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Dec 04, 2025
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2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog
AI and Policy Analysis BS
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 Return to: Majors and Combined Degrees
The AI and Policy Analysis program is a four-year interdisciplinary degree that integrates the study of the societal impacts of Artificial Intelligence technologies with technical knowledge in the fields of politics and government. This program is designed to provide the breadth and depth competencies needed for UB graduates to integrate rapidly evolving AI technologies into the core practices of their area of political science, meeting the needs of future employers and society at large to develop and refine AI systems and applications that improve the social good. Developed collaboratively with existing academic units and departments, this new degree program leverages the expertise of faculty in the Department of Political Science and along with those in the AI & Society department.
Visit the AI and Policy Analysis academic program page for more information about the academic experience, who you will learn from, opportunities outside of class and what you can do with this degree.
Visit the Political Science department page for contact information, a brief overview of the department and the curricular options.
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AI & Society Core (15 credits)
AI & Technology Core (16 credits)
AI for Policy Analysis Core (16 credits)
Political Analysis Electives (15 credits)
AI & Society Capstone (3 credits)
Total Credits Required for Major: 69
Additional Degree Requirements Include:
- Additional coursework to fulfill UB Curriculum requirements
- Elective courses as needed to complete the 120 credit hour total
Total Credits Required for Graduation: 120
Total Credit Hours Required represents the minimum credits needed to complete this program, and may vary based on a number of circumstances. This should not be used for financial aid purposes. Academic Requirements
Minimum GPA of 2.000 overall. Curricular Plan
A Curricular Plan provides a roadmap for completing this academic program and the UB Curriculum on time. Your actual plan may vary depending on point of entry to the university, course placement and/or waivers based on standardized test scores, earned alternative credit and/or college transfer credit. All students are encouraged to use this plan in conjunction with other academic planning resources such as your academic advisor, the HUB Academic Advisement Report , My Planner and Path Finder tool. In addition to following this course roadmap, all other admission and academic requirements of this major as listed in the Undergraduate Catalog must be met in order to successfully complete this degree. YEAR 1
Fall Semester Spring Semester
YEAR 2
Fall Semester Spring Semester
YEAR 3
Fall Semester Spring Semester
YEAR 4
Fall Semester Spring Semester
TOTAL CREDITS REQUIRED: 120 Note: Some classes may count toward both a major and UB Curriculum requirement. Learning Outcomes
Society learning outcomes - Classifying and differentiating between major kinds of AI technologies and how they can be used to advance the social good in education, government, business, and other areas of society, while keeping in mind potential societal harms
- Acquiring knowledge of ethical issues surrounding the use and development of AI and applying that knowledge to determine how to use AI technologies ethically in a given context
- Situating new AI technologies with respect to earlier disruptive technologies in order to be able to compare and contrast AI with other major technological advances both in terms of societal good and harm.
- Assessing the impact of AI technologies on the development of policy proposals in both technological and nontechnological domains
- Determining how AI technologies interact with social structures and the ways that they can reinforce existing biases and structural inequities and developing ideas for how their use can mitigate such biases
- Identifying the impact of AI technologies on how people communicate with each other and assessing when these impacts are either harmful or beneficial to the social good
Technology learning outcomes - Mastering basic linear algebra skills such as defining vectors and matrices, computing their properties, and understating how they are used in AI computations
- Gaining an understanding of probability distributions, statistical properties of data, and their applications in AI
- Designing and implementing computational artifacts
- Applying foundational computational thinking skills and artifacts to analyze and interpret real-world data
- Understanding the social and ethical implications of AI computation
Experiential learning outcomes - Function effectively as a member or leader of a team engaged in activities appropriate to the program’s area of focus
- Apply concepts from linguistics and computer science to the application of human language technologies to real-world problems.
Integrative learning outcomes - Apply AI theory and methods to produce computationally-based solutions to problems related to geospatial analytics
Policy analysis learning outcomes - Demonstrate knowledge about fundamental concepts and scholarship in the following four fields: American politics, international relations, comparative politics, and public law.
- Develop writing skills to intellectually communicate their ideas and research findings about political topics.
- Develop the ability to communicate ideas clearly and persuasively in writing.
- Develop the ability to effectively take a position and defend an argument against criticism.
- Be able to write an essay or paper presenting a clear thesis supported by relevant research.
- Develop the analytical skills necessary to think critically about political, social, and economic behavior.
- Be able to identify and critically evaluate the arguments of scholarly research in political science.
- Engage in conceptual analysis and theoretical interpretation of political ideas and phenomena.
- Develop the ability to analyze a scholarly question in political science by drawing logical inferences from qualitative and/or quantitative data.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the role of engaged citizens in democracy.
- Demonstrate the ability to conduct original research about political phenomena with the appropriate use of statistical analysis
(HEGIS: 07.99 COMPUTER and INFORMATION SCIENCES UNCLASSIFD, CIP: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics 11.0102) |
Return to: Majors and Combined Degrees
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