. Jason Hallstrom), AIMS (cross-disciplinary, Arts & Letters + Brain Institute), MPCR Lab (Dr. Elan Barenholtz + Dr. William Hahn); all draw from multiple departments.
- B.S. in Interdisciplinary Artificial Intelligence approved by Board of Trustees, launching Fall 2026; B.S. in AI with Linguistics and B.S. in AI with Economics also confirmed as standalone undergraduate degrees.