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Course Materials

This course uses a combination of online readings, hands-on lab platforms, and professional software tools. There is no required textbook to purchase. All necessary materials are either free or accessible through subscriptions provided by the university or free-tier programs.

Course website and communication

We will use Pitt Canvas as the primary place to distribute other course-related content and announcements. All learning materials including video recordings and assignments will be posted on the course Canvas page.

Info

Use Pitt email and Canvas for course-related communication.

Books & Reading Materials

No Textbook Purchase Required

No purchase of textbook is required for this course.

Our foundational "textbook" is the free online Kaggle 5-Day GenAI guide. It provides an excellent baseline for core concepts.

Because this field evolves rapidly, the Kaggle guide will be supplemented with required readings and videos from current industry and research sources. These will be posted weekly on the course website and will include materials from sources like the Google AI, OpenAI, and Anthropic blogs.

Software Tools 🧑‍💻

Coding Environment:

Our course uses a "cloud-first" approach with two primary, fully supported environments—one for labs and one for your project. This ensures everyone has a consistent and powerful setup, regardless of their personal computer.

  • For Weekly Labs & Experiments: Google Colab 📓

    • We will use Google Colab for individual, hands-on lab exercises. It's an interactive notebook environment that runs in your browser, perfect for learning core concepts and experimenting with code.

  • For the Group Project: GitHub Codespaces 🧑‍💻

    • All work on your semester-long group project will be done in GitHub Codespaces. This provides a complete VS Code editor directly in your web browser, running in a powerful cloud environment. It's specifically designed for building applications and collaborating as a team, and it is perfectly integrated with your team's GitHub repository.

Local Tools (Best-Effort Support)

While not required, you may want to install tools like VS Code or the Gemini CLI on your local machine for your own exploration. Please be aware that instructor support for local installations is provided on a best-effort basis, as our official course environments are cloud-based.

Platform & Lab Subscriptions

  • Google Cloud Skills Boost: You are required to sign up for Google Cloud Skills Boost to complete mandatory hands-on labs.
    • Cost: No cost subscription comes with free monthly credits sufficient to complete all required labs for the course. You will not need to buy any additional credits or a paid subscription to complete graded labs, if you plan your work on the platform.

AI Model Subscriptions

You do not need to purchase personal, paid subscriptions to AI models like ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro for this course. API access to powerful models like Google Gemini Pro are available for free experimentation and testing via Google Developers Program. We will use Google AI Studio and Cloud Skills Boost Platform as our preferred learning environments. We will also explore the free tiers of other publicly available models as part of our market analysis.

Optional Subscriptions & Trials

While not required for the course, you're encouraged to take advantage of special offers for students to gain experience with other cutting-edge AI tools.

  • AI Premium Subscription (Gemini Advanced): Google offers eligible university students a free 1 year trial of this subscription, which provides access to their most capable models. This is an excellent opportunity to experiment with a state-of-the-art AI at no cost. You can check offer availability and your eligibility at the Gemini for Students page.

    ⚠️ Important: This is a trial that may automatically convert to a paid subscription. If you choose to sign up, you are responsible for canceling it before the trial ends to avoid being charged. I strongly recommend setting a calendar reminder for yourself on the day you subscribe.