TIET, NVIDIA join forces to empower students, faculty with AI skills and knowledge, details here

The Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology (TIET) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with NVIDIA to establish the Thapar School of Advanced AI & Data Science (TSAAI).

The MoU, signed on July 5, envisages setting the institution with technical support from the NVIDIA AI University program.

As per a press release issued by the institute, TSAAI will be established at TIET's Patiala campus to offer a comprehensive range of academic programs, research opportunities, and innovation projects to empower both students and faculty with essential AI skills and knowledge.

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Dr Padmakumar Nair, Director of Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, expressed his delight at the opportunity to establish the AI school, in technical collaboration with NVIDIA. He said, “It will not only bridge the gap in AI expertise but also pave the way for cutting-edge research and innovation in this transformative field. This also establishes our vision of providing education that creates future-ready students.”

Vishal Dhupar, Managing Director of Asia South at NVIDIA highlighted that the Thapar Institute will integrate cutting-edge NVIDIA technologies to cultivate a new generation of AI experts across India.

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The release informed that TIET will set up a state-of-the-art AI infrastructure leveraging NVIDIA DGX systems with NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs, NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPUs, and the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software platform for the development and deployment of generative AI.

The data center will offer 227 petaflops of AI performance with nearly 8 terabytes of GPU memory.

As per the release, TIET is setting up edge computing infrastructure with 500 Jetson Nano developer kits to build up the startup ecosystem, in a bid to turn graduates into job creators from job seekers.

The AI university program seeks to offer a comprehensive range of courses, labs, research opportunities, and innovation projects to empower both students and faculty with essential AI skills and knowledge.

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Furthermore, by the academic year 2024-2025, the TIET aims to set up the infrastructure and make it ready to support a full undergraduate AI degree program, AI mandatory/elective courses across all disciplines, technical training for faculty and staff, research collaborations, and establishment of an AI startup ecosystem powered by NVIDIA edge computing.

The institute also seeks to ensure all graduates are AI literate in 2-4 years.

Here are a few objectives of TSAAI:

• Develop a new undergraduate engineering program in AI (B.E. in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning) years.
• Offer AI elective courses across all programs to ensure all students are AI literate.
• Launch a master’s program in AI, ML, and DS targeting working professionals.
• Provide professional development courses for industry professionals seeking AI training.
• Learners of TIET will receive nine credits of AI training, irrespective of the program.
• Train identified faculty in the NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute (DLI) Ambassador Program.
• DLI workshops are to be conducted for identified students and faculty members.

(For more information, visit the official website.)