Artificial Intelligence at Skidmore College

News Courses Faculty Alums Research Senior Theses

There are a number of opportunities to study artificial intelligence and related topics across the curriculum at Skidmore. This site contains information about AI-related courses, faculty, students and alums.

Latest News

Fall 2025 AI Publications/Presentations:
AI Courses offered:
  • AR 351: Artificial Images
  • MB 351: Foundations with Generative AI
  • MB 351: AI Powered Selling and Sales
Spring 2025 AI Publications:
  • Professor Wenlu Du had two papers accepted:
    • PairUpLight: A Multi-agent Reinforcement Learning Approach for Coordinated Multi-intersection Traffic Signal Control" was accepted to IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS '25)
    • RAGIC: Risk-Aware Generative Framework for Stock Interval Construction" was accepted to IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering (TKDE '25)
AI Courses offered:
AI Events
Irene Aldridge gave the Adirondack Trust Lecture on Finance titled AI in Finance: Progress and Opportunities.
Fall 2024 New Faculty Hired
Professor Anthonie Ashmore joined the Physics Department as an Assistant Professor. Professor Ashmore completed a Ph.D. in theoretical physics at Imperial College London. He has held research fellowships at Oxford, University of Pennsylvania, University of Chicago, and Sorbonne Université. Professor Ashmore uses machine learning to study theoretical physics.
Professor Wenlu Du joined the Computer Science Department as an Assistant Professor. Professor Du recently completed her Ph.D. at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Her dissertation focuses on reinforcement learning in transportation systems.
Professor Esma Wali joined the Computer Science Department as a Visiting Assistant Professor. Professor Wali recently completed her Ph.D. at Clarkson University. Her research focuses on bias in natural language processing.
AI Courses Offered
CS 331 Computer Vision was offered by Professor Mike Eckamnn as an official course for the first time. It was previously offered as a Topics in Computer Science course. The course includes a detailed discussion of using convolutional neural networks for applications in computer vision.
Professor Matt Lucas , F. William Harder Chair of Business Administration, is offering MB 351: AI Powered Selling and Sales.
Professor Esma Wali offered a Computer Science topics course in Machine Learning.
Spring 2024 AI Courses Offered
CS 376 Deep Learning was offered by Professor Tom O'Connell.
Research Methods 2: Neural Computation was offered by Professor Pablo Gomez in the Psychology Department.
A 1-credit Honors Forum course Knowing Earth w/ Big Data & AI was be offered by Professor Nurcan Atalan Helicke from the Environmental Studies and Sciences Program. "This class will examine how big data and artificial intelligence (AI) help record and track global biodiversity, and conserve the Earth."
AI Events
Skidmore AI Club held its inaugural meeting.
Professor Peter Murray from the Philosophy Department gave a talk titled Alien Intelligence: On Electric Galton Boards and their Effects jointly sponsored by the Philosophy Club, Skidmore Codes, and the Skidmore AI Club.
Fall 2023 AI Courses Offered
CS 316 Foundations of Machine Learning was offered officially for the first time by Professor Tom O'Connell from the Computer Science Department. A pilot version of the course was offered as an Advanced Topics in Computer Science course in Fall 2021. Students will develop some of the mathamatical skills necessary for advanced study of machine learning. The course will also include a weekly 2-hour lab for students to implement several machine learning techniques.
A new section of EN 105, Writing with AI, was offered by Professor Mason Stokes of the English Department. Students will "write with/without/against/around ChatGPT, trying to discover whether this new technology is a threat or an opportunity."
ID 351 Langauge and Thought was offered as an interdisciplinary advanced topics course, co-taught by Professor Peter Murray from the Philosophy Department and Professor Erica Wojcik from the Psychology Department.
AI Events
Skidmore's Office of First Year Experience sponsored a faculty panel, Klara and the Sun: A Skidmore Perspective. We discussed the Class of 2027's summer reading: Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. The panel was moderated by Natalie Taylor and included Peter Murray (Philosophy), Tom O'Connell (Computer Science), Mason Stokes (English), Sarah Sweeney (Art), and Erica Wojcik (Psychology).
Summer 2023 AI Events
The summer reading for Skidmore's Class of 2027 was Klara and the Sun , a story about an "Artificial Friend" by Kazuo Ishiguro.
Abigail Svetlik published an opinion piece on ChatGPT in The Skidmore News.
Spring 2023 IL 204 Artificial Self was offered for the first time in Spring 2023 by Professor Jessica Sullivan from the Psychology Department. Here is a video of Professor Sullivan answering questions about AI.

Fall 2022 IL 305 Robotics was offered for the first time in Fall 2022 by Professor Evan Halstead from the Physics Department. Students designed and built self-driving robots, a robotic arm, a small quadruped, a robot that draws designs on eggs, and a ping pong ball launcher.

AI Related Courses

Computer Science

Management and Business

  • MB 351: Special Topics -- AI Powered Selling and Sales

Idea Lab

Philosophy

Honors Forum

English

Neuroscience

Psychology

First Year Seminars

Faculty

Faculty Member Department Courses Taught/Research Projects
Wenlu Du Computer Science Reinforcement learning in transportation systems.
Tom O'Connell Computer Science CS 316: Foundations of Machine Learning ; CS 322: Artificial Intelligence ; CS 332 Deep Learning ; Scribner Seminar: Can Machines Think?
Mike Eckmann Computer Science CS 331: Computer Vision
David Read Computer Science CS 225: Applied Data Science
Matt Lucas Management and Business AI Powered Selling and Sales
Anthonie Ashmore Physics Machine learning in theoretical physics.
Evan Halstead Physics IL 305: Robotics
Peter Murray Philosophy PH 316: Artificial Intelligence: Metaphysics of Mind and Ethical Issues; ID 310: Language and Thought ; Scribner Seminar: Digital Life
Jessica Sullivan Psychology IL 204: Artificial Self
Erica Wojcik Psychology ID 310: Language and Thought
Pablo Gomez Psychology Research Methods 2: Neural Computation
Mason Stokes English EN 105: Writing with AI
Sarah Sweeney Art My Deepfake Dad ; AR 351: Artificial Images

Senior Theses in AI, Machine Learning, Computer Vision, and Data Science

Title Year Department Advisor
Alignment: Humanistic Machine Ethics and Moral Confidence 2025 Philosophy & Computer Science Murray & O'Connell
An Exploration of Dimensionality Reduction Techniques as Applied to Mutated HIV-Vif-A3F Molecular Dynamics Simulations 2025 Computer Science Ball (Chemistry) and O'Connell (Computer Science)
The Bridge Between Theory and Applications: Examining Bias in Nonlinear Classification 2025 Computer Science O'Connell
Utilizing Large Language Models for Phishing Email Detection 2025 Computer Science Prasad
Multi-Object Detection and Tracking 2023 Computer Science Eckmann
The Role of Neural Style Transfer Learning in the Creation and Dissemination of NFTs 2023 Computer Science O'Connell
Utilizing Expression Recognition Technology to Improve Virtual Learning Environments 2021 Computer Science Read
Semantic Representation of Bayesian Networks 2020 Computer Science Read
Classifiers for Images Using Convolutional Neural Networks 2019 Computer Science Eckmann
Semantic Machine Learning 2019 Computer Science Read
Multimodal Gaussian Distributions for the Purpose of Acronym Disambiguation 2018 Computer Science Read
Determining Features of Recognizable Kinect® Gestures for Use in Virtual Reality 2016 Computer Science Eckmann
Towards Facial Recognition for Speakers at Skidmore Faculty Meetings 2015 Computer Science Eckmann
Identifying Company Logos: An Exploration in Image Classification 2013 Computer Science Eckmann
Least Significant Bit Embeddings: Implementation and Detection 2012 Computer Science Eckmann
Epidemiological Modeling with Agent Based Systems 2011 Computer Science O'Connell
Reinforcement Learning to Solve the Rubik's Cube® 2009 Computer Science O'Connell
Color Extensions to Pyramidal Lucas-Kanade Optical Flow 2009 Computer Science Eckmann
Reinforcement Learning for Dots and Boxes 2004 Computer Science O'Connell
Information and Deception in AI Poker 2003 Computer Science O'Connell

Alums with AI related careers

Skidmore Major Graduate Degree/Cerificate Graduate School Employer
Computer Science and Math Ph.D. in Computer Science Brandeis University Machine Learning Research Scientist at Analog Devices
Computer Science and Math Ph.D. in Computer Science, Societal Computing Carnegie Mellon University Co-founder and CPO of Maestro AI
Math and Self Determined in Computational Neuroscience Ph.D. in Cognitive and Neural Systems Boston University Associate Professor of Computer Science, Colby College
Computer Science
(Physics minor)		 Master's of Engineering Management
B.E. in Computer Engineering 		Dartmouth College Data Scientist at Intel
Chemistry Ph.D. in Health Security (dissertation on AI in Biosecurity). Johns Hopkins University
Computer Science
(Physics minor)		 Robotics Software Engineer at Oceaneering
Computer Science and Economics Senior Machine Learning Engineer at League
Physics and Math
(Computer Science minor)		 M.S. in Imaging Science RIT Researcher at The Boston Dynamics AI Institute
Math and Economics Ph.D. in Computer Science University of Massachusetts, Boston Assistant Professor, University of Nebraska, Omaha
Computer Science M.S. in Artificial Intelligence Northeastern University
Computer Science
(Math minor)		 Graduate Certificate in Artificial Intelligence Stanford University Senior Software Engineer at YouTube
Computer Science M.S. in Computer Science
(specialty in AI/ML) 		Fordham University Software Engineer III at Google
Computer Science and Business M.S. in Data Science New York University Data Scientist at Morgan Stanley
Computer Science and Math M.S. in Computer Science University of Colorado at Boulder Software Engineer at Google with specialty in Machine Learning
Math and English Ph.D. in Writing Studies (Technical and Scientific Writing) University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Co-founder and CTO of Rotational Labs
Computer Science and Dance M.P.S. in Interactive Telecommunications New York University Senior Director of Interaction Design at WPP.
Math and Economics
(Computer Science minor)		 M.S. in Analytics Northwestern University Senior Data Scientist at Aetna