Oracle tells students: You're not going to solve the world's problems – but AI and ML might

Not content with foisting buzzwords on customers, Oracle is now pushing artificial intelligence and machine learning at students.

The data science technologies are two of the latest additions to the curriculum of its Oracle Academy, which is ostensibly to boost training in academic institutions.

The scheme is a free educational programme that provides software, hosted tech and teacher support for secondary schools, tech colleges and universities.

The kit is, of course, Big Red's, and so many courses are centred on its chosen wares – for instance, Java Foundation and programming classes.

The firm also offers Oracle industry certification, making the academy a way to get potential techies used to traditional relational databases while they're young.

According to academy veep Alison Derbenwick Miller, the past financial year has been one of "unprecedented" reach, working with more than 15,000 institutions in 128 countries, and some 6.3 million students.

The firm has just launched a new curriculum for 2018, which includes an AI and ML in Java course for undergraduate computing students.

The 40-hour course is aimed at people who already understand the fundamentals of object-orientated concepts, data structures, terminology and syntax in Java.

They will be asked to design, implement and demonstrate a solution that could help tackle a real-world challenge (El Reg wonders when a similar plan for blockchain will surface – tech firms sure could use some help with that).

There is also a new video lecture series that aims to encourage entrepreneurship through (brace yourselves) examples of people "following their dreams, living fearlessly, and finding success".

Of course, if this seems like vendor lock-in, remember that Oracle took its educational monopoly one step further last year by opening a high school on its campus. ®