Hyderabad: A full-fledged B-Tech programme in Artificial Intelligence would be introduced by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Hyderabad, from the coming academic year.

Admission to the course with an intake of around 20 students would be through the JEE-Advanced, a release said here.

IIT Hyderabad has become the first Indian Educational Institution to offer such a course in AI.

The mission of the Department of Artificial Intelligence, IIT Hyderabad, is to produce students with a sound understanding of the fundamentals of theory and practice of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, it said.

IIT Hyderabad is already offering an M-Tech course in Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning. Director of the institute, UB Desai said, "The basic aim is to create a complete ecosystem for Artificial Intelligence Academics and Research at IIT Hyderabad. This involves BTech, MTech. and different Minor Programmes in AI," he added.

The course comprises algorithms from the Computer Science Department, Signal Processing from Electrical Engineering Department, Robotics from Mechanical Engineering Department and Mathematical Foundations.

It would also focus on application verticals such as healthcare, agriculture, smart mobility, among others, the release said.