A Purdue Engineering student works alongside a humanoid robot during an AI learning session. Purdue Engineering's free two-week AI bootcamp, "Job Interview in the AI-Era: Coding, Systems, Agents," runs May 18–29 and is open to all current Purdue students at no cost. (Purdue University photo)

As artificial intelligence reshapes industries from manufacturing floors to hospital operating rooms, Purdue Engineering is making sure its students and the broader public are prepared. This May, the Purdue University College of Engineering will offer a free, two-week intensive program designed to give participants the technical fluency and interview-ready skills the AI era demands.

“Job Interview in the AI-Era: Coding, Systems, Agents” runs May 18-29, meeting Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to noon. The program is free and open in-person to all current Purdue students across schools and units, and available virtually to anyone 18 or older for a $99 registration fee. Purdue students and recent graduates are eligible to attend at no cost using a valid purdue.edu email address.

The curriculum moves quickly and practically. Over two weeks, participants will work through Python and object-oriented programming, data structures and scalability, memory and complexity, AI agents from design to deployment, and machine learning system design. The program also devotes dedicated sessions to job interview skills: breaking problems down, communicating effectively with interviewers and completing timed programming exercises under real-world conditions.

The bootcamp arrives at a pivotal moment for the university. In December 2025, Purdue's Board of Trustees approved a first-of-its-kind "AI working competency" graduation requirement for all undergraduate students on main campus (West Lafayette and Indianapolis), set to take effect for new students beginning fall 2026. The requirement is part of Purdue Computes, the university's sweeping strategic initiative to embed AI literacy, research and innovation across campus, from the classroom to the research lab to industry partnerships. The bootcamp is one concrete on-ramp into that larger effort.

“We are rolling out this ‘missing course’ for our students because we need to fill the gap from the classroom to the workplace,” said Stanley Chan, Elmore Professor in the Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and director of Purdue Engineering AI education. “Purdue has been always very rigorous about delivering the best fundamentals to our students. We will continue to do this. But when it comes to the workplace, industry has been calling on us to help our students be more job ready. This program is one steppingstone to fill the gap.”

Even before the formal requirement takes shape, Purdue Engineering students are grappling thoughtfully with how AI fits into their education and careers. On March 27, the College of Engineering hosted a GenAI Student Roundtable, a virtual conversation in which five students spanning industrial engineering, biomedical engineering, mechanical engineering, engineering management and electrical engineering shared candid perspectives on how they use AI, how they stay current in a field that never stops moving, and what they believe the future of engineering education should look like.

How to register

Registration for “Job Interview in the AI-Era” is open now. The general public can register at eventreg.purdue.edu/online/AIJobInterview for $99. Purdue students and recent graduates should contact Wei Chen at chen2732@purdue.edu for a free discount code. The full course website is available at purdue-ai-bootcamp.github.io.

To learn more about Purdue's broader AI strategy and the Purdue Computes initiative, visit purdue.edu/ai.