BRIGHT sparks at the University of Wales, Newport, won't just be using their brains - they'll be creating new ones.

This autumn the first batch of students will start on a new course in artificial intelligence.

By exploring how computers can think for themselves, the degree touches on the realms of sci-fi and futuristic cinema thrillers like I, Robot and Minority Report.

Dr Anthony Corner, head of computing, said popular culture and the rise of computer games had created strong interest in the course.

He said: "So far 12 have enrolled and we are still taking students. I expect there to be more next year when it's more established.

"The department has done a lot of research in artificial intelligence and robotics. We had a Robot Wars-like demonstration at the Eisteddfod. "It's about getting computers to make decisions for themselves. We are making them more intelligent than the days of the daleks.

"This is the way industry is going. Robots are used everywhere from bomb disposal to warfare to domestic tasks to helping the disabled."

Students on the BSc course in artificial intelligence and games development will be based at Allt-Yr-Yn campus in Newport. Lectures cover robot creation, graphics and computer entertainment.

But Dr Corner said that, no matter how good his students were, a world controlled by robots, as predicted in blockbuster I, Robot, is not a possibility.

"Films like that are realistic to a point." he said. "Half the things in them won't happen. But films ten years ago predicted computer use that is reality now.

"We need to keep control. Computer intelligence is there to help us not overwhelm us. We don't want to dispose of human interaction. "But the more advanced man gets the more advance artificial intelligence gets."