New UK course builds AI skills across every major

This rolling, asynchronous course will be offered twice during the Spring 2026 semester, to create multiple opportunities for students to fit this in their schedule. This course will run from Jan. 12 through March 2, and from March 9 through May 8.  

The launch of TEK 100 comes as part of the university’s recent effort and announcement of the Commonwealth AI Transdisciplinary Strategy (CATS AI) — a campus-wide framework to coordinate work in artificial intelligence. CATS AI responds to the Board of Trustees’ recent charge to position UK as the “partner-institution-of-choice” for advancing AI in Kentucky and as a national leader and model for integrating AI in higher education. It is an initiative within the Advancing Kentucky Together (AKT) Network, which connects the university with partners committed to advancing education, health care, community and workforce development across the Commonwealth. 

TEK 100 represents an early milestone in that strategy, serving as the university’s first foundational course designed to build AI literacy for every student, regardless of major. 

Katherine Thompson, Ph.D., associate professor in the Dr. Bing Zhang Department of Statistics and co-founder of the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) Hub, and Tama Thé, M.D., an AI research fellow with the National Board of Medical Examiners, assistant professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine, and founder of the AI Incubator in the College of Medicine, co-created and lead the course to help inspire in students an innovative curiosity and active engagement with AI across all disciplines. This fall’s pilot TEK 100 course saw more than 50 first-year students enroll — a testament to their eagerness to learn more about harnessing AI. But, course leaders said the engagement is the real story.

“Students are asking difficult questions, challenging us and engaging in high-level debate,” said Thompson. 

“Through this class, I have been able to use prompt engineering and AI to create things from event planning documents to a personal project of trying to use AI as a way to help with the sorority recruitment matching process,” said Chaelyn McGuire, a sophomore biomedical engineering major. “I hope to learn more to help me learn how to use AI in even more impactful ways.”  

Every student, whether studying fine arts or design, business or medicine, must be able to use and critique these tools.

“We didn’t design TEK 100 as just a standalone class. The university is building a strategic pipeline to transform the future workforce of Kentucky, and this course is the first critical step,” Thé said. “We see TEK 100 as the smartest investment we can make to ensure Kentucky’s workforce participates in the AI revolution starting the day they walk on campus.”  

Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming a useful tool in the classroom and within higher education. Utilizing AI now enables universities to engage eager students who are ready to learn. Inside Higher Ed describes how the world is moving forward with AI, and in order to keep up and prepare students for the workforce, higher education must do the same. By creating a set of shared values and responsibilities centered around AI, a course like TEK 100 helps create a strong foundation for students to thrive in an evolving digital world. 

Thompson and Thé said the course offers students the opportunity to collaborate with AI as a creative and analytical partner, evaluate AI-generated results with a critical eye and understand the impact AI has on society and the community they care about. 

Students taking this course will move beyond simply using AI and learn: 

• Foundational concepts like how large language models work, why they “hallucinate” or make things up and how to spot hidden algorithmic bias.  

• Practical, hands-on skills, from basic “prompt engineering” to advanced creative collaborations with AI. 

• The ethical complexities of AI through expert opinions, case-reports and even an AI-powered simulation that puts students in charge.  

“This entire journey culminates in a capstone project, ‘Community AI Innovation Proposal,’ where students apply every skill they’ve learned to design an AI-driven solution for a specific, real-world community problem,” Thompson said. 

As future leaders of the Commonwealth, the students enrolled in TEK 100 are leading the way to ensure UK embraces AI in helping develop technology and building a highly skilled workforce for Kentucky. 

“Ultimately, we are ensuring that every graduate, regardless of their field, enters the world with the critical and creative skills to thrive with AI, not just alongside it,” Thé said. 

For more information on TEK and TEK 100, visit tek.uky.edu. Students can also find more information about the course on MyUK under the Degree Planning and Registration tab.