AI: What's in it for you? Career pointers that may lead the intelligent to artificial intelligence

The burgeoning field of artificial intelligence (AI) is presenting today's electrical and computer engineering graduates with the challenge of giving computers the capacity to replicate human thought. Although the majority of artificial intelligence research and development projects are currently still situated in university laboratories, academics are increasingly venturing into the corporate sphere to accommodate industry's rapidly expanding use and development of AI/knowledge-based systems. With this influx of university researchers into industry and the expansion of artificial intelligence applications into the “real world,” the question emerges of how to attract undergraduates to pursue this rapidly expanding new area.