CAI program opens applications
Throughout February, the Center for Anticipatory Intelligence, or CAI, at Utah State University is accepting priority applications to be part of the program. Located in Old Main, students accepted into the CAI program will collaborate with students of a different caliber to form well-rounded problem-solving skills.
Founded by Jeannie Johnson, former member of the CIA Matt Berrett, and Briana Bowen with the support of Dean Joe Ward of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, CAI has been slowly growing over the last six years.
As the only program of its kind in the nation, CAI is leading the change in how universities teach about security. Anticipatory intelligence aims to predict threats and opportunities, reduce uncertainty and prepare for the future. This is most often on a national or global level. Students often look at humanitarian issues such as pandemics, global warming and national cyber security.
“I don’t know if it will make you smile or wince to know that three months before the pandemic hit, one of our students completed a paper on a zoonotic novel virus creating a worldwide pandemic,” Johnson said in her TEDxUSU speech. “His classmate completed a paper looking at our medical supply system and the choke points that would prove problematic in a regional or global crisis—these students were celebrated as prophets in their own time.”
The CAI program is open to all juniors, seniors, grad students, master’s, or Ph.D. students. Students can minor, receive a grad certificate, or master’s, also called MAI, in anticipatory intelligence. Each year, they only take about 55 incoming students. This provides not only a wide range of majors within the program, but also a wide age range allowing for a multi-generational collaboration.
“Having a community of people of every age, who are not going to give up, and who want to be problem solvers, they want to chip away at these problems or come up with creative solutions or move forward instead of apathy. That is at the heart of what we are doing, and what we have found,” Johnson said. “There are lots of things that are important to me, but one of the things that is most impressive and a favorite part is the community that has emerged out of it because these students love each other.”
CAI seeks to put students who come from all eight USU colleges into one classroom to provide a diverse range of problem-solving skills.
“We’ll have the biology students sitting next to the folklore student sitting next to the aerospace engineer. Then we give them this problem and they bring their really interesting, diverse perspectives to the problem,” Johnson said.
Current CAI student and political science major Scott Wilbur noted the CAI program is completely applicable to the 21st century, or as Johnson called it next-gen intelligence.
“Because it’s next-gen intelligence, then there aren’t a lot of methods, like a set way of doing things whether those are analytical tools or approaches. Those hadn’t been developed yet by the intelligence community. So USU is a lab school for anticipatory intelligence; we are the ones coming up with these new methods and testing them out and making sure they’re roadworthy.” Johnson said.
As a student of the program, Wilbur shared why he enjoys the program and what opportunities he has as a CAI student, specifically in the classroom.
“I think that it’s a place where anyone can bring something to the table. I appreciate that everybody has their own moment to shine. And to me, it seems like there’s always something one can contribute,” Wilbur said. “Everybody goes into classes that they want more experience in. So for me, I’m in Russian and Ukrainian perspective class, as well as a strategic culture class.“
As students leave the program and enter the job field, they can put skillsets from the program on their resume. Students will walk away from the program with not only multi-dimensional problem-solving skills but also an understanding of speaking, writing and different methods of analysis.
“Students emerge from this program with just a lot of confidence, because they have confronted so many different circumstances and had themselves tested in a lot of different circumstances, and because our grading standards are rigorous; by the time they emerge, they know they’re going to be good at this job,” Johnson said.
For students looking to apply, they will need to submit a resume and cover letter. They can do so at usu.edu/cai. They can also contact program coordinator Tyler Doering for further information.