India is expected to see a shortfall of 14-19 lakh tech-skilled manpower by 2026. Artificial intelligence - big data analytics, the internet of things and cloud computing are the most in-demand domains, yet, there are shortages of 1.5 lakh, 80,000, and 1.7 lakh domain professionals, respectively, according to a recent Nasscom-Zinnov report. 

The country, home to 20 per cent of the world's youth population, needs urgent skilling and ways to adapt to the fast-evolving new-age tech, but how remains the question? What needs to be done? Are students aware and opting to have AI skills? We reached out to Prof. Ranjan Bose, Director at Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi (IIIT-D), with these questions in mind. 

"Today, AI is transforming the way we do business; it has penetrated all aspects of our lives. There is no doubt about it," said Prof. Bose. The triad - industry demand, available human resources, choice of student - fits in quite well to indicate the rising importance of AI and the data science field. 

"With the increase in demand and usage, there is a significant requirement of researchers and trained manpower who can understand AI systems, build sophisticated AI technologies and maintain them. Consequently, the trend in terms of admissions is also changing. It is not surprising to see a lot of interest in AI and courses for specialisation in AI," says Bose, a researcher, teacher and innovator with over 25 years of experience, when asked if the change is also getting reflected in terms of admission.

On skills for students to hone

Technical skills involving knowledge of programming languages, cloud computing, cybersecurity etc., are important, but "several other skills are the real game-changers," as pointed out by Prof. Bose.

• The first thing for the students is to develop problem-solving skills. By that, Prof. Bose means that students should work on industry-linked projects and try their hands at practical problems. Problems are bound to change, but the problem-solving skills will not get outdated. 
• Secondly, all forms of communication skills (verbal, written, and presentation skills) remain vital in the highly competitive job market.
• The third is related to working on projects. Students must get their hands dirty and work on real-world problems. Internships in the core domain provide opportunities for students to explore further and learn by doing. 
• Fourth, the focus should be on developing leadership skills. One should try to grow as a technical leader who can lead the team, work in a team, and bring out the best in others.
• Finally, an entrepreneurial mindset is the need of the hour. Whether one takes up a regular job or starts a company, entrepreneurial skills help as they deal with identifying potential problems/ opportunities, finding solutions, and selling one's ideas to people in other domains.

Collaboration is the need of the hour

Talking about our question on government, industry and academia collaboration, Prof. Bose nodded in agreement as it is one of the most crucial aspects. "The question pertains to strengthening the ecosystem, and the ecosystem has several players - industry, academia, government, NGOs, and the public at large," said Bose. 

As per Prof. Bose, the technology developer and technology user must work together from the beginning in order to create a larger, more meaningful impact. For a healthy collaboration, 

• The industry must provide real-world/ challenging problems to academia.
• Academia needs support and funding to solve these problems.
• Have a test bench to try out the prototype

Additionally, Prof. Bose says, scaling up is a big challenge in a country like ours, and one of the ways to scale up is through startups. It's important to understand the importance of seed funding to enable young startups in the AI space. These AI-based solutions can be local; they can be global, or they can be glocal as well.

Many of the faculty members at IIIT-D have incubated their startups founded on their research. These include ShikshAI, an AI-empowered platform for our education system to advance innovative ways to mediate learning and teaching; SigSAIL, an AI-based startup to support AI workers to develop low-cost AI models; CareOnco, an affordable cancer liquid biopsy test kit that scans genes from platelets and apply AI to predict early onset of cancer; dkraftlearner, an intelligent LMS (Learning Management System) with conversational AI and closed-domain question answering, to name a few.

AI projects

The Infosys Center for AI (CAI) at IIIT-Delhi works on both the fundamental algorithms in AI to further basic research and the application of AI for solving societal problems, specifically in the Indian context. Our faculty members work on machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing, computer vision, human-computer interaction, signal processing, multimedia, vehicular networks, and other related topics.

AI for Wildlife: The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and Wildlife Institute of India (WII) have, in collaboration with IIIT-Delhi, conducted a nationwide assessment of the country's population and habitat of tigers (Panthera Tigris) using their "AI-based wildlife monitoring." This has been termed the most comprehensive census to date in terms of both the resources and the data amassed. This project also gets featured in the GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS for the "Largest Camera Trap Wildlife Survey".

AI to create new flavours of food: One faculty member from IIIT Delhi has worked on the data analytics of food - a new area called computational gastronomy. First, the data is extracted from more than 2000 Indian recipes on the internet. In Indian recipes, food pairing is done by contrast, not by similarities, as is the case in Western cuisine. Then, his team brought together data on more than 25,000 flavour molecules, organising them into categories, and mapping them to source raw materials to allow chefs to pick, find and innovate flavour pairs. 

In addition, "We are also working on AI-based detection of online offensive and fake content, such as fake news, misinformation, hate speech, and harmful memes. The tools developed in-house help the online content moderators predict the emerging cyber threats and prescribe possible intervention strategies. The tools are also helpful in accessing online content during critical situations such as political elections and emerging events such as the Covid-19 pandemic," said Prof. Bose.

Leading from the front

IIIT Delhi is a research-led teaching institute where a lot of AI-based research is undertaken. "Once a student enters the institution, they have several opportunities to explore related to specialisation in AI," said Prof. Bose.

• At the Bachelor's level, the institution has a B.Tech. Programme in Computer Science and AI (CSAI). In this program, students are exposed to both foundational and experimental components of AI and ML, be it computer vision, NLP, autonomous systems, robotics, etc. The emphasis largely remains on problem-solving using AI.
• At the Master's level, there is an M.Tech. in CSE with a specialisation in AI. Here, the students work on industry-focused projects. IIIT Delhi has a broad spectrum of courses, including AI for Health, AI for Bioinformatics, Trustworthy AI systems, Ethics of AI, etc.
• The institution also provides two PG diploma programs in DS+AI and CS+AI for working IT professionals in collaboration with IBM and Great Learning, respectively.

"We are tracking the industry trends and then equipping our students accordingly. The challenge is to ensure that the students of tomorrow graduate with not only a 'degree' but also the requisite skill-sets to make a meaningful impact at their future workplace positioned in a post-Covid transformed world," he concluded.