FICO Educational Analytics Challenge Program Continues its Third Year, Empowering Students with Hands-On Experience Building Responsible AI Models

FICO has announced that its FICO Educational Analytics Challenge is continuing into Spring 2026, marking the program’s third year and expanding hands-on training in responsible AI for students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

Program overview

• The Challenge is a semester-long program where students with data science, computer science, engineering, and technology backgrounds work on real business problems using data science and AI.

• For the 2025–26 academic year, the focus is on AI language models and chatbots used by financial institutions, with an emphasis on responsible and ethical AI development.

Participating universities and expansion

• Since launch, the program has partnered with eight HBCUs: Bowie State University, Delaware State University, Morehouse College, Alabama A&M University, Drake State Community & Technical College, North Carolina Central University, Fayetteville State University, and Dillard University.

• Dillard University is the newest participant for Spring 2026, joining returning institutions Drake State, North Carolina Central University, and Fayetteville State University.

Learning experience and responsible AI focus

• Students learn how industry data scientists work with data, design and train models, and measure business value, through weekly lectures and direct mentorship from FICO’s Chief Analytics Officer, Dr. Scott Zoldi, and his analytics team.

• The curriculum covers AI fundamentals (neural networks, transformers, language models) and FICO’s specialized language model approach, while stressing responsible, ethical, and auditable AI practices.

Benefits for students and institutions

• The program has influenced many participating students to pursue graduate studies, according to faculty feedback from Fayetteville State University.

• In addition to instruction, FICO provides financial support to strengthen analytics education at each university and offers career resources such as analytics internships and guidance on resumes and interviews.