Operations Research and Artificial Intelligence Certificate

The certificate program is open to PhD students engaged in research at the interface of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Operations Research. Students enroll in courses that teach a blend of AI and OR technologies, plus their applications to the design of decision-making/support tools, in an integrated and uniform way. Each course integrates technical and ethics material, to prevent the many issues that have plagued the fielding of decision-making/support systems in the past, and involve projects with use cases provided by several USC centers. The program is supported by workshops that teach students important non-technical skills such as communication, teamwork, team leadership, mentoring, project management and entrepreneurship; a weekly seminar with research talks by the students and invited speakers; and an annual research symposium. The program is designed to encourage interdisciplinary interactions among student peers and between students and faculty members to bridge the gap in research culture between AI and OR.