This past Tuesday, the University of California, Fremont (UCF) officially released its list of prospective courses for the 2027-2028 school year. Located close to the heart of Silicon Valley, UCF has plans to leverage its optimal location and industry connections to provide world-class tech education. Released courses reflect this, with courses on semiconductor engineering (ENG56: Semiconductor Design and Manufacturing, ENG29: Processing of Semiconductors) and machine learning (CSE129: Systems for Large Language Models) creating a buzz in parent groups. The undergraduate AI major has also drawn particular attention in the local community.
The university is separated into three primary colleges: the College of Science and Computing (CS, data science, math, physics, and statistics), the College of Engineering, and the Singh School of Artificial Intelligence. UC Fremont has incredibly flexible general education requirements, all of which can be fulfilled with major-required coursework, with the exception of ENGL1: Elementary Grammar and Reading, which can be waived by demonstrating fifth-grade English proficiency through an English literacy test or a passing grade in a high school English class. This gives students much more freedom when choosing the courses they would like to take. When staff were interviewed regarding this decision, most took it as a step in the right direction. A staff member, who chose to keep their name anonymous, explained, “We’ve seen from schools like UC San Diego that oftentimes, general education requirements are something students tend to avoid if possible. And really, who cares if the students are literate when they’re working for Google? Besides, everyone knows ChatGPT’s doing all the writing now anyway.”
Traditional humanities classes have also been replaced with more practical courses like COMM 100A: Communication, the Machine, and Everyday Life, COMM 82: Building Relationships with Large Language Models, ENG 31AC: Paraphrasing and Summarizing, and ENG 32: Prompt Design and Strategy. UCF is also one of the first universities to experiment with AI education, with PSY1004: Social Psychology being the first fully AI-taught and proctored in-person course, focusing on human thought and interactions…