Andrew Lensen: Victoria University Senior lecturer on the growing interest in AI University courses

Universities are seeing increasing interest from students wanting to study courses in artificial intelligence.  

Multiple universities now run Masters of Artificial Intelligence degrees, with many other courses and related papers at various levels also available.  

Victoria University launched a masters in 2021 and last year began an undergraduate major in AI.  

Senior lecturer Andrew Lensen told Mike Hosking there’s certainly a big change in society when it comes to AI, and students are onto that and want to study it. 

He says that that although developments in the AI space are unfolding quite rapidly, there are a lot of core fundamentals that have been around for the last few decades. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Further up the old education chain from the primary schools
which we were just talking about. Universities are seeing a
spike and students looking at AI. Masters of Artificial Intelligence
degrees are now being offered at many campuses. At Victoria,
numbers are up fifty percent year on year. The program
director there is Andrew Linson is with it. Andrew, very
good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Good morning, Mike.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Is this a fad or not?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
No, I don't think it's a sad. I think there's
a lot of hype for sure. But there's certainly a
big change going on in our society with AI coming
to the forefront, and I think students are on to
it and want to study it.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
And from your point of view, at university, is there
a structured pathway for students to go? If I study that,
there's where I'm going to end up in?

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Oh? Yeah, definitely. So Victoria we've got the first undergraduate
degree in AI, and so students do that degree, they
can have an all sort of interesting jobs. I've been a
data scientist. Where can portray me zero or the big
big name companies? Right?

Speaker 1 (00:52):
And so how do you teach something successfully that's unfolding
at the rate it is.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Yeah, it's a really good question, even though unfolding quite quickly.
There's a lot of core fundamentals that have been around
for sort of ten twenty thirty years, and so we
focus on teaching those first and the sort of first
and second year and then sort of third year, fourth year.
We look more at the advanced stuff more than the
most recent things, and we do to be quite adapt
adaptive there for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Do they have to bring anything from high school by
way of learning or can they pick it up from
scratch given it's all so new?

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yeah, so redesigner chryptrum to be pretty approachable. So the
first course they do it is no pre because it's
but having a bit of mass, having a bit of
digital technology is always helpful, of course.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Right do you know what a charted structural engineer is?

Speaker 2 (01:35):
By the way, not in detail. I couldn't say that now.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
No, No, it's just reading a fascinating article yesterday about
all the jobs we can't fill in this country and
some of them are for the obvious, like plumbers and
drain layers. But a charted structural engineer inns one hundred
and forty thousand dollars a year. I don't even know
what that is. There's clearly a lot of jobs out
there like that, and no wonder we don't have any
of them.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Yeah, it's a bit strange. I mean the thing of
AI as roller over that there's lots of new jobs
coming out as well. So even though you're going to
the program now, you might not be as many options
thus options, but there'll be us a new jobs by
the time people graduate, so maybe'll be AI engineers as
well someday.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Stuff you haven't even thought of. That's all part of it,
isn't it. Andrew appreciator Andrew Lentsen Victoria University program directly. Yeah,
it's just that the story made no sense to me
in the sense that these are the jobs we can't fill.
So applications per job, this is basic stuff like diesel mechanics, electricians, plumbers.
Applications per job are seventeen percent high year on year
for electricians right and over three times as high as

(02:33):
pre COVID. So you think they're applying like there's no tomorrow.
Why can't you fiel the job? How came you got
so many people you can't fill the job? Plumbers have
three percent more applications per job year on year almost
four times as high as pre COVID levels. We do
know that there are some roles that are always particularly
hard to fill. And then they cite the example of
a charted structural engineer, and the question I would ask

(02:55):
you is, how do you become a charted structural engineer?
Do you know you're going to be a charter structural
engineer or are you into engineering in the broadest of
ways to become a chartered structural engineer in later life?
Financial controllers too, by the way, very hard to get
hold of the financial control. I know when I was
a kid, you I didn't have a kid say I
want to be a fireman or a jet pilot struct

(03:17):
I was thinking charted structural engineer for me, thanks, and
yet you ended up here I know.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
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