Build the infrastructure behind production-grade AI systems.

The AI Infrastructure and Architecture certificate is a 10-course, 540-contact-hour noncredit sequence (a 30-unit credit equivalent) that takes learners from foundational computing concepts through production-grade AI systems. Students build the compute, container, cloud, and data skills that underlie modern AI workloads, then apply them to production inference serving, model adaptation, agentic systems, retrieval-augmented generation, and AI security and governance. Each 16-week, 54-hour course pairs lecture with hands-on labs using free and open-source tools and cloud free tiers, so no paid software or hardware is required to complete the program. Every course ends in a midterm assessment in week 8 and a capstone project in week 16, culminating in a final, portfolio-ready capstone course that integrates serving, evaluation, and governance into one production-grade artifact.

The certificate is organized as three stackable semesters — Foundations, Core Infrastructure, and Applied Production Systems — so a learner can exit after any semester with a coherent, résumé-ready set of skills, or continue straight through to the full credential. As a noncredit Chancellor's-Office-recognized CDCP (Credit for Prior Learning-eligible, enhanced-funding) certificate, the program is designed to articulate toward credit coursework, giving graduates a stackable, non-credit-to-credit on-ramp into an associate degree or transfer pathway without repeating material they've already mastered.

California labor-market data show the occupations this certificate targets among the fastest-growing in the state: Data Scientists (+37.1%) and Computer & Information Research Scientists (+26.1%) are projected to grow far faster than the statewide all-occupations baseline of 8.8%, and Software Developers — the largest target occupation at 290,800 workers — is projected to add over 200,000 openings through 2034. AI is simultaneously displacing routine technical roles (Network & Computer Systems Administrators is the one target occupation in decline) and creating new demand for workers who can build, deploy, and govern AI systems — precisely the retraining path this certificate provides.