n the past few months, ever since COVID-19 pandemic has hit the country, several institutions have come forward to offer online skill enhancement courses.

As the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies increases in governance as well as industry, India is focusing on training its youth and working force on the new technology so that the citizens can have better opportunities in the fourth industrial wave i.e. AI wave.

On Thursday, IIT Guwahati (IIT-G) announced that it will offer free AI course to teach the fundamentals of the technology to learners. The course will span over 12 weeks and will be available on the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL).

The AICTE approved course will commence from July 20. Learners will be taught the following modules during the course - AI and problem solving by search, knowledge representation and reasoning, reasoning under uncertainty, planning and decision making, and machine learning.

Interested learners need to register for the course on the NPTEL website. It is mandatory for applicants to have a working knowledge of probability and linear algebra. While the course is free of cost, learners can avail a legitimate certificate with logos of IIT G and NPTEL by undertaking an exam. Registration for this exam is Rs 1,000.

During the lockdown, we saw monumental efforts by government institutes and government departments in India to promote AI education through online courses. In early May, the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) offered free online AI courses to students. Quite recently, IIT-Ropar too commenced online PG certification course in AI and Deep Learning.

NPTEL is an online initiative undertaken by a group of IITs from Mumbai, Delhi, Kharagpur, Kanpur, Madras, Guwahati and Roorke