An Essay of the Importance of Postgraduate on Computer Science in the Artificial Intelligence Field

By Indra Dewaji, part of assignment of AI Induction, University of Essex, February 2022

Many universities currently offer postgraduate programs with many different specialties. Employers also now prefer to choose the employee who graduated from the postgraduate program (King’s College London, 2016). In this fast-growing technology era, especially in the computer science field, the interest to join the program increase every year at all level (Higher Education Statistics Agency, 2018). The essay will discuss how important the postgraduate (MSc) program specifically in the computer science in artificial intelligence field.

Introduction

The computer has become an undeniable part of our everyday life. Smartphones, smartwatches, security cameras, or robot vacuum cleaners, are just some samples where the computer controls those devices. The smart device term is used as branding to the customer that the device is smart enough to do automation which normally can be done by humans.

The root of artificial intelligence which is part of computer science started in the early 1940s. It was just an imagination of a fiction writer Isaac Asimov in his short story Runaround. The story was telling about the robot interacting with humans and trying to keep its existence. At almost the same time, the mathematician Alan Turing also developed a code to do complex calculations to decrypt the code used by the German army during world war II where it was really difficult to solve even by the best mathematician. The method used become the benchmark in the artificial intelligence system today where the code intelligently seeks all the possibilities of a pattern (Haenlein and Kaplan, 2019).

Currently, artificial intelligence is formalized at the university level wherein the earlier stage, it was just a talk or imagination, or a traditional method to try impersonate humans capability into a machine. Computer science has been taught at the undergraduate and postgraduate level, and some universities open programs specific to Artificial Intelligence.

How Postgraduate Impact the Career

At the postgraduate level, students are taught more practical to the real work condition. The ability to independently study and tackle a difficult problem with analytical thinking is one of the differences with undergraduate level (Wisker, et.al, 2019). The employer might be able to recognize the postgraduate student to have strong knowledge in the field especially if it’s a specialization field such as Artificial Intelligence (Victoria, 2016).

According to Louis (2020), Linkedin has reported that Artificial Intelligence specialist is the most in-demand job in 2020. There is a 74% increase annually since 2016 the demand in this field. At the postgraduate level, the knowledge acquired will be deeper compared to the undergraduate level, especially in a field like Artificial Intelligence. In this competitive high technology industry, it is obvious that the employer is looking for the highest skill where they can work in the field right away.

In the Master of Science (MSc) program, the program developed to be able to do research and have critical thinking to solve any problem independently. Similar to the work condition where it needs critical thinking and some research to solve any problems, the program helps to give this kind of skill (Laura, 2021). Victoria, H (2016) stated that not all postgraduate degrees have the chance to get a job easily, but for science fields including computer science, this helps the postgraduates to shine over the crowd.

Higher Education Collaboration on Research

Research becomes important in any industry. Most developed countries allocated their fund for research to boost their economy or even military. At this point, higher education has taken an important role in the research. It is common that the industry makes a relationship with higher education where the student is allowed to do the research where the industry is allowed to use the research result (Thune, 2011).

Higher education especially on the postgraduate level, either it’s on a master's degree or doctoral, gives contribution to innovation. Collaboration between higher education and industry has mutual benefit for the transfer of knowledge. There are some benefits of this collaboration, such as increasing the knowledge of the trainer in the industry, giving the basics of scientific research, and the industry helping the students gain practical knowledge in the industry (Bektaş and Tayauova, 2014).

In the government sector, as an example, the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has developed its own governing body for Artificial Intelligence under the minister of state for Artificial Intelligence. This body plan and regulate the roadmap on the development of Artificial Intelligence in the UAE, including pooling talent and research (Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, United Arab Emirates, 2022). The body also has relationships and collaborations with universities, local and international. They also put the development of the talent in higher education as a priority, especially on the postgraduate level by establishing the university for Artificial Intelligence. It’s expected that Artificial Intelligence research will boost the economy (Mohammed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, 2022).

Conclusion

It has been proved that postgraduates in computer science especially in the Artificial Intelligence field are important to boost their career. Critical thinking and the ability for doing research independently is the difference between being postgraduate. The postgraduates also help with research and innovation. In the high-tech field such as Artificial Intelligence, postgraduates are expected to become the “machine” of invention and innovation.

References

Bektaş, C. & Tayauova, G. (2014) A model suggestion for improving the efficiency of higher education: university–industry cooperation. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 116: 2270-2274.

Haenlein, M. and Kaplan, A. (2019) A brief history of artificial intelligence: On the past, present, and future of artificial intelligence. California management review, 61(4): 5-14.

Higher Education Statistics Agency. (2018) Higher Education Statistics: UK, 2016/17 Subjects Studied. Available from: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/news/11-01-2018/sfr247-higher-education-student-statistics/subjects [Accessed 24 February 2022].

King’s College London. (2016) The Postgraduate Advantage: Why Global Employers Prefer the MA Graduate. Available from: https://www.studyinternational.com/news/the-postgraduate-advantage-why-global-employers-prefer-the-ma-graduate/ [Accessed 24 February 2022].

Laura, B. (2021) The Benefits of Studying A Postgraduate Degree. Available from: https://www.topuniversities.com/student-info/careers-advice/benefits-studying-postgraduate-degree [Accessed 28 February 2022]

Louis, C. (2020) AI Specialist is the Top Emerging Job In 2020 According to Linkedin. Available from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2020/01/05/ai-specialist-is-the-top-emerging-job-in-2020-according-to-linkedin/?sh=248e19ff7495 [Accessed 28 February 2022]

Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, United Arab Emirates. (2022) UAE National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence. Available from: https://ai.gov.ae/strategy/ [Accessed 1 March 2022]

Mohammed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence. (2022) About Mohammed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence. Available from: https://mbzuai.ac.ae/about [Accessed 1 March 2022]

Thune, T. (2011) Success Factors in Higher Education–Industry Collaboration: A case study of collaboration in the engineering field. Tertiary Education and Management, 17(1): 31-50.

Victoria, H. (2016) Is a Postgraduate Degree Necessary to Get a Job? Times Higher Education. Available from: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/is-a-postgraduate-degree-necessary-to-get-a-job [Accessed 28 February 2022]

Wisker, G., Robinson, G.D. and Leibowitz, B. (2019) The purpose and impact of postgraduate knowledge. Studies in Graduate and Postdoctoral education.