WHITEWATER, Wis (CBS 58) - Starting in the fall of 2026, students will be able to enroll in an artificial intelligence major at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

As AI becomes more complex, so does the research, and UW-Whitewater has the faculty needed to support a major.

“We have the resources to do that kind of research here that a lot of other universities our size don’t have,” Department of Computer Science chair Zach Oster said.

The major will feature psychology, math, and programming classes along with AI specific courses.

An ethics of AI class will be required for students enrolling in the major.

“It’s important that students are thinking about how AI can be used, about how it can be misused, and what maybe some of the side effects are,” Oster said.

The ethics course is also designed to help students learn when and when not to use AI in different situations.

“In some cases, the answer might be yes and in other cases we really need humans in the loop,” Oster said. “Figuring out where that line is and you have to do that for really every AI tool.”

Oster says several UW-Whitewater students have already been hired at data centers across the area, but that this major is for other AI job opportunities as well.

“Those existed before the conversation about data centers so it's really kind of a separate thing,” Oster said. “My vision for our AI graduates is that they’re going to be building interesting things using AI, they’re going to help people live better lives.”