“Here we are laying the first stone of an economic transformation of Colombia and Latin America,” said President Gustavo Petro, at the opening ceremony, adding that “what we are doing today is not insignificant, nor opening one more faculty (…)…it is probably a revolution”.

He also pointed out that this type of project allows Manizales, the capital of the Caldas department, to be at the forefront of current affairs since the first brain of the nation will be developed in this city with the implementation of programs that will help put in place several machines to benefit daily life.

“If Artificial Intelligence is controlled by the public and society, as a whole, and its energy is clean, an economic revolution in the world. And it starts here,” Petro indicated.

The start-up project for the faculty will be funded with close to 54 billion pesos (about 13 million dollars at the current exchange rate), reported the Colombian Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications (Mintic).

The faculty’s curriculum will include programs for Technicians in Data Debugging and Pre-processing for AI, Technology in Computer Systems for AI, a Professional undergraduate degree in AI Engineering, a Data Science and Artificial Intelligence specialization, and an Artificial Intelligence Master’s degree.

The faculty will embrace academic programs in different spaces of the University of Caldas, while the definitive building is being built, said the head of Mintic, Mauricio Lizcano.

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