First steps into the world of artificial intelligence, the new course for freshmen

In order to guide students to an understanding of the challenges and, above all, the opportunities of artificial intelligence, Università Cattolica is offering freshmen the chance to understand how they can use the new technology effectively within their study programme. This has led to the creation of an entirely new course, ‘AI: The First Steps into the World of Artificial Intelligence’, conceived and designed for young people entering the world of university for the first time. Or rather, who are entering the cloisters of Largo Gemelli for the first time.

The initiative was strongly supported by the Teaching and Learning Lab (TeLeLab), the laboratory of Università Cattolica that contributes to the improvement and innovation of teaching at the University by offering students a quality educational experience, and by the Humane Technology Lab (HTLab), the University laboratory that investigates the relationship between human experience and technology.

“The digitisation of educational environments, greatly accelerated by the pandemic, now makes new and extraordinary opportunities for educational innovation possible”, comments Giovanni Marseguerra, Director of TeLeLab. Among these, the application of artificial intelligence to support professors and students certainly stands out. According to Professor Marseguerra, “within a few years, most teaching content will be developed with the support of generative AI and, more generally, software and services based on artificial intelligence are destined to become increasingly pervasive in teaching and learning contexts. The new course proposed to freshmen at Università Cattolica therefore aims to provide students with the skills they need to critically evaluate artificial intelligence tools, and understand their limits and potential”.

After the great success of the last series of meetings promoted by HTLab ‒ which began with “Election campaigns in the age of artificial intelligence”, continued with “How analysing natural language with AI can improve business decisions”, and concluded with “AI Act: The European Way Forward for Regulating Artificial Intelligence” ‒ the new course aims to offer freshmen on the Milan campus a rich overview of the current state and future prospects of artificial intelligence, to develop practical skills, to present the key concepts of this technology in an accessible and engaging way, but also to promote critical reflection on the use of AI.

“Università Cattolica, first in Italy, is giving freshmen in the three-year degree programmes of the Milan campus the chance to learn what artificial intelligence is and how they can use it effectively within their studies”, explains Giuseppe Riva, Director of HTLab. “Seeing the great potential of this technology for the world of education and work, we have united journalists, researchers and linguists and experts in this innovative project”.

Among the professors, in addition to Giuseppe Riva, will be Marco Passarotti, Professor of Computational Linguistics and Director of the Research Centre for Computerisation of Language Cross-discipline (Centro Interdisciplinare di Ricerche per la Computerizzazione dei Segni dell’Espressione - CIRCSE), Don Luca Peyron, Director of the Pastoral University of Turin, coordinator of the Digital Apostolate Service and Professor of Theology at Università Cattolica, Massimo Chiriatti, CTO of Lenovo Italia, Luca Tremolada, journalist for Il Sole 24 Ore, and Giovanni Moretti, CIRCSE collaborator.

The course will take place in Milan, where two editions are scheduled, each divided into two four-hour meetings. The first edition will be held on Saturday 14 September and Saturday 21 September, and is intended for freshmen in the Faculty of Economics, the School of Banking, Finance and Insurance Sciences and the Faculty of Linguistic Sciences and Foreign Literatures. You can register by Thursday 12 September at this link.

The second edition, on Saturday 5 October and Saturday 19 October, is dedicated to freshmen from the Faculties of Law, Arts and Philosophy, Psychology, Education and Political and Social Sciences. You can register by Tuesday 1 October at this link. At the end of the course, an Open Badge will be issued certifying the knowledge and skills acquired. For more information, telelab@unicatt.it.