IIT Hyderabad established first AI research centre in India
IIT Hyderabad will establish India's first AI Technology Centre to accelerate research on Artificial Intelligence and its commercial adoption. The institute has collaborated with NVIDIA, a multinational technology company, to establish 'NVIDIA AI Technology Centre'(NVAITC). The operations at the newly established centre commenced today, on July 9, and a Tech Session was also held which focused on the AI-related topics.
IIT Hyderabad already houses two NVIDIA DGX-1TM systems and an NVIDIA DGX-2TM system dedicated to research being undertaken at the institute. The NVAITC will accelerate research for the 220 faculty at IIT Hyderabad, which is already among India's foremost research institutions in just over a decade into its inception.
Highlighting the significant benefits of this state-of-the-art facility, Prof. B.S. Murty, IIT Hyderabad Director, said, "As an IIT with a strong fundamental and technological research focus, the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad is very happy to join NVIDIA's NVAITC program. This combination of NVIDIA's leading-edge technology for AI Compute and some of the finest minds in the country from IIT Hyderabad will bring synergy to help find solutions to uniquely Indian challenges, be it enhancing crop yield or safer cities. This will build on the strong AI capabilities IIT Hyderabad has built, including the country's first B.Tech in AI program."
This collaboration between IIT Hyderabad and NVIDIA will focus on advancing AI research in the areas of Agriculture and Smart Cities besides Language Understanding. The projects that would be taken up include increasing crop yield using AI algorithms and applying AI-based solutions to support safer transportation systems and better ways of managing traffic, among others.
Speaking about this collaboration, Mr. Vishal Dhupar, Managing Director for NVIDIA South Asia, said, "NVIDIA is powering the AI revolution across research facilities everywhere. Our collaboration with IIT Hyderabad will accelerate AI research and help create innovative solutions to real-world challenges."
The NVAITC represents another step in NVIDIA's collaborations within the state of Telangana. The State Government recently announced 2020 as the 'Year of AI' with an aim to establish Hyderabad among the top 25 global AI innovation hubs. NVIDIA is already a partner to the government of Telangana in this endeavor.
IIT Hyderabad is the first Indian Educational Institution to offer a full-fledged B.Tech. program in AI and likely the third institute globally to offer a full-fledged B.Tech. Program in Artificial Intelligence in the Academic Year 2019-20.
IIT Hyderabad also has a Department of AI, which offers B.Tech., M.Tech. and different Minor Programs in AI besides undertaking cutting-edge R & D that is strongly entwined with academics. The mission of the AI Department is to produce students with a sound understanding of the fundamentals of the theory and practice of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, enabling them to become leaders in the industry and academia nationally and internationally.