Hyderabad: The central educational institutions are aggressively setting up new departments and research centres alongside introducing new courses.
They have increased their speed of execution even amid the COVID-19 crisis.
They have also designed the study and research programs on Artificial Intelligence, robotics and cybersecurity which play a key role in the country’s development besides creating huge employment opportunities.
The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has allocated ample fund for research and development.
Professors said that older IITs have focused on improving the living standards of people instead of carrying out nominal research.
IIT Delhi has recently established School of Artificial Intelligence. Admissions for PhD will be announced soon.
There are plans to introduce postgraduate courses too as the School secured Rs 170 crore funding from DST.
In 2019, IIT-D introduced Public Policy course. IIT Kanpur established Department of Sustainable Energy Engineering for education and cutting-edge research in energy sustainability.
The institute has partnered with Rice University (USA). IIT-K claims to be first among IITs to explore transdisciplinary scientific research of the human mind and brain through its ambitious Department of Cognitive Science.
IIT Kharagpur has established Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Technology Innovation Hub. The institute aims to use AI and ML research for the betterment of human lives.
Samsung inaugurated its Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality (AR-VR) innovation lab at IIT Jodhpur. The lab will train students on new technologies, help them learn industry-relevant skills and make them job-ready.
The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru set up an AI and Robotics Technologies Park (ART PARK) with the centre-state partnership.
The new park will promote technology innovations in AI and robotics leading to societal impact by executing R&D projects in healthcare, education, mobility, infrastructure, agriculture, retail and cybersecurity.
Several IITs have introduced online courses over the past few months. In addition, they have signed MoU with foreign universities for joint PhD programs.
“In the past, research was limited to academic journals and papers. But the IITs focused on research that can solve real-world problems, especially in the Indian context. During the pandemic, IITs came up with innovations such as affordable ventilators and virus detection kits," says Ramgopal Rao, Director, IIT Delhi.
"In a way, these prestigious institutes played a crucial role in containing the pandemic. IIT Delhi developed per cent19 test kits for commercial
use. PG and PhD students account for 60 per cent here. In fact, we have 3,500 PhD students on the campus,” he added.
