New Delhi: PB Siddhartha College of Arts and Science in Vijayawada has signed a MoU with a Hyderabad-based IT firm Blackbuck Engineers Pvt. Ltd. on January 19 to launch Alan Turing Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Artificial Intelligence (AI) 

While discussing the collaboration, PB Siddhartha College principal M. Ramesh said that it is the first non-engineering institute to launch such an initiative. 

As part of the collaboration, experts from the IT firm will provide training to the students and the faculty of the college in emerging technologies like AI/ML, Data Science and Blockchain Technology, etc. 

Raj Kumar from the Blackbuck team, Vemuri Babu Rao, the Director of the college, Dean Rajesh Jampala and Placement Officer Sridhar Kavuri were also present during the signing event. CEO of Blackbuck Engineers, Anuradha Thota said the partnership was to leverage benefits to the college. 

The CoE is to promote extensive research by enabling cutting-edge research in AI and Machine Learning relevant to professional industry and academia, foster strong industry-academic synergy for AI adoption and execute impactful projects with industry and Government and state-of-the-art AI courses, training and workshops catering to the students and outreach programmes for re-skilling. 

The Centre of Excellence acts also as a bridge between the knowledge of AI and Machine Learning and its application in the professional industry. 

Last year witnessed a few of the eminent institutes launching new programmes on AI and Machine Learning. In aJune, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee launched two new M.Tech programmes under its newly established Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science (CAIDS). 

In April, IIT Madras and Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science and AI collaborated with Narayanan Family Foundation to launch a fellowship programme for the researchers working on AI and social good. 

On the other hand, the Andhra pradesh Government has reopened the schools as scheduled, after the Sankranti vacation. 

According to the State Education Minister Audimulapu Suresh, the AP Government has taken multiple precautionary safety methods to prevent further spreading of Coronavirus among the students. 

“In the USA, schools are running even with up to 6-10 lakh daily Covid cases. Similarly, in European countries too schools are functioning with 3-6 lakh cases being reported in a single day,” he further added in his statement. 

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