CAP IA, a catalyst for learning in Artificial Intelligence

The university of Bordeaux and its CAP IA partners have carried out a comprehensive survey of the local needs in AI training. The region mirrors the national diagnosis and the challenges of the AI acceleration strategy: despite the overall demographic appeal of the region, companies in Nouvelle‑Aquitaine face significant difficulties recruiting the profiles they need—especially young graduates in initial AI and data science programs (Bac +3 to Bac +8).

Although the Bordeaux campus already hosts several programs related to AI (mathematics, computer science, robotics…) with about 150 students annually, none are explicitly AI‑focused.

Based on this shared diagnosis, CAP IA aims to go much further than existing offerings through innovative pedagogical methods and by leveraging strengths available on campus.

The three levers for scaling up this future training offer are:

• Strengthening the AI and autonomous robotics training offer at master’s and doctoral levels;
• Enhancing the attractiveness of AI programs aimed at the high-school to undergraduate audience, with a view to solidifying demand for undergraduate study;
• Reinforcing the connection between education and industry.

Objectives

The CAP IA project will run for 60 months and is structured into six work packages:

1. Management;
2. Strengthening a master’s and doctoral excellence track in AI;
3. Enhancing the master’s level offering in AI/data science;
4. Reinforcing the robotics training offer;
5. Implementing an AI/data collaborative space based on use cases in data science;
6. Increasing attractiveness among Bac −3 to Bac +3 students.

The project is led by a comprehensive and coherent consortium that brings together a wide range of expertise, including education, research, industry insight, public decision-makers, academic guidance, and a connection to secondary education.

First actions

• Launch of a Master’s in Artificial Intelligence : Launched in the fall of 2024 as a concrete implementation of CAP IA. This two‑year program equips students with theoretical and practical AI knowledge—especially in machine learning, deep learning, knowledge representation, reasoning, natural language processing, computer vision—and trains them in AI research.
• Mobility support for AI4industry and dataset collection;
• Open online courses (MOOCs) for all, created by Inria (CAP IA partner):
  • Artificial Intelligence for and by teachers;
  • Artificial Intelligence with intelligence!