University of Alabama Announces New AI-Focused School of Data Science

The University of Alabama is gearing up to launch a new School on its Tuscaloosa campus that will focus on understanding and applying artificial intelligence. It will be one of the first of its kind in the nation and the second new school launched by Capstone’s President, Peter Mohler, during his first year in the role.

In a Tuesday morning press conference held at UA’s under-construction High Performance Computing and Data Center site, Mohler said the University is seeking to lead academia in equipping students to thrive in an increasingly AI-driven job market rather than lag.

“Across the country, universities and industry leaders are watching how institutions respond to the rise of artificial intelligence and data science. At the University of Alabama, we are not going to follow this work. We’re going to shape it,” he told reporters Tuesday. “Today, I’m announcing that the University of Alabama will pursue the establishment of a new School of Data Science - the first of its kind in Alabama and among the first in the Southeast and in the nation. The new school positions UA as a national leader in data-driven research, education, and innovation. We are excited to announce this important initiative that supports discovery through research and innovation and helps us develop the workforce this state needs.”

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President Mohler had already overseen the launch of the University's first new college in over 50 years - the School of Leadership and Policy, which will begin enrolling students in Fall 2027. He has now announced the School of Data Science, which he said the University of Alabama System’s Board of Trustees will vote on creating in June.

“The School of Data Science will offer certificate, undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral programs that integrate technical experience with ethical, social, and economic considerations,” Mohler said. “Students of any major and minor will be able to utilize the school’s educational offerings to ensure they have foundational skills in data literacy, translation of data analytics, and artificial intelligence.”

The President, nine months into his leadership role at the Capstone, said AI is evolving at an extremely rapid pace. He said students, faculty, business leaders and elected officials at all levels of government are pushing for UA to blaze the trail in AI literacy.

"What we’re announcing today is something that we’re hearing from our institutions, our students, our families, but most importantly, the people that are going to be employing our students. "The state, CEOs, what we're seeing in Huntsville, what we're seeing in Mobile, what we're seeing across Birmingham and across the Black Belt - employers are looking for students that have AI competencies."

“The need for individuals with the training and experience in AI and data science is not just measured in the hundreds. And it’s not just measured in the tens of thousands, it’s measured in the hundreds of thousands,” Mohler continued.

The new school comes in addition to an AI-Readiness Initiative announced last week for “all faculty, staff and students to have the skills to build AI fluency.”

“Across the University, both with our new AI Experience as well as the new school, we imagine that every student, every faculty, and every staff member will be influenced by our initiatives for the initial set of AI Experience as well as this new college,” Mohler said. “AI and data science are going to be reflected in decision-making, whether you’re in healthcare, whether you’re in business, or whether you’re going to be an engineer. “

Mohler said the school is expected to launch in 2027.

"Our students, our faculty, our staff, and I would say members of the community are using AI in ways that we never could have imagined. and even a year or 18 months ago. Our students are using it to innovate and start companies that are addressing major questions across the state. Our faculty are designing curricula that reach not only students in Tuscaloosa but also students around the world, expanding this internationally," Mohler said. "The goal is we need to embrace this, but we need to embrace it in a way where we set guardrails, and we talk about the ethics, not only of how we bring data in, but how we responsibly use this as a community going forward."

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