In between classes on machine learning and software engineering, Jace Watson isn't heading back to his dorm or finding a quiet place to study somewhere on Carnegie Mellon University's campus.
That's because Watson isn't even in Pittsburgh. He's in Seattle, working at his full-time job as a software engineer at Microsoft and taking classes through the Preceptorship for AI-accelerated Software Engineering (PRAISE) program, which CMU and Microsoft launched to train early career software engineers for the rapidly changing computer science landscape.
"When I started undergraduate, it was the beginning of AI being something that everybody had access to on their own computers. As I got closer to graduation, it started becoming clear how big AI tools would be in the workforce, but using AI wasn't a huge part of my education," Watson said. "When I joined Microsoft, these tools were part of my day-to-day, and I wanted to make sure I knew how to fully take advantage of them, which is why I sought out the additional education opportunity through CMU and Microsoft."
