IIT-KGP to launch opportunity for students to get in line of Artificial Intelligence

January 10, Kolkata: The Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur announced to launch a six-month Artificial Intelligence (AI) course at three centres in the country on Thursday. In the era where AI is at the peak, this can be a key course for Indian students.

IIT Kharagpur Director, Partha Pratim Chakrabarti was speaking in a press meet where he revealed that the certified programme is aimed at strengthening India's talent pool in Machine Learning and AI. The courses will begin from March this year and will be offered at IIT KGP's Kolkata facility, at IIT KGP's Kharagpur campus and at a rented premise at Bengaluru, according to Chakrabarti’s statement.

“Thousands of new jobs were being created in AI sector every year with AI growing at 10-15% on annual rate and there was need to have more skilled people in the AI sector. AI is the future which will more invade our lives in the coming days”, he added.

The demand is getting higher in AI in the country than the total number of AI-skilled professionals and there is a need to bridge that gap. Around 2 lakh jobs in Artificial Intelligence are expected to be created by 2020 in India.

Prof Sudeshna Sarkar , Head of Centre for Artificial Intelligence, IIT KGP explained the structure of the course. “The course with 300 students will consist of 16 modules, each having 12-hour duration and the classes will be taken by IIT KGP faculty, reputed academic institutions and industry experts”, she elaborated.

"The courses will have a blend on fundamental theoretical principles as well as hands-on component and industry use cases and students will have the opportunity to work on live projects”, she further added.

The applications for the AI course were commenced on January 2 for screening and shortlisting. The students will be selected competitively from working professionals and senior students. The will start from March 10, 2019.