Objectives and competencies
Master studies are intended to help students acquire advanced knowledge of a specialised or multidisciplinary nature, often geared towards an academic or professional specialisation, as well as promoting an introduction to research work. This MSc degree in Artificial Intelligence is aimed to be within this latter scenario.
The objective of the MSc in Artificial Intelligence is: To prepare students for innovation in the area of Artificial Intelligence, in two ways: firstly, the creation of innovative techniques and methods within the research area of Artificial Intelligence and, secondly, the application of these techniques and methods relative to social and business reality as well as creating processes and innovative computer solutions.
Consequently a higher degree of knowledge in Artificial Intelligence will be afforded and provided to Computer Engineering and Science and Technology professionals studying this course. This will enable them to deal with and solve problems of both a scientific and technological nature using techniques and methods resulting from recent research.
This general objective can be completed using two additional and intrinsic goals. Firstly, the idea of innovating in order to research and, simultaneously, the idea of researching in order to innovate. The first goal suggests innovative programmes, which are able to combine the specialised nature of the degree with creativity that underlies original and productive research directions. The second one is about the ability to be creative when addressing and solving problems through research.
Therefore, the global objective is materialised in more specific objectives that are the following:
Objective 1: Acquire advance training of a specialised and multidisciplinary nature, geared towards promoting the introduction to research work in Artificial Intelligence.
Objective 2: Provide a higher degree of knowledge in Artificial Intelligence techniques and methods, to be able to deal with and solve technological and scientific problems through the research (research in order to innovate).
Objective 3: Create innovative programmes that are able to combine the specialised nature of the degree with creativity that underlies original, active and productive research directions (innovate in order to research) in Artificial Intelligence.
Objective 4: Enable students to be creative in addressing and solving scientific and technological problems through research in Artificial Intelligence.
Competencies
The mentioned objectives are designed to enable students to acquire, during their studies, a set of general and specific competencies.
The competencies of the MSc degree in Artificial Intelligence have been structured into three categories.
- The general competencies are included in the first category. These are common to any Master degree in Spain – by Royal Decree –, or are proposed by the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, or are included in the standard EURO-INF, which defines the required competencies for a degree to be accredited as an MSc in Computer Science.
- In the second category of competencies are those concerning the research orientation of the degree proposed or shared by any research-oriented Master offered by the School of Computer Science, and that are different from those shared by the professionally-oriented Masters.
- In the third category will be the specific competences in Artificial Intelligence that differentiate the proposed Master degree from other research Masters in the School of Computer Science.
- Finally, there is a specific competence associated to the Master's Final Project.
This link shows these sets of competencies which, as mentioned above, the students should have acquired after graduation.
According to the above, the graduate of the degree will be in a position to either join the labour force as a specialist in Artificial Intelligence, or to continue their academic training and study for a PhD in the subject. Accordingly, the graduate will acquire an advanced knowledge of a specialised nature in Artificial Intelligence. This course is also multidisciplinary due to the nature of the techniques and methods of Artificial Intelligence being studied. This allows the graduate to perform, as a professional, specific problem solving tasks incorporating these techniques and methods, which constitute recent results of research in the area. At the same time, due to the state-of-the-art nature of the acquired knowledge, and also due to the acquired ability to innovate, the graduate will be in a position to get started in research and consider enrolling in PhD studies.