At a time when the Artificial Intelligence (AI) becomes a major technology ingredient for the development of IT sector, the state government has begun training on AI to the faculty members and students of engineering colleges in the state with the help of skilled trainers. As part of its first step, the selected faculty embers have been trained from 23 colleges and the training is being imparted to the selected students under the aegis of Additional Skill Acquisition Programme (ASAP). The government is also planning to include AI as a major subject in the curriculum of engineering from next academic year. An empowered committee led by Chief Secretary was also constituted earlier by the government to ensure that the students are trained well in the technology-driven corporate ecosystem.
The IT majors including Nissan corporation have already offered assistance to the government for providing skilled trainers for the training purpose. AI is the latest technology which emphasises the creation of intelligent machines that work and react like humans.
The IT ministry had decided to provide training on AI after coming to know that the engineering graduates are least aware of the latest technologies. Though the Kerala Technological University and Higher Education department had decided to revise the curriculum of engineering to make compatible with the latest technologies, this is the first of its kind decision taken by the government to give training on a particular technology.
" The two modules of the training have been completed. The first training was led by the faculty members of IIT Chennai. Firstly, the faculty members of 23 engineering colleges were trained and they are giving training to the students who selected from a competitive examination. The process is on and we are organising it as a weekend course in addition to the normal curriculum. Not only the engineering student, but the fresh graduates can also avail the benefits of the course as the trainers are from IITs", said Usha Titus, Principal Secretary, Higher Education and KTU Vice-Chancellor in-charge.
So far, over 100 engineering students have been trained so that they could be capable of doing jobs in machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Meanwhile, KC Chandrasekharan Nair, co-founder of Technopark and IT expert said that the training on AI should not be limited to a weekend course and it should be included in the engineering curriculum.
" It was our long-standing demand that the subjects like AI, Machine learning, Internet of Things and data analytics should be included in the engineering curriculum. We had been requesting the governments to replace the age-old curriculum and to bring subjects which are relevant nowadays. However, it is a welcome stand taken by the government to organise at least a weekend course. But it should be useful once it included in the engineering curriculum. The technology is changing very fast. So the students should be able to combat with that", Nair said.
