2024 State of the University of Texas at Austin Address

Wednesday, September 18, 2024
Hogg Memorial Auditorium

President Hartzell presented his remarks after an introduction by Faculty Council Chair Dr. Stella Flores.

The Year of AI has really put a spotlight on certain things that we’re doing so well. A year ago, we launched the first degree of its kind, a Master of Science degree in AI. That program, now in year two, has 1,300 people, which is pretty incredible.

Just this morning, we announced a new institute around CosmicAI. This is a partnership with the Simons Foundation and the NSF to build a new institute to think about the most fundamental questions: Why are we here? How did we get here? What are the origins of the universe? And do it from an AI perspective. It will be spearheaded by UT’s Oden Institute, but eight different departments are contributing faculty to it.

Watch the full address and read the transcript on the UT Austin website.