Master of Science in Applied & Agentic AI
Built around agentic AI, this WASC-accredited master's degree prepares you to move beyond prototypes and develop AI systems ready for production environments.
Master of Science in Applied & Agentic AI
Career-Ready for the AI Era — Golden Gate University
upGrad is in collaboration with Golden Gate University (GGU) to deliver this WASC-accredited master's degree. You want to build AI systems, not just use them — this degree teaches you how, from architecture to deployment to production at scale. It's the only accredited master's built entirely around Agentic AI, and it's designed for engineers working full-time.
- Accredited by WASC/WSCUC since 1959
- WES recognized globally
- Based in San Francisco, at the center of the global AI industry
- 120 years legacy, over 70,000 alumnis
- Ranked #1 for working professionals by Washington Monthly
Weekly learning pods + optional 5-day Technology Symposium in San Francisco
- 10 courses
- 1 Capstone: ship a production AI system
Founding Cohort rate
STEM background preferred, not required
Why This Degree. Why Now.
As AI transforms the way organizations work, the need for AI-savvy leaders has never been greater. Across industries, organizations are expanding their AI capabilities, creating sustained demand for professionals who can design and manage production AI systems.
$47.1B Agentic AI Market Size by 2030
Up from $5.1B in 2024 — enterprise adoption isn't slowing down, it's accelerating every quarter. (Markets & Markets, 2025)68% of Enterprises Deploying Agentic AI in 2025–26
Salesforce, Microsoft, and Google all launched production-grade agent platforms in 2025. (Gartner CIO Survey 2025)+92% Growth in AI Architect Job Postings
Year on year — job descriptions now specifically ask for LangGraph, AutoGen, or MCP/A2A experience. (LinkedIn Talent Insights, Q1 2026)127 Days to Fill an AI Architect Role
Compared to 45 days for a software engineer role — that's a skills gap, not a slow market. (Levels.fyi / Glassdoor, Q1 2026)4M Projected AI Specialist Shortage by 2027
The biggest gap is in professionals who can take an AI system from prototype to production. (McKinsey Global Institute, 2025)Less Than 3%
Of the AI workforce has production agentic AI experience.Curriculum — Built Around Agentic AI
Every course connects to the agentic stack — it's not a GenAI module bolted onto an existing ML degree. Each course builds on the last, from foundations through to production, evaluation, deployment, security, and scale. 32 units across 11 courses.
Your Cohort & Alumni Network
You Won't Be Studying Alone
The program is cohort-based. You'll study alongside a group of engineers and leaders at similar career stages, meet weekly in learning pods, and stay connected through the alumni network long after you graduate.
Founding Alumni Program
If you enroll in Cohort 1, you'll graduate as a Founding Alumnus or Founding Alumna of the program, with a named distinction, early access to the faculty network, and a priority speaking opportunity at the annual Symposium.
Annual Golden Gate Technology Symposium
Five days in San Francisco. You'll present your capstone in front of people who work in AI, not just academics. It's also when your cohort comes together in person for the first time.
- • Industry-specific capstone presentations
- • Fireside chats with AI practitioners and investors
- • Industry tours – AI labs, cloud providers, startups
- • City program – San Francisco
- • Network meetup
4 Professional Tracks
A 7.5-week, live-online applied practicum — 3 semester credits. Choose the track that matches your career goals and build a portfolio of working agentic AI systems in that domain.
The Journey From Prototype to Production
Design → Build → Evaluate → Operate → Scale. These are the five things AI Architects can do that ML Engineers typically can't — every course maps to one or more of them.
01 — Design: Make the Right Architectural Call
Decide whether a business problem needs prompting, RAG, fine-tuning, or a full agentic system, based on cost, speed, and reliability.02 — Build: Ship Production-Grade AI End to End
Build predictive ML, LLM/RAG, and multi-agent systems from scratch, including the data layer underneath.03 — Evaluate: Test Before You Deploy
Design evaluation frameworks for models, RAG systems, and agents, including LLM-as-judge approaches.04 — Operate: Keep It Running Reliably
MLOps, LLMOps, observability, incident response, cost management, and prompt injection prevention.05 — Scale: From One User to Millions
Architect systems that hold up as traffic, data, and usage grow, with capacity planning that keeps costs predictable.Projects & Portfolio
Every student graduates with a portfolio that demonstrates what they can build — including projects modelled on billion-dollar companies.
- Build a Mini LLM That Predicts the Next Word
- Build the Attention Mechanism
- Build the Reasoning Method Behind DeepSeek-R1 and OpenAI o3
- Build a Multi-Agent System That Completes a Task Independently
- Fine-Tune a Large Language Model with LoRA
- Build an LLM Router (modelled on Martian and OpenRouter)
- Build a Reinforcement Learning Game Agent (modelled on Google DeepMind's AlphaGo)
- Build an Answer Engine (modelled on Perplexity)
- Build a Coding Agent Team (modelled on Cursor)
- Build a Grounded Research Assistant (modelled on Google NotebookLM)
Program Features
Agent Olympics
Benchmark your agentic AI systems against your peers' across challenges like research, planning, accuracy, and multi-agent collaboration — results are public.Your Own Capstone Project
Define the problem, industry, and context for a production AI system, and present and defend your solution.AI Business Creation Track
A masterclass series and startup guide for students who want to ship an AI system to market.Annual Technology Symposium
Five days in San Francisco — present your capstone, attend fireside chats and industry tours, and meet your cohort in person.A Global Peer Network
Study alongside AI professionals from around the world in weekly learning pods, and stay connected through the alumni network after graduation.Founding Alumni Program
Enroll in Cohort 1 and graduate as a Founding Alumnus/Alumna, with a named distinction and priority speaking opportunity at the Symposium.Who Should Enroll
Built around your professional journey — this program is for working technology professionals who want to move into AI engineering, AI architecture, or senior AI leadership.
The Engineer Making the Move into AI
Software Engineer · Solutions Architect · DevOps Engineer
You have solid technical skills but no ML background. You'll get the accredited degree that clears the hiring screen, and the technical skills to back it up on day one.
The ML Engineer Ready to Level Up
Senior ML Engineers · Data Engineers · Data Scientists
Your classical ML skills are becoming table stakes. You'll gain hands-on exposure to MCP, A2A, LangGraph, LLMOps, and evaluation frameworks.
The Senior Leader Building Technical Authority
Technical Program Managers · IT Managers · Analytics Managers
You have 8–15 years of experience and need the technical depth to lead AI strategy and compete for VP and Director roles.
Program Faculty
Brent White
President, Golden Gate University
8th President of GGU, previously Chief Global Officer at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa and GGU's Provost. A noted scholar in law and development, featured in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
Dr. Edward Roekaert
Executive Vice President and Provost, GGU
Leads GGU's global, AI-focused academic strategy. Previously Rector and CEO of Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC); Commissioner with WSCUC.
Mohammad Akbari
PhD, Computer Science, National University of Singapore
AI architect and founder with 20+ years in software engineering and 15+ years in AI/ML. Adjunct Professor at GGU and Founder of Novacortex Labs.
Jose Canelon, PhD
PhD, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Houston
30+ years applying machine learning and data science to control systems and industrial process optimization. Emeritus Professor at Universidad del Zulia.
Dr. Ella Burju Keskin
PhD, Computer and Instructional Technologies Education, Istanbul Technical University
20+ years of international leadership across AWS, Office Depot Scandinavia, and Procter & Gamble, focused on Generative AI strategy and human-AI transformation.
Dr. Peter D. Finn
PhD, National University of Singapore
30 years of IT experience across systems engineering and generative AI. Co-Chair for Emerging Technologies and Digital Leadership at GGU; Creator of the InferNode platform.
Your Degree Is Recognized Globally
Golden Gate University has been regionally accredited by WASC since 1959, affecting how employers verify your degree and how your units transfer for visa and immigration purposes. WES recognition means your degree can be evaluated for employment, immigration, and professional licensing in Canada, the GCC, the Asia-Pacific region, and Africa.
Eligibility & Admissions
Applicants must have a bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited institution or its equivalent. Experience in STEM fields is preferred, but not required. The admission process is 4 steps: complete your application and Statement of Purpose, application review, receive your offer letter, then reserve your seat.
Admission Process
Step 2
Upon receiving all documents, the application will be processed and reviewed within one week.
Upon acceptance, an offer letter will be sent to you by the school or upGrad on behalf of the school via email.
Step 3
Acceptance of Offer
Confirm your offer by paying tuition balance by the date printed on the offer letter.
Attend an onboard call via the Internet.
Disclaimer
- Information is accurate at the time of publication and is subject to change.
- The course is a purely distance learning course and is therefore not subject to the registration requirement. It is a matter of discretion for individual employers to recognize any qualification to which this course may lead.
- Hopkins is an exclusive channel partner of upGrad in Hong Kong and Macau.
