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Eduardo Salcedo

Eduardo Salcedo

Eduardo Salcedo

Instructor, Engineering, Technology and Design at Miami Dade College

Eduardo Salcedo is a technology instructor at Miami Dade College (MDC). He holds a Master’s degree in Information Systems and is currently working on his Ph.D. in the same field. His research interests include marginalization, blockchain technologies, and the sharing economy. He primarily teaches traditional college students and those who wish to reskill through courses designed to prepare them for industry certifications. Additionally, he runs an annual AI summer camp, which introduces high school students to AI concepts and tools. He is part of the team involved in the creation of the college’s AI program alongside professionals in the field.

Executive

Track: Industry and Academia Integration

Blue-Collar AI: Scaling and Accelerating the Future AI Workforce with College Programs

We don’t have enough skilled talent to fill current and future job demand for analytics and AI. It’s a national imperative that we change the way we imagine, educate, recruit and upskill our technical workforce. We must abandon the flawed idea that AI jobs are only for people with master’s degrees or PhDs with decades of experience. We need to identify and embrace a “blue-collar AI” workforce in the U.S. — and building one will require the cooperation of educational institutions, companies and government agencies. High-level AI jobs, like a machine learning engineer, may require a master’s degree or higher, but many others do not — and that’s where we need the majority of new hires. These jobs are perfect for associate and bachelor’s degree graduates in programs like those that Miami Dade College is pioneering.