About the program

Why this program exists.

AI is arriving in ordinary jobs faster than the training for it. Most people who need to use it well are not going to become programmers, and shouldn't have to. This program teaches applied AI for the workplace: how to evaluate it, direct it, build with it, and stay accountable for what it does.

The question isn't whether AI can do it. It's whether it should, who it affects, and who's accountable when it's wrong.
  • Bias and fairnessEvery course asks whose data trained the system, who it works less well for, and how to find out before it matters.
  • Privacy and consentWhat goes into an AI tool, who can see it, and whether the people it describes agreed. Students learn to ask before they build.
  • Human oversightAutomation with a person still in the loop. Graduates design workflows where someone is accountable for the outcome, by design.

No code required

Every course uses no-code and low-code platforms. That is a deliberate choice, not a shortcut. It puts the work where the value is for most jobs: in deciding what a system should do, testing whether it does it, and judging whether it should exist at all. None of the six courses has a prerequisite.

The program is workforce-focused and equity-minded. It is built for working adults, career changers, and students who want an applied credential they can stack over time. See the pathway.

The program

Degree
A.S. in AI for Digital Transformation
Approved
California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office, March 26, 2026
Author and director
Dr. Vincent Calip
Department
Computer & Office Studies
Department Head
Miriam Lynch
School Dean
Koby Moridzadeh
Plan code
2150
Control #
46279
CIP / TOP
11.0102 / 070210
The people behind it

Who built this program

  • Vincent Calip, seated on a stool, smiling, in a tan suit and cap

    Dr. Vincent Calip

    Professor of AI and Computer Studies, Long Beach City College

    Program author and director: wrote all six courses, the certificate pathway and the degree

    Vincent Calip came to AI from the classroom. For years the job was simple to describe and hard to do well: take something complicated and make it land for the person in front of you. When generative AI arrived, the conversation rushed to the tools; the question that stuck for him was whether the people who teach were ready to meet it. The line that has guided his work since is the one between AI literacy, knowing what it is, and AI fluency, knowing how to work alongside it without losing your judgment.

    Rather than wait for a pathway to exist, he built one: this six-course degree, ethics first and no-code and low-code by design, so the door stays open to people who were never told this field was for them. He wrote every course, the stackable certificates and the degree itself.

    Beyond the college he is Principal Investigator of the LARC LA-25 AI Literacy & Innovation Project, directing a $1.56 million regional grant that brings AI literacy, curriculum and faculty development to 19 community colleges across Los Angeles County; an MIT Applied GenAI Fellow; the founder of TandemAI, a newsletter, podcast and series on human-centered AI in education; and the author of the ESAI framework for equity-situated AI integration, which grew out of his doctoral research at CSU Long Beach on how career and technical education faculty bring AI into their teaching. He speaks regularly on AI in higher education, including at the Online Teaching Conference, the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges, CCCAOE and the LAEDC SelectLA Investment Summit.

    • Principal Investigator, LARC LA-25 AI Literacy & Innovation Project ($1.56M, 19 colleges)
    • MIT Applied GenAI Fellow
    • Founder, TandemAI
    • Author, ESAI framework
    • Speaker: OTC, ASCCC, CCCAOE, LAEDC

    LinkedInPortfolioProgram page at lbcc.eduvcalip@lbcc.edu

Contact

Questions about the program, enrollment, or partnerships go to the program director.

Request info

Or email vcalip@lbcc.edu.

About this site

This program site is maintained by program faculty. Official catalog information lives at lbcc.edu. Where this site and the catalog differ, the catalog is authoritative.

The site is also a small demonstration of its subject. The Experience button on the map turns on hands-free control: an in-browser AI model reads your hand, so you can point, hold to select, sweep an open hand to move on, hold a fist in place to go back, and pull an open palm back into a fist to reset the map. A Multi-Modal AI program whose site reads your hand is the program demonstrating what it teaches. Video never leaves your device and is never recorded or sent anywhere. It's optional: the mouse, keyboard and touch always work.