Pennsylvania Master's in AI Programs

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Backed by the might of Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania is one of the best states in the USA for a master’s degree in artificial intelligence or—especially—robotics. Use our PA directory of Master’s in Artificial Intelligence programs to explore 35+ on-campus and online offerings, including dedicated degrees in robotics. Whether you’re aiming high with an AI master’s from CMU or Penn or searching for more affordable alternatives, there’s plenty of choice. To help you begin planning your career, this guide also includes an overview of AI developments in Philadelphia & Pittsburgh and a handy Pennsylvania AI resources section.

Artificial Intelligence Schools in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania offers more AI master’s programs than almost any other state in the country (Texas excepted). In our directory, you’ll find scores of Master’s in AI & Robotics degrees from prestigious research universities, including its two big guns—Carnegie Mellon and Penn. Not sure where to apply? Here’s a short summary of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh-based universities with some of the strongest stakes in AI and robotics.

CMU: Carnegie Mellon University is the #1 leader in AI in Pennsylvania—see AI at CMU for an overview of its efforts. It’s a consistent leader in AI research publications and a hugely respected name among tech employers. Within this AI juggernaut, you’ll find the CMU-NIST Cooperative Research Center AI Measurement Science & Engineering (AIMSEC), the $20 million NSF AI Institute for Societal Decision Making (NSF AI-SDM), and the School of Computer Science, home to the first machine learning (ML) academic department in the world. CMU also has a well-known interest in Pittsburgh robotics. It funds the famous Robotics Institute, the Manufacturing Futures Initiative (MFI), and the National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC). It had a hand in creating the federally-backed Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Institute, a DoD Manufacturing Innovation Institute. And it’s working closely with the Pittsburgh Robotics Network (PRN), an industry-university coalition.
Penn: CMU’s closest academic competitor in PA is the University of Pennsylvania. In 2025, the university launched a new coordinated initiative called Penn AI and expanded its computing efforts at the Penn Advanced Research Computing Center (PARCC). Penn has its fingers in all kinds of AI pies. Business folks and startup founders will want to explore the Wharton AI & Analytics Initiative (WAIAI) and Pennovation Works, a 23-acre urban innovation hub. Computer science professionals should check out Penn Engineering’s CIS research, as well as its ASSET Center for Trustworthy AI. The university even has its own General Robotics, Automation, Sensing & Perception Lab (GRASP), which offers a dedicated master’s degree in robotics and carries out projects revolving around computer vision & perception, biological systems, robot & mechanism design, and a whole lot more.
Penn State: Anyone looking for a public alternative to these two private powerhouses should investigate Pennsylvania State University. The university’s Institute for Computational and Data Sciences (ICDS) has developed its own Penn State AI Hub, which supports a number of dedicated AI Research Centers in technical arenas. These include the Center for Artificial Intelligence Foundations and Scientific Applications (CENSAI) and the Center for Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to Industry (AIMI). ICDS also operates Roar Collab, a high performance research computing cluster, and has funneled more than $2M towards seed grants.
Pitt & Drexel: Thinking about specializing in AI healthcare & biotech? Put the University of Pittsburgh and Drexel University on your shortlist. In 2024, Pitt recently launched the Computational Pathology and AI Center of Excellence (CPACE), a joint Pitt/UPMC center devoted to AI in pathology and laboratory medicine. In 2025, CPACE announced a 5-year partnership with Leidos to accelerate AI tools in healthcare. Over at Drexel, you’ll find an active College of Computing & Informatics and plenty of AI Research Centers & Labs, including a dedicated Interactive Systems for Healthcare (IS4H) Research Lab. Take a look at the joint CCI/CHOP initiative that analyzed 53 million patient notes for just one example of AI projects that are happening within the College.

And these are just the highlights! Our PA directory has plenty of master’s in AI programs from smaller schools if you think it may be too challenging to be accepted by the top universities. And although tuition at private schools can be expensive, Eastern University’s Online Master of Science in Applied AI is one of the most affordable AI graduate degrees in the USA. In 2025, it was priced at under $10,000.

Online Master’s in Artificial Intelligence Programs in Pennsylvania

There are 20+ online master’s degrees and graduate certificates in our Pennsylvania directory, including offerings from big-name schools. Although Carnegie Mellon University is still generally reluctant to deliver its master’s in AI programs in a distance learning format, Penn and Drexel are happy to oblige.

Technical: Penn’s Online Master of Science in Engineering in Artificial Intelligence (MSE-AI) consistently ranks in our top 5 rankings of the Best Online Master’s in Artificial Intelligence Programs. It’s a comp sci/computer engineering qualification with a superb ROI—graduates earn in excess of $160k per year after 2-3 years in the job market. Compare it with Penn State World Campus’s Online Master of Professional Studies in Artificial Intelligence and Drexel’s Online Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for more perspective.
Business: Consider prioritizing Villanova University’s Online MBA – Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) Track or Online Master of Science in Business Analytics and AI from the AACSB-accredited Villanova School of Business. Messiah College also offers an Online MBA in Artificial Intelligence, but the Department of Business only holds ACBSP accreditation.
Education: Both Penn and Elizabethtown College are making a play for education leaders. Penn has an unusual Online Master of Science in Education in Learning Analytics and Artificial Intelligence. Elizabethtown has a unique Online Master of Education in Educational Leadership – AI and Educational Technology Leadership.

Prefer to test the waters before you commit to a master’s degree? CMU does have an Online Graduate Certificate in Managing AI Systems (MAIS), but this is not a technical qualification—it’s offered by the Heinz College of Information Systems & Public Policy. Fortunately, many other Pennsylvania universities in our directory have developed online graduate certificates in AI, ML, and NLP.

The Artificial Intelligence Landscape in Pennsylvania

Although we’re seeing more government & university coordination in New York, Pennsylvania is a well-known hub for artificial intelligence. Its secret sauce? All of those AI graduates from CMU, Penn, Pitt, Penn State, Drexel, and R1 universities. If you’re thinking of putting down professional roots in the Keystone State, here’s what happening in the world of Pennsylvania AI:

Statewide: For some time, Pennsylvania has been building on its preexisting strengths in manufacturing to bolster AI, robotics & automation technologies. In June 2024, the state passed the Max Manufacturing Initiative Act, a public-private partnership which is designed to promote collaboration between universities and engineering firms to drive innovation in high-tech manufacturing. It also offers tax credits for semiconductor & biomedical firms through PA EDGE. And in 2025, Amazon announced that it planned to invest $20 billion in Pennsylvania to expand its cloud computing infrastructure & advance AI innovation.
Philadelphia: The Cradle of Liberty is anchored by Penn and Drexel, which gives it unique strengths in AI health & biotech. It’s also a well-established center of finance. In 2025, Philadelphia’s metro area ranked #11 in the U.S. for AI job openings. Key artificial intelligence employers in Philadelphia include: Comcast, Penn Medicine, CHOP (hospital), SIG (quantitative trading), The Vanguard Group (investment advisers), GlaxoSmithKline (pharmaceuticals), and Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine. It’s even making a name for itself in startups. In Startup Genome’s Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2025, Philadelphia was ranked #13 globally—trumping cities like Seattle, Chicago, and DC. In 2024, startups in the Philadelphia region raised $3.3 billion through 444 investment deals and AI-focused startups raised $576 million in equity funding. (For robotics success stories, see Sojo and Ghost Robotics.) Better yet, a number of Philadelphia healthtech startups are being funded through the University City Science Center’s Capital Readiness Program.
Pittsburgh: Because of CMU, there’s a dense robotics and AI hub in Pittsburgh and a dedicated AI Avenue in Bakery Square (e.g. Google, UPCM Enterprises, Duolingo, etc.). Sometimes know as Roboburgh, the Steel City plays host to the Pittsburgh Robotics Network (PRN) and 150+ robotics companies—see the PRN’s Robotics, Autonomy, & AI Ecosystem profile for a list of names. Having said that, AI & robotics graduates say it’s often hard to find Pittsburgh jobs in their chosen fields. So keep an eye on developments—in a 2025 Brookings Metro report on Mapping the AI Economy, Pittsburgh was identified as an Emerging Center of AI. The city now has an AI Strike Team and investment from NVIDIA. In 2024, CMU, Pitt, and NVIDIA announced they would create an NVIDIA AI Tech Community to advance the city’s robotics, autonomy & AI innovation system. NVIDIA is also teaming up with technology accelerators such as Innovation Works and PRN to support commercialization efforts. Hopefully, this will lead to more startup activity. In Startup Genome’s Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2025, Pittsburgh was ranked #2 in Top 10 Emerging Ecosystems by Early-Stage Funding Value ($2B).

Pennsylvania Artificial Intelligence Resources

Artificial intelligence & robotics students in Pennsylvania have access to all kinds of career opportunities through the state’s research universities and labs—take every advantage of their networking events! In this Pennsylvania AI resources section, we’ve also highlighted useful organizations like the Pittsburgh Robotics Network (PRN). PRN hosts the Discovery Day and frequently posts robotics openings on its job board.