Computer science also develops plans for AI major
By Melanie Arias, September 1, 2026
Cal Poly Pomona’s Department of Computer Science launched an artificial intelligence minor, open for all majors, according to Daisy Tang, the AI minor program coordinator and a computer science professor.
The new AI minor, which launched fall 2026, requires 33 units to be completed and will equip students with foundational knowledge of AI and an understanding of the mathematical, statistical and computational fundamentals of AI, according to the university catalog.
Required CS classes include Python for Beginners, Fundamentals of Data Science, A non-technical Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.
Tang said 20 to 30 students have already applied for the AI minor, with one-third of applicants originating outside the CS department.
“It’s a bit too early for student feedback,” Tang said. “But in their minor request, they all mention the minor being helpful for their career development. Or if they’re from a different discipline, they feel like it’s a very relevant minor.”
According to Tang, the AI minor took one year to develop and get accepted by CPP early 2026. Associate professor of computer science Ben Steichen added it was smooth sailing getting the AI minor approved, because everyone was enthusiastic about it.
“It was really just about logistics,” Steichen said. “Which classes do we pick for this? How do we make it accessible enough that somebody can come in and not do all the other CS stuff?”
Not all of the classes in the new minor originated from computer science. The College of Science, College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences, College of Engineering and College of Business Administration have AI-related classes, which are requirements and electives in the AI minor.
CLASS’s philosophy department has one required class called, The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, College of Engineering’s industrial and manufacturing engineering department requires App. Of Stats in Engineering and some of CBA required classes include Statistics with Applications and Calculus II.
According to Tang, CS is also in the process of creating an AI major, but that will likely take two to three years to be added to the curriculum.
With the new AI minor and major, Steichen said CS is reversing the misconception that software engineers aren’t needed anymore because they created “code that can write its own code,” since software engineers are the ones who build the AI software.
“If you think AI is going to stick around, which everybody obviously does, why not study it, and you be the one who’s in charge of it?” Steichen said. “That’s why the students are getting excited. We’re expecting a lot of people to choose it, and when we have the AI major, who knows if it will be bigger than the CS major?”
The AI minor includes classes that have always been available or were in the pipeline, as AI is a subfield of CS, Steichen said. These classes include Python for Beginners and Fundamentals of Data Science.
“It’s really just a lot of repackaging,” Steichen said. “We were teaching all of that stuff already. It just wasn’t called AI.”
College of Science adviser for computer science and kinesiology students, Christian Gomez said a lot of students wanted an AI minor before it was announced.
“They wanted something more specifically focused on AI,” Gomez said. “And when it came out, I’m getting a lot more positive interest in the AI minor. I’m glad we could finally get something on the board for that.”
Gomez said he also likes how the minor has an ethics class solely focused on AI.
Additionally, CS department launched another minor fall 2026 in partnership with the Department of English and Modern Languages called Computational Linguistics. This is the first-ever cross-college interdisciplinary minor offered to linguistics and CS students.
“A lot of computer science kids have AI, but don’t have the foundation in the actual language,” said Steichen, one of the two creators of the computational linguistics minor. “If we can have that background for the CS kids, it gives them an edge in the marketplace, because it’s getting hard to get jobs especially in computer science.”
