Dear USF Community,
In alignment with the University of South Florida’s strategic plan, we are committed to delivering a world-class educational experience, conducting impactful research and serving as a leader in innovation to address society’s critical challenges. With this in mind, today we are pleased to announce our intention to create a new college at USF that will focus on artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity and computing.
We are proud to be the first institution in Florida and among the first in the nation to announce plans to form a college dedicated to AI and cybersecurity.
In recent months, an internal task force with faculty representation was convened to evaluate the university’s strengths already in place and explore opportunities to enhance collaboration that will help advance USF’s academic and research excellence in AI, cybersecurity and computing. The addition of this new college would bring together expertise currently housed across several different colleges to serve as a complement to USF’s 13 existing colleges, which would remain operational and continue to be positioned for success.
The vision for this new college would be to offer undergraduate and graduate degree programs that prepare USF students for high-demand careers, empower faculty to conduct scholarly research that leads to groundbreaking discoveries and technological advancements, grow industry partnerships and promote ethical considerations and trust throughout the digital transformation underway in our world.
The formation of a new college is subject to continued consultation with faculty through shared governance processes and approval from the USF Board of Trustees.
We encourage you to read more about this exciting endeavor in our public announcement that will be distributed later today and an FAQ page we’ve created. We look forward to sharing more information with you as our plans progress.
Sincerely,
Rhea F. Law
President
Prasant Mohapatra, Ph.D.
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs