The great demand for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) has reshaped the job landscape of our country and the world, shared Prof. Venkappayya R. Desai, Director, IIT Dharwad in an exclusive interview with Sheeba Chauhan of Elets News Network. Edited excerpts:
In 2023, with the inauguration of its new campus, IIT Dharwad is poised to become India’s first smart and green IIT campus. Could you please provide more details on the steps and measures taken by IIT Dharwad to achieve this distinction?
We are going to retain 70 acres of natural forest adjoining our bow-shaped permanent campus. In addition to the already existing eco-friendly features in Phase 1A of the permanent campus. We are proposing to have features such as percolation pits etc., for ensuring max infiltration of rainwater along our storm water drains, urine harvesting, and composting toilets – for creating wealth out of waste, buildings, and facilities which are fully self-sustaining in their energy requirement (through solar and other renewable energy sources), passive air conditioning through utilisation of geo-thermal energy and so on. We also propose facilities for cooking in a sitting position n our kitchens to minimise stress on knees and maximise bending at knee joints. This is how IIT Dharwad proposes to achieve this distinction of a smart and green campus.
IIT Dharwad is a comparatively new institution in comparison to other IITs. With a fresh vision and ideologies, have you planned to introduce any new courses or programmes?
In all academic areas, IIT Dharwad proposes to study the feasibility of linking the traditional Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) with modern Science & Technology, on the lines of Israeli/Japanese institutes of higher learning. Additionally, we would like to present an academic campus that is almost self-sustaining in terms of its energy management and water/ wastewater management by blending appropriate technologies such as water adopted in Singapore for the treatment and reuse of domestic wastewater. IIT Dharwad is the only technical Institute located in the middle of two industrial estates. We would like to utilise this fact for the creation of academic courses of industrial relevance through our Global Centres of Excellence in Affordable and Clean Energy as well as IKS.
How is your institution leveraging AI to prepare higher education students for the rapidly evolving job landscape and the changes it brings?
The great demand for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) has reshaped the job landscape of our country and the world. IIT Dharwad (IITdh) aims to adapt to this change in demand and has taken several initiatives in this direction. At present, IITdh is offering undergraduate courses like AI and a corresponding Lab course, Pattern Recognition & Machine Learning, and Statistical Pattern Recognition & Reinforced Learning.
We have an AI club maintained by the student community, where senior students organise AI hackathons on the latest AI technology to help newly joined students. IITdh placements trend shows that approximately around 50% of them got placed into data analysis-related companies, which indeed use AI-based algorithms. In addition, around 25- 30% of internships are as part of cooperative (Co-op) projects between IITdh and the industry.
Moreover, IITdh faculty have obtained around ₹ 4 crores worth of sponsored projects on different AI-based research areas such as speech recognition, 5G & beyond networks, blockchain is driven 5G & beyond networks, Industry 4.0, Autonomous navigation, etc. One of our faculty also contributed to the 5G Infrastructure Public Private Partnership (5G PPP) white paper on “AI and ML – Enablers for Beyond 5G Networks”.
All the above-specified things show IITdh’s preparation towards capturing the AI-based job market and evolving our curriculum for growing AI technology.
Do you believe that the recently introduced guidelines by the UGC, allowing completion of degrees or diplomas based on earned credits rather than the duration of the course, are a positive step towards accomplishing more in a shorter timeframe?
We believe that the recent step by UGC – Allowing completion of degrees/diplomas based on earned credits rather than the course duration, is a positive step. However, all such students need to be encouraged to undergo internships at industries so as to make their degrees/diplomas more meaningful. Such students may be awarded degrees/diplomas with Honors.
As we know AI and generative AI is taking all over the place. How is your institution leveraging AI to prepare higher education students for the rapidly evolving job landscape and the changes it brings?
IITdh understands the great demand for AI (generative AI) and has taken several initiatives in this direction. The first one is a minor program in Data Science and AI (DSAI) where the students take an extra 30 credits (6 courses) of courses related to AI/ML to earn a minor degree in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (DSAI). This opens the gate for students in any branch of engineering to pursue a career in data science, AI, and ML. Further, IITdh also has an online executive M. Tech program in DSAI that aims to upskill working professionals in the area of AI without perturbing their current working status. We have also started a new M. Tech in electrical engineering with a specialisation in Communications, signal processing, and ML. This aims to enable students with core expertise in communication and signal processing to apply new AI/ML techniques to strengthen these classical areas. Lastly, we also have taken approval to start a regular M. Tech. program with a specialization in DSAI that focuses mainly on imparting core ideas of AI/ML to students.
