TRENDS
12
wrote in an October 2018 letter to the MIT
community. “For a host of reasons, society is
uneasy about technology—and at MIT, that’s
a signal we must take very seriously.”
The move to give weight to AI and its applications
seems to have reached Gen Z, those
born after the mid-1990s, too. A staggering
amount—97 percent—of Gen Z students
believe technology literacy matters, according
to a recent study by Dell Technologies that
surveyed 12,000 students between ages 16
and 23 and across 17 countries. What’s more,
four out of every five people polled said they
aspired to work with cutting-edge technology
in their future careers.
More than 50 percent also stated that future
jobs will require technology skills because
they will be working with robots or some other
form of technology. Finally, about a third of
those surveyed said that everyone needs
technology skills and that people who understand
technology will be the future leaders.
If this research is any indication, Gen Z is
hungry for AI education in a traditional academic
setting, as well as in the real world. But
MIT is not the only academic institute reshaping
itself to meet their demands. Stanford’s
Human-Centered AI initiative is a universitywide
effort that taps into a wide range of
disciplines, from neuroscience to ethics, to
catalyze multidisciplinary research and train
future AI leaders.
At Carnegie Mellon, the BXA InterCollege
degree program targets students interested in
fields that meld technology and arts, such as
game design, computer animation, computer
music, recording technologies, and robotic art.
The school’s Music and Technology program
also offers a set of courses that span across
music, electrical engineering, and computer
science.
“Portions of what we call AI are now pervasive
and are finding applications everywhere,”
says Yiannis Papelis, research professor and
director of the Virtual Reality and Robotics
Lab at the Virginia Modeling, Analysis and
Simulation Center (VMASC). Old Dominion
University, where VMASC is based, also offers
97%
4/5
over
50%
about
1/3
of Gen Z students
agree that technology
literacy matters.
want to work with
cutting-edge technology
in their future careers.
believe future jobs will
require technology skills for
working with robots or
other emerging technology.
said that everyone needs
technology skills and that
people who understand
technology will be the
future leaders.
Explore the Dell Technologies Gen Z research
at DellTechnologies.com/GenZ