FAQ 04: Does DCPE teach “Artificial Intelligence” (AI)? Should I choose DCPE for AI?

DCPE covers Artificial Intelligence in year-3 of the course, under the “Computer Applications” specialisation. In future, it may be offered to other specialisations in the course, as the application of AI is expanding into many areas. Should you choose DCPE for AI? Well, it depends on the areas in which you plan to apply your AI knowledge in the future. If your interest in AI is for engineering applications in areas like Autonomous Vehicles (cars/drones), Smart Cities, Intelligent Robotics, Industry 4.0, etc, then DCPE will be a GREAT choice. For engineering applications of AI, you need much more than just the AI knowledge: you also need knowledge in Electrical & Electronic Engineering; computing hardware/software integration; Engineering Mathematics. Only computer engineering courses will cover all these key areas to support “AI for Engineering”, and DCPE of SP is one of these courses.

If you foresee that you will apply your AI knowledge in service-related applications (e.g. Digital Marketing, Health Care, Chat-bot, etc), then DCPE is NOT the best choice. You will still be able to apply your AI knowledge in those applications, but your engineering skills will not play a major part in those applications because the involvement of computer/electronic hardware or instruments will be less.

DCPE is an engineering course that teaches computer science and electronic engineering. The course also teaches AI, but more for preparing the graduates for high-tech engineering-related applications, for example, “Autonomous vehicles”, “Smart Cities”, where the implementation of AI-powered solutions need strong foundation in Internet-of-Things (IoT)-related knowledge. IoT covers electronic hardware (microcontroller, sensors, actuators), software programming and some networking (e.g. wireless connections). Being an engineering course, DCPE does not aim to prepare graduates for applications like digital marketing, which is more business-related.

In short, choose DCPE if you are excited about applying AI on hardware (robots, cars, drone, smart home, etc) or your career plan is to become an “Engineer” for intelligent engineering systems. Through DCPE, you will learn to combine AI and IoT (and in year-3, adding in 5G technology) to design innovative solutions for our digital world.