TIET partners with NVIDIA to launch AI-enabled university in India

TSAAI will develop a new undergraduate engineering program in AI (BE in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning) focused on building deep AI skills over four years.

Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology (TIET) on Friday announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU)  and collaboration with NVIDIA to establish the Thapar School of Advanced AI & Data Science (TSAAI), with technical support from the NVIDIA AI University program.

Under the agreement, TSAAI will be established at TIET's campus, Patiala. The initiative aims to offer a range of academic programs, research opportunities, and innovation projects to empower both students and faculty with essential AI skills and knowledge, TIET said in a statement.

TIET will set up 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.

Apart from core accelerated computing infrastructure, TIET said it is setting up edge computing infrastructure with 500 Jetson Nano developer kits to build up the startup ecosystem.

TSAAI will develop a new undergraduate engineering program in AI (BE in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning) focused on building deep AI skills over four years. It will also offer AI elective courses across all programs to ensure all students are AI literate.

Later, the plan is to launch a Master's Program in AI, ML, and DS targeting working professionals. Irrespective of the program, all students of TIET will receive nine credits of AI training

In addition, NVIDIA plans to extend the benefits of its 'Inception' program to qualifying TIET-incubated AI startups.

"We are excited about the opportunity to establish this AI school, in technical collaboration with NVIDIA," said Dr Padmakumar Nair, Director of Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology. "This work 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,” he added.

“As a key player in the global AI education initiative, Thapar Institute will integrate cutting-edge NVIDIA technologies to cultivate a new generation of AI experts across India,” said Vishal Dhupar, Managing Director of Asia South at NVIDIA. “The new AI school will help bridge the gap in AI expertise and pave the way for breakthrough research and innovation in the industry,” he added.