AI @ F&M
ANDREW RICH, PRESIDENT
“AI is reshaping how we learn, work, and lead. At F&M, our students learn not only
how to use powerful technologies, but how to question them, guide them, and apply
them responsibly to prepare for leadership in an ever-changing world.”
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Where Liberal Arts Meets AI
The pace of change is accelerating across industries, sectors, and cultures. With generative AI and other cutting-edge technological innovations poised to handle many entry-level duties, top-tier employers are increasingly seeking college graduates with the versatile skills and perspectives fostered by a liberal arts degree.
At F&M, we meet this shift by framing AI as a tool for inquiry, teaching you to navigate its complexities with an ethical and responsible lens. As you explore the technology’s potential, you will become technically proficient while sharpening the high-level critical thinking, ethical judgment, and creative problem-solving skills that are more important than ever. This is the F&M advantage: mastering the tools of the future while cultivating the timeless humanist perspectives that will set you apart.
Jason "Willie" Wilson, assistant professor of computer science
“Our AI and the Liberal Arts certificate empowers students to ask the hard, timely
questions about AI.”
AI Across the Curriculum
AI has been taught and researched at F&M for over a decade. Just as technology never stands still, our curriculum adapts alongside the rapid pace of innovation. Balancing established, hallmark topics with rotating special-interest studies, F&M courses range from AI theory and algorithms to applications in biology, human-computer interaction, and child development. Faculty research — including projects funded by the National Science Foundation — spans the evolution of the field, from pioneering symbolic logic to novel deep-learning algorithms. F&M’s computer science department has spearheaded cutting-edge research into AI’s role in the classroom and led an initiative to develop an AI ethics curriculum for courses across the College.
Explore a sampling of recent courses that bridge the gap between technical mastery and humanistic inquiry — many of which are staples of the new Artificial Intelligence and the Liberal Arts certificate.
- Artificial Intelligence and You (Religious Studies)
- Intro to Bioinformatics (Bioinformatics)
- Minds, Machines, and Morals (Cognitive Science; Moral Psychology)
- Introduction to Data Science (Data Science)
- Introduction to Machine Learning (Computer Science)
- Sociology of AI (Sociology)
- Teaching and Learning Machine Ethics (Computer Science)
F&M Computer Science and AI
How do you study computer science through a liberal arts lens? Discover how F&M faculty and students are meeting technical innovation with ethical judgment, critical thinking, wisdom, and proficiency.
AI Impact and Innovation Leadership Fellows
Franklin & Marshall Leadership Fellows are purpose-driven communities of students who exemplify F&M’s commitment to meaningful
impact through leadership, innovation, and problem-solving.
We offer several tailored tracks, including AI Impact and Innovation Leadership Fellows,
a program that prepares you to lead responsible, human-centered technological innovation.
As an AI Impact and Innovation Leadership Fellow, you’ll access:
An AI Certificate to Prepare World-Ready Leaders
Certificates are supplemental educational pathways you can pursue that are not tied to your major or minor. The Artificial Intelligence and the Liberal Arts certificate introduces a distinct approach to examine AI through a blended lens of humanistic inquiry and technical proficiency. With coursework that spans the sciences and humanities, the curriculum simultaneously explores the technology, its history, and its societal implications. This foundation culminates in real-world, hands-on experiences, such as internships or research projects.
November 12, 2026 Knowing how to use artificial intelligence (AI) is one skill. Knowing how organizations and society can do so with good judgement is another thing. A new fellowship at Franklin & Marshall College’s Mehlman Leadership and Performance Institute will help students develop that judgment while gaining professional experience. October 28, 2026 F&M Professor of Religious Studies John Modern is the recipient of a $250,000 grant from the John Templeton Foundation to build upon innovative work examining how AI shapes religious experience, cognition, and meaning-making. June 9, 2026 The F&M Innovation Fund announces its inaugural cohort of funded projects: four bold community initiatives that capture the pioneering spirit of Franklin & Marshall College.SUNITA KRAMER ’88, PROVOST
“We are both thoughtful and strategic about how we implement AI tools on our campus
— all while emphasizing the human-centered skills that AI cannot replace.”
The Latest in AI @ F&M
New Fellowship Prepares Students for Responsible AI Leadership
John Templeton Foundation Grant Elevates Humanities at Franklin & Marshall
Innovation Fund Transforms Pioneering Spirit into Action at Franklin & Marshall College
The F&M Humans + AI Series brings the campus community together to thoughtfully examine
AI and its practical, ethical, and human implications. “In the classroom, these technologies allow my students to focus more on developing
the critical thinking, data interpretation, and communication skills they need to
succeed in these endeavors.” — Harlow Loch, Assistant Professor of Accounting — Erik Anderson, Associate Professor of English “It also helps me make my class more inclusive and engaging since I can generate scenarios
that are relevant to my students' lived experience while also targeting the concepts
we are learning in class.” — Emily Jensen, Assistant Professor of Computer ScienceF&M Humans + AI Series
Faculty Voices and AI
“As AI and automation increasingly take on routine tasks, business professionals will
engage in analysis, strategic advising, and other high-impact projects earlier in
their careers.”
“Students are navigating a world (and a job market) increasingly saturated with AI
and part of our work as educators is to help young people think through the issues
in rich and nuanced ways.”
“AI can help students master difficult concepts by providing endless practice problems
and patient, encouraging feedback.”
AI Resources for the F&M Community
We offer a growing set of resources designed to support research, learning, and collaborative discovery in the age of AI. These include:
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- AI Literacy & Implementation Badge: A six-session badge program designed to help F&M employees build the knowledge, confidence, and practical skills to use artificial intelligence safely and effectively in their work. Designed for employees at every experience level, the program moves from foundational concepts to hands-on applications that can improve efficiency and strengthen day-to-day work. Participants work with their managers to identify a departmental challenge (e.g. an inefficient process, repetitive task, or frustrating workflow) and develop an AI-supported solution with their cohort.
- Google Workspace & Gemini: A unified campus-wide digital infrastructure featuring Google Workspace and Gemini, Google’s AI LLM, ensuring all students, faculty, and staff have access to advanced collaboration and generative AI tools.
- Generative AI @ F&M Guide: A dedicated site hosted by F&M’s Information Technology Services (ITS) featuring guidelines and considerations for generative AI use, as well as practical tools and resources for the campus community.
- Student Resource Guide: A curated site by F&M’s Instructional Technology team featuring AI tools and guidance for students, including an AI guide from the College Library, specialized tools to enhance learning, and a practical flowchart to help determine the responsible use of generative AI for specific assignments.
- High-Performance Computing Capabilities: A shared high-performance computing cluster used for AI and compute research, which centralizes resources, enables faculty and students to complete research more quickly, allows researchers to scale up their research and look at solving larger problems, and facilitates more student research and student/faculty collaboration.
- F&M's Department of Computer Science: A team of expert faculty actively engaged in AI research, scholarship, programming, and collaborations.
- Interdisciplinary Programming: Campus-wide events on AI, including a Common Hour event featuring a panel of F&M professors and students and sponsored by the computer science, economics, and religious studies departments.
- Faculty Integration Toolkit: A comprehensive online hub for faculty to navigate the integration of generative AI into higher education. The hub provides foundational knowledge through a curated list of articles, videos, and podcasts; offers practical guidance on crafting classroom policies; highlights tools that streamline research, assist neurodivergent students, and generate interactive classroom discussions; and more.
- Collaborative Learning Circles: Book groups, workshops, and more designed to foster faculty conversations about AI and explore how these tools can support, rather than replace, student learning.
Imagine 1,600 computer processors combining power toward one task. This is the engine
driving innovation at F&M. Called a High-Performance Computing (HPC) cluster, this
elite shared resource accelerates discovery, empowers large-scale research, and fuels
the collaborative spirit that defines the F&M experience.Powering Innovation: Inside F&M’s Campus Supercomputer
CARRIE RAMPP, VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER
“F&M has always been well ahead of the curve when it comes to providing technology
infrastructure that supports any and all forms of teaching, learning and research
that can benefit from advanced technology resources.”