Kolkata: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur will launch a certificate course on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning. The AI course will start from March 2019 in three of its centres in the country — Bangalore, Kolkata and Hyderabad.

Professor Partha Pratim Chakrabarti, Director of IIT-Kharagpur, said that the course will be the perfect choice for professionals who want to explore something innovative. “I would like to congratulate our faculty members who designed this programme in consultation with industry experts. This course is the need of the hour and I am sure it will get good response,” he said.

Head of Centre for Artificial Intelligence, Prof. Sudeshna Sarkar, said that the course will be a six-month programme where basic concepts of AI and its industrial application will be taught.

“The AI is the fourth industrial revolution and there is a growing perception that it will disrupt almost every job. But it will also create many more. There is an increasing need for skilled AI professionals in order to create and augment AI systems,” she added.

The course will comprise 16 one-credit modules and one capstone project. The modules have been carefully designed to cover mathematical and algorithmic foundations, artificial intelligence fundamentals and several modules on statistical and machine learning methods.

The course will also include modules on thematic areas such as natural language processing, computer vision and application use cases. Tools and platforms will be introduced to make the students technologically competent and job ready.

The classes will be taken by faculty experts from IIT Kharagpur and other reputed academic institutions as well as industry experts. A certificate will be awarded based on successful completion of the modules.