In what is said to be among the highest individual contributions by an alumnus to Indian academia, US-based tech entrepreneur Sunil Wadhwani donated Rs.110 crore or $13.75 million to his alma mater, IIT-Madras. A student of the 1984 batch, the entrepreneur donated the sum of money to establish a Wadhwani School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, at the campus where he had studied. The MoU for establishing the Centre was exchanged between Wadhawani, IIT-Madras Director Prof. V. Kamakoti and other officials from the institute.
Elaborating on his choice of donating towards the field of AI, he said, that Artificial Intelligence has been around for more than five decades, but it is during the last 10 years that rapid progress has taken place, owing to the increase in computing power and the immense data that is available due to social media.
“Today, AI is growing at a much faster pace and the power of AI is doubling every 6 months and in about ten years, it could surpass human intelligence,” he opined.
According to him, there are tremendous benefits and challenges posed by AI and India must be a leader in research, teaching, skills training and development of AI apps.
“I see a strong need for a dedicated Data Science and AI school focusing on foundational and applied research in these areas. With the advancements in science and technology, India holds immense potential and can be a world leader in AI and allied sciences,” he said.
Queried about how these funds would be used, Prof. Mahesh Panchagnula, Dean, Alumni and Corporate Relations, IIT-M, told WION that a portion of the fund would be used immediately for setting up facilities and for attracting the best talent – faculty, researchers etc. He added that the 30,000 square feet facility was being prepared for hosting the facility and that a large part of the fund would continue to support the department for a long time.
Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT-Madras, said that the institute is working towards launching a B.Tech course in AI and Data Analytics by July 2024 and gradually expanding the intake from the initial 30 students.
Under its School of Data Science and AI, IIT Madras has three centres – Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science and AI, Centre for Responsible AI and the upcoming Wadhwani School.
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Outlining the vision for the Wadhwani school, Prof. B. Ravindran, its Founding Head, said that Data Science and AI are inherrently interdisciplinary fields. The Wadhwani school will enable close collaboration between domain experts and AI researchers to develop solutions that integrate AI with existing approaches. Healthcare, Agriculture, Smart cities and transportation, Financial Analytics, Manufacturing, Defence, Education etc. are among the domains in which the facility would carry out Applied Research.
