New Generative AI Course Brings the Cutting Edge to the Caltech Classroom

While the world grapples with generative AI as a mainstream phenomenon, that phenomenon is already changing the way researchers do science and develop technology. In recognition of that reality, Caltech has begun offering a unique course on the leading edge of generative AI technology, EE/CS 148: Large Language and Vision Models. This spring, the course let students peer behind the curtain of generative AI to see how it really works and learn how to make it work for their needs.

“We wanted to bring that technology to Caltech students,” says Georgia Gkioxari, Caltech assistant professor of computing and mathematical sciences and electrical engineering and a William Hurt Scholar, “to teach our students how to think about all these new advances beyond what they're being used for right now to think about how we can extend them for all the scientific applications that people work on here at Caltech.”

Gkioxari taught the course this spring and says she will continue teaching it each spring alongside Pietro Perona, Allen E. Puckett Professor of Electrical Engineering, who had long taught an introductory computer vision course. Perona decided to revamp the computer vision offering when Gkioxari joined the Caltech faculty in January, bringing with her industry experience accumulated during a six-year tenure with Facebook/Meta AI. [Caltech story]