The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B) has decided to make Artificial Intelligence and Data Science (AI-DS) mandatory courses for undergraduate students. The AI-DS courses will apply to both BTech and Bachelor of Science (BSc) programs. This initiative is set to start in the current academic year.
Traditionally, undergraduate students have been required to study physics, chemistry, math, and biology as core disciplines. Now, IIT Bombay has recognised the importance of AI-DS in the rapidly evolving technological landscape. Hence, it has decided to add these subjects to the core curriculum for undergraduate programmes.
The decision to include AI-DS in the curriculum was one of the key recommendations made by a committee tasked with updating the BTech curriculum. The committee was chaired by Professor Deepankar Choudhury, director of the civil engineering department.
The goal will be to provide students with a foundational understanding early in their undergraduate education. Students can then choose more department-specific courses based on their department's or programme's requirements.
The newly created AI-DS paper will also carry credits that are required to be taken from the degree's third semester onward. Students who are especially interested in these disciplines will have the choice to later study more advanced courses.
In a report by the Indian Express, Professor Avinash Mahajan, Dean of Academics, stated that all Bachelor of Science studies will be affected by this change. He stated that the common course (AI-DS) is suitable for all Bachelor of Science (BS) courses. Design courses will be an exception, as they belong to a completely different field.
IIT-B already has a centre for machine learning and data science that offers dedicated post-graduate and PhD programmes in AI and DS. IIT-B also has courses in chemistry, economics, and mathematics, all of which require dealing with data analysis.
Share
Tweet
