The Autonomy Certification Program provides a specialization in topics pertinent to the development of autonomous systems. It is intended to provide a broad understanding of the concepts and approaches related to autonomy, as well as provides the student the ability to develop in-depth knowledge in specialty areas consisting of Artificial Intelligence (AI), unmanned aerial systems (UAS), or human-machine teaming (HMT). Students complete one core class to develop the broad understanding of autonomy and then pursue a 3-course sequence focusing on of the listed specialty sequences. The AI sequence is taught by the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and the UAS sequence and HMT sequence are taught by the Department of Systems Engineering and Management.
Candidates must have completed a bachelor’s degree in an engineering or scientific field. An overall undergraduate grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 is required. Academic admission requirements may be waived at the discretion of the program chair on a case by case basis.
Enrollment:
For Quota students (those in-residence and already enrolled in other AFIT Programs), complete the AFIT Request for Enrollment of Certificate document, sign, and email to the program chair.
For non-quota (part time, distance, non-degree seeking students), application for enrollment must be done through the standard AFIT enrollment process.
Student Outcomes (SO):
Upon completion of the certificate program, the students will be able to:
SO 1: Define autonomy and identify systems that require autonomous operation as distinct from automated systems.
SO 2: Identify the ethical considerations of autonomy, especially for Defense-focused applications.
SO 3: Analyze the challenges of autonomy in various environments and develop approaches to overcome those challenges.
SO 4: Develop new approaches for using AI in autonomous systems, using autonomy to improve UAS capabilities, or improve human-machine teaming (depending on the sequence).
SO 5: Design and demonstrate autonomy to solve a problem of national security interest.
Maj Timothy I. Machin
Degree Type: Certificate
Delivery Method: In-Residence and Distance Learning
Degree Requirements
Degree Requirements
The program for this certificate consists of 1 required introductory course and a set of 3 required courses focused on one of the three specialized sequences.
Required course:
EENG 550 – Introduction to Autonomy (2 credits)*
Three courses from one of the following three elective sequences:
Artificial Intelligence for Autonomy Sequence (12 credits)
CSCE 523 – Artificial Intelligence
CSCE 623 – Statistical Machine Learning
and 1 of the following courses:
CSCE 723 – Advanced Topics in Artificial Intelligence
CSCE 823 – Artificial Neural Networks
Unmanned Systems Sequence (12 credits)
SENG 550 – Small UAS Concept Definition and Preliminary Design
SENG 650 – Small UAS Detailed Design
SENG 651 - Small UAS Test and Evaluation
Human-Machine Teaming Sequence (12 credits)*
HFEN 560 – Introduction to Human Factors*
HFEN 663 – Human Computer Interaction*
HFEN 665 – Human-Agent Interaction*
TOTAL: 14 credit hours
Graduate School Catalog