IIT Delhi: PG and PhD Programmes at School of Artificial Intelligence (ScAI) will begin January 2021

IIT Delhi has set up an independent School of Artificial Intelligence (ScAI) on its campus. The AI school will commence its Ph.D. program from the next admission cycle, i.e. January 2021. IIT Delhi also plans to offer postgraduate (PG) degree courses.

The one-of-its-kind school will have more than 50 IIT Delhi faculty and aim to increase the research productivity in the field of AI. It aims to become a center for industry or government to collaborate or fund AI innovations. Speaking about the school, V. Ramgopal Rao, Director, IIT Delhi stated that we need a program in AI. He added that because current degrees are broad, they do not make it easy for students to learn the depths of different subfields within AI.

“One of the goals of setting up ScAI is also to strengthen IIT Delhi’s place on the global map of AI,” he said.

 Key Aspects of IIT Delhi - ScAI

The school will include a flexible faculty model. It will have core faculty, a joint faculty, and an adjunct faculty. They might just be teachers by also industry leaders. The school is expecting to hire at least 20 core faculty members in the next 10 years.

Prof Mausam, School of AI’s Founding Head stated, “Core faculty members will be those who consider AI, or its applications in various domain areas (e.g., healthcare, transportation), as their main research area. Core faculty members will also be responsible for developing the School and will be deeply invested in its success.”

The new school will provide a platform for industry, government, and civil society entities to share their domain problems. Then, matching the expertise from IIT-D faculty, the institute will offer detailed researches.

The school is going to offer its own Ph.D. program in the next admission cycle - January 2021- as well. Postgraduate degree courses are under planning, said the institute.