The McCausland Innovation Fund is a USC College of Arts and Sciences Fund designed to "inspire and support bold, creative, and groundbreaking advances in the College of Arts and Sciences’ teaching and research to meet the emerging needs of our students, and make the university a model of interdisciplinary, interactive learning." The fund recently put out a special call for proposals that address the ethical and effective use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the classroom and in our culture more broadly. 

Megan McKay was awarded $10,916 for her project titled "Developing and Introducing AI Examples in the new MATH 328". The purpose of her project will be to enrich and enhance the ongoing development of MATH 328 with motivational examples utilizing AI. MATH 328, Mathematical Concepts for Data Analysis, will give students an extensive overview of the mathematics behind today's leading data analytics problems. The class is also part of a new Data Analytics major that will provide students with a comprehensive and interdisciplinary education in this overwhelmingly important field. Students will be introduced to computational engines such as MATLAB, and will see how MATLAB can be used as a tool to create and train Deep Neural Networks in easy-to-understand examples demonstrating both the benefits and limitations of AI, inside and outside the classroom.

MATH 328 is being co-developed by Mrs. McKay, Dr. Peter Binev, and Dr. Wuchen Li. Mrs. McKay is scheduled to teach the first semester of MATH 328 in the Fall of 2024.

More information on the McCausland Innovation Fund is available on the College of Arts and Science's News page.

Congratulations Megan!