India is marching to be a global leader and a $30 Trillion economy by Amrit kaal. Niti Aayog expects that Artificial intelligence (AI) will help accelerate Indian growth by at least $ 2 trillion, as Indian GDP touches $8 trillion by 2035. Globally AI is expected to contribute over $15.7 trillion towards the world’s economy by 2030. The other major global initiative namely SDG goals. For this the Circular Economy enabling, linked to Net Zero provisioning alone is expected to contribute over $ 4.5 Trillion by 2030. Considering the accelerated growth in the age of AI linked Knowledge Economy (KE) it is imperative that Higher Education seamlessly embeds AI, Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), Circular Economy and Net Zero provisioning across all domains for holistic growth. It is in this context that Dayananda Sagar University (DSU) has embarked on this unique mission of leveraging AI First and Net Zero Campus, to truly create an exceptional immersive experiential learning path for the learners. Thus, enable them to not just meet their life aspirations but also contribute to India’s holistically growth and Atma Nirbartha by Amrit Kaal.
DSU Emerging as a Unique Multidisciplinary University for the 21st Century
Dayananda Sagar University (DSU)-Bengaluru a multidisciplinary university established in 2014, is a young, UGC and AICTE recognized, NAAC A+ accredited university. DSU offers UG/PG/PhD programs across multiple streams including Engineering, Medical, Management & Commerce, Law, Health Sciences (Pharmacy, Physiotherapy, Nursing, Allied Health Sciences), Computer Applications, Journalism & Mass Communication, Design and Online Education. DSU serves over 12,500 students and DSI institutions support over 30000 students. DSU is already recognised for its blend of rigorous academics, interdisciplinary research, pioneering innovation including enabling over 250+ incubated companies through its AIC and DERBI foundation-based Incubation centres, working with a wide spectrum of industries.
Futuristic Initiatives- AI First Adaption Across the Academic and Research Process
In the era of knowledge economy, AI is expected to be a major enabler for enhanced efficiency, accelerated innovation and Return on Investment (RoI) for companies to novel entrepreneurial pursuits for application across domains. Hence DSU has partnered with Nvidia to create one of Indian academic and the whole global South’s largest enterprise class AI infrastructure or “AI Factory.” This involves establishing 20 DGX Blackwell 200 systems (160 GPUs, 1.4 Petaflop), with provision for high performance computing across domains using the CUDA platform and Omniverse for Digital twining with an investment of over RS 175 crores. The university will have over 100 skilled faculty to enable these activities and will annually ensure over 20,000 AI-skilled graduates across domains available for nation building. Further the facility linked to immersive experiential learning also is expected to lead to even incubating over 50 AI enabled Moonshot Projects across domains. This includes healthcare, manufacturing, smart mobility, sustainability and climate change. Even more important is that all the work can be carried out in a cyber secure, sovereign environment. Further the facility can be easily scaled for creating safe national repositories and a hub and spoke based diverse domain R&D and skilling facilities.
Futuristic Initiatives- DSU a Net Zero Campus
DSU is pioneering sustainability adaptation especially as a by integrated part of the academic process and even more importantly as a guardrail for the AI First mission DSU has partnered with Siemens to establish a complete roadmap for the establishment of Net Zero campus. With the establishment of the roadmap and the command and control centre DSU will also act as the living lab or crucible for a wide range of NET zero related technology development and incubation. This would include not just setting up over 7 MW of solar power, smart energy grids, sustainable water and waste management, learning about reduced carbon footprint, establishing a complete integrated command and control system to manage the same. This initiative of DSU as Net Zero Campus by 2035 will also be a first of its kind initiative in the country, especially considering that many developing countries have already abdicated their Net Zero goals and others are working to attain the same only by 2070 including India.
Multidisciplinary Immersive experiential learning Pedagogy: DSU is adopting a unique systems approach to education linking teaching, learning, skilling, research, innovation and entrepreneurial purists, through its unique multidisciplinary immersive experiential learning approach. Every semester students would carry out multidisciplinary assignments and projects linking all the subjects. This activity would also have provision for getting professional industry linked certification every year and carrying our contextual project based activities. Thus showcase the ability to apply the knowledge and skills gained through demonstration of critical thinking, creative thinking and problem solving abilities, besides the industry linked certification gained. Thus the students will not only have academic credits, industry certifications and also a portfolio of outcomes to showcase their holistic ability for the future opportunities.
DSU a live and thriving campus: Not everything is about studies. In order to truly enable the holistic growth of the students the university supports a wide range of curricular and co-curricular activities in its thriving campus. The campus itself is a remarkable blend of modern design and natural beauty, with the Architecture showcasing the splendour of contemporary buildings with glass façades, open courtyards, and collaborative spaces. This is interspersed with sports facilities including Cricket grounds, football fields, basketball courts, and indoor arenas to even a beautiful scenic lake, that adds tranquillity and enhances the campus environment. Throughout the year other activities too fill up the calendar including technical fests, hackathons, entrepreneurship summits, cultural festivals, music, dance, theatre, coding clubs and a wide range of sports events.
The outcomes of this holistic teaching learning and development of leadership skills reflects in type of placements and awards. For example in the last three years DSU teams have consistently won top prizes at AICTE run national hackathons. This October DSU won a prize for launching a rocket at a pre-defined height, launching a satellite at the next level, collecting data from the satellite for a defined period of interval and then recovering the launch vehicle and the satellite. All the systems were designed, fabricated and also tested at DSU. In the case of placement the recruiters Include Amazon, Deloitte, PwC, EY, Infosys, TCS, Bosch, Accenture, KPMG, Mercedes-Benz, Tata Elxsi and many more, with highest packages ranging about ₹27 LPA and average ₹6 LPA.
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Thus, Dayananda Sagar University is truly emerging as a holistic hub for the future of learning and innovation, with seamlessly connecting the learners, the industry and the society at large. Especially with convergence of all disciplines and innovation, as also the provision to test and verify any product process or solution across TRL1 to TRL9, along with providing for building AI based intelligence and Net Zero provisioning. Thus providing a democratic platform for teaching, learning, research and innovation to entrepreneurial pursuits, where the startups to MSME and MNCs can work together and capacity building of Human resources for the future.
Views expressed by Prof B. S. Satyanarayana, Vice Chancellor, Dayananda Sagar University
