Post-Baccalaureate Diploma in Artificial Intelligence

Program Overview:

Faculty

Degree Type

Post-Baccalaureate Diploma

Delivery

In-person

About Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a burgeoning field undergoing rapid progress and development. Technological advances that rely on AI are numerous and include applications such as self-driving automobiles, medical diagnosis, computer-assisted translation tools, speech recognition, biometrics, entertainment, and a wide variety of classification and predictive technologies. AI is recognized as having immense social, technological, and ethical implications for society. This diploma will allow graduates to either begin or broaden their careers in computing-related fields and provide them with a depth of knowledge in the highly sought-after field of AI. AI is an area that is in high demand, and graduates of this program will be prepared for entry into the workplace or into graduate programs.

Why a Post-Baccalaureate Diploma in Artificial Intelligence at StFX?

The Computer Science faculty at StFX are very active in research. Together, they provide an education in Computer Science that produces high-achievers who are well-suited for graduate studies or to develop a career in the industry. StFX’s Computer Science program is the top-ranked in Atlantic Canada in Maclean’s for the third year in a row. Computer Science research at StFX was tied for first place in Canada in field-specific research impact (Field-weighted citation impact, Maclean’s 2019). Students in the Artificial Intelligence Post-Baccalaureate Diploma will also join a vibrant department surrounded by like-minded undergraduate and graduate students.

The Program

For details on the structure and courses of the Post-Baccalaureate Diploma in Artificial Intelligence program, click here.

The Post-Baccalaureate Diploma in Artificial Intelligence is a two-year diploma program for students who already possess an undergraduate degree. The diploma is geared towards students whose undergraduate degree is not in Computer Science. The program is concentrated and rigorous, with at least half of the courses at the upper-year levels. Students will be introduced to a discipline that is new to them, build the basic knowledge quickly (within the first term), and then move to rigorous higher-level courses. Learning will be enriched by prior education and by the diverse backgrounds of their peers. As graduates of this program, they will bring this rich educational foundation to the workplace.

Post-Baccalaureate diplomas are attractive to students who want to do one or more of the following:

Expand their knowledge into a discipline outside of their first degree.
Change the direction of their first degree into new areas for career reasons.

Available Courses

Students will need to successfully complete 16 courses (48 credits) over 2 years to obtain the Post-Baccalaureate Diploma in AI. The courses are wide-ranging, including some core Computer Science courses and courses such as Introduction to Artificial Intelligence, Data Mining and Machine Learning, Data Science, Evolutionary Computation, Biomedical Computation, Health Analytics, Big Data, Social Issues in the Information Age, Parallel and Distributed Computing. Equipped with the knowledge gained from these courses, students will be well-prepared to navigate the artificial intelligence landscape upon graduation.

Courses included in the Program

Programming and Data Structures
Social Issues
Discrete Structures
Health Analytics
Data Science
Advanced Data Structures
Computer Organization
Evolutionary Computation
Artificial Intelligence
Software Design
Database Management Systems
Data Mining and Machine Learning
Biomedical Computation
Parallel and Distributed Computing
Big Data
Computer Graphics
Mobile Application Development

Admissions Requirements

Completion of a four year-undergraduate degree from a recognized university with a cumulative average of 70% or higher in the applicant’s undergraduate program.
One Computer Science course in a programming language (or equivalent).
IELTS 6.5 with no band below 6. Recognized English Language Proficiency Tests.
Students with an undergraduate degree in Computer Science may be eligible to apply to either of our two Master’s programs in Computer Science. Click here for more details.
Students must have completed a university-level statistics course prior to beginning semester 3 of the program. Students who have not taken a statistics course as part of their undergraduate degree can complete the course while at StFX.