The Microsoft AI classroom series, a collaboration between Microsoft and NASSCOM FutureSkills, has partnered with the Telangana Academy for Skill and Knowledge (TASK) and Telangana State Council of Higher Education (TSCHE) to skill 30,000 students from Telangana for the AI economy. These introductory sessions on AI will be available for undergraduate students at no extra cost and will cover the basics of data science, machine learning models on Azure, and understanding of cognitive services to build intelligent solutions.

Commencing on 23 November 2020, the programme will be paced in three modules. The online classes will include live demos, hands-on workshops and assignments through self-learning, virtual instructor-led training, and mentoring. The teaching sessions will be conducted by various experts, including from Microsoft and NASSCOM. Students will have the option to choose from multiple time slots and plan their own learning pace. Registered students will also have access to content and developer tools from Microsoft and GitHub. A participation certificate from NASSCOM and Microsoft will be awarded to students at the end of the series.

The state has even declared the year 2020 as the year of AI in Telangana to accelerate AI readiness and to improve AI stakeholder ecosystem. This collaboration with the state government comes as a part of the ongoing efforts to promote skilling as a national priority, under which Microsoft AI classroom series has been launched as an AI skilling initiative which aims to skill 1 million students in AI by 2021.

KT Rama Rao, Industry and Information Technology Minister of Telangana, said: “The industry today, irrespective of the domain, requires smart technology-backed solutions that reduce resource utilisation and enhance productivity. We need the youth of Telangana to be skilled in these areas. I am glad that TASK and TSCHE have partnered for this initiative. The students of our state must make use of this opportunity to skill themselves in these emerging technologies.”

Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Information Technology, Telangana, said: “I appreciate Microsoft and NASSCOM FutureSkills for bringing this initiative to Telangana. The world of technology is evolving very fast and we need our students to be a part of this technology revolution. An initiative such as this will help upgrade the talent pool in our state and enhance Telangana’s appeal to global organisations for making investments in the state.”

Shrikant Sinha, CEO of TASK, said the course will be a combination of self-learning modules, hands-on workshops, live demos and virtual instructor-led classes by experts from Microsoft and NASSCOM, followed by an assignment and finally certification from Microsoft and NASSCOM. The course is open to students of all streams.

Papi Reddy, Chairman of TSCHE, said the programme gives learners the flexibility to learn at a pace and time convenient to them.