Education Program
Undergraduate and graduate pathways into AI for healthcare computing and systems.
Healthcare-specific AI systems need engineers who are fluent on both sides of the clinic door — comfortable with silicon, signal processing and systems software, and equally comfortable with the constraints a hospital, a device on a patient's body, or a clinician's workflow actually impose. The Center's education program is built to produce that engineer, at both the undergraduate and graduate level, through coursework, hands-on projects, and direct participation in the Center's own research.
Undergraduate
Undergraduates working with the Center pursue a concentration or certificate that layers AI-for-healthcare content on top of a standard engineering or computer science degree, rather than replacing it. The emphasis throughout is project-based: students take a clinical problem — a wearable sensor, an assistive device, a diagnostic model — from a rough specification to working hardware or software they can demonstrate, so that by graduation they have built something, not just studied how it is built.
Graduate
At the master's and doctoral level, students can pursue a concentration that draws on the Center's full research stack — hardware design for medical AI applications, medical robotics, signal processing and control for physiological data, and the computing frameworks that hold multi-institution clinical AI systems together. Graduate students are typically embedded in an active Center research project from early in their program, working alongside faculty and, where the project calls for it, clinical collaborators at UPMC.
Courses
Core and related coursework, organized by the part of the stack it addresses. The listing is being finalized: the topics below are what each group will cover, and course numbers and titles will follow once the participating departments have confirmed them.
Devices, Chips & Architecture
Biosensor and low-power circuit design
Computer architecture for embedded and edge AI
Signal Processing, Control & Robotics
Physiological signal processing
Medical robotics
Closed-loop and assistive control
AI, Software & Security
Machine learning and foundation models
Federated and privacy-preserving systems
Clinical & Domain Context
Clinical and biomedical context, cross-listed with the School of Medicine or the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
Student Research Opportunities
Coursework is only one half of the program. Students who want to go further can work directly on Center research.
Undergraduate Research
Undergraduates can join Center research through independent study, through senior design and capstone projects sponsored by Center faculty, and through paid summer research positions as they are offered. To ask about any of these, write to the Center.
Graduate Assistantships
Prospective graduate students are encouraged to find the Center faculty member and project closest to their interests and get in touch directly. The People page lists the members, and the Research pages describe the work.
Seminars & Outreach
Beyond degree coursework, the Center plans activities open to a wider audience — a seminar series, workshops, and outreach and summer programs. Details and registration will be posted here as they are scheduled.