Artificial Intelligence (AI) is touted to be the most important technology of this century. It has begun to play an important role in the fields of security, education, research, automation and as the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated to us, medicine. It would be long before it will play a decisive role in global ambitions and national policies. 

The Indian government has woken up to the opportunities of AI too. In 2018, the NITI Aayog, the policy think tank of the Government of India, identified a handful of priority sectors of the economy in its National Strategy for AI  discussion paper. The paper rallies an argument to build an AI ecosystem that would help social and inclusive growth. 

To make the best of these opportunities, many Indian educational institutes and organisations have taken up the opportunity to build and impart AI courses to those interested in advancing their careers. The latest to join the movement is Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar (IIT-Ropar) and Times-TSW, the executive education division of Times Professional Learning. They have announced a postgraduate certificate programme in AI and deep learning. 

The six-month course will be imparted on weekends through online sessions. The course, which is exhaustive, has been created and curated by collating inputs from industry leaders and academic experts, aimed at working professionals. The curriculum has included subjects such as AI, data science, machine learning, programming with Tensorflow, deep learning (DL) and neural networks, AI applications, image recognition. 

The course, which commences in September, will be imparted by IIT faculty as well as industry experts. Additional support will be provided for AI and Machine Learning modules which will be coordinated by Indo-Taiwan Joint Research Centre, initiative supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan at IIT-Ropar. 

Aspiring learners can apply for the course from July 20. The course prerequisites are that the applicant is an IT professional for at least two years, with an engineering degree. The selection will be on the basis of the application, followed by an interview. 

According to a study by Microsoft and IDC Asia/Pacific titled Future Ready Business: Assessing Asia Pacific’s Growth Potential Through AI, employee productivity and the rate of innovation will double by 2021.