Artificial Intelligence & Cloud Computing Club continues to grow at SEMO

Technology in society is rapidly evolving, and the Artificial Intelligence and Cloud Club is determined to keep up.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Cloud computing are a prominent piece of technology that has surfaced over recent years.

Junior Cybersecurity major and president of the AI Club Hannah Bradham insists there is still plenty to learn about AI and cloud computing, a recent addition to the AI Club’s itinerary.

“Our main goal right now is just learning more about Artificial Intelligence. This semester, we’ve been going over more cloud computing topics, but right now, we’re just building models trying to understand it a little more,” Bradham said.

With the vast scope of AI and Cloud computing, it is naturally difficult to understand some details. To provide clarity, Bradham described Cloud computing as a virtual machine storing data and resources in a secondary location. AI, on the other hand, teaches virtual machines to adopt human-like cognitive functions.

“The difference between cloud computing and artificial intelligence is, the cloud computing is where all of your services are hosted by someone else,” Bradham said. “But artificial intelligence is trying to get the machine to learn more of like a human cognitive function.”

As the club learns how to train programs to act like humans, there can also be true camaraderie found through the members themselves.

Professor of Computer Science and club sponsor Dr. Juefei Yuan, remarks that AI has created unity between members of the club and students on campus.

“Sometimes we have students from other departments, not only Computer Science, who also have interest in AI. So, I think that the common goal and the common interest brought us together,” Yuan said.

The AI and Cloud club welcomes all who express the desire to learn more about Artificial Intelligence and Cloud Computing. As stated in Article III of the club’s constitution, “Member is any student in Southeast Missouri State University student who is interested in Artificial Intelligence and Cloud Computing.”

Dr. Yuan emphasizes that participation in the AI and Cloud club could open the door to job opportunities, helping to build the skills necessary to excel at a career in AI and Computer Science adjacent careers.

“Computer Science is a very large area, and AI is just part of it,” Dr. Yuan said. “But if you want to, after you graduate, you want to go to the AI department in some companies, they may ask you some machine learning, or deep learning or data science technique questions.”

Students interested in joining the program are encouraged to visit the AI and Cloud page on Engage SEMO. Resources such as the club’s constitution, meeting details, and contact information are available on their homepage.