HYDERABAD: Apart from traditional computer science engineering (CSE) and mathematics and computing, BTech in artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a hot pick at Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad (IIT-H) among joint entrance examination qualified candidates with 88 of the top 1,000 rankers across the country choosing IIT-H over others.
This year, there are a total 470 seats available at IIT-H of which 376 are gender neutral seats and 94 are female supernumerary seats.
In the academic year 2019-20, IIT-H had become the first institute to offer an exclusive BTech in AI course with an intake of 20 students. While the CSE course opened at 191 this year, the AI course opened at a close 330.
“The awareness of the opportunities and excitement around AI in all technology sectors has enthused incoming students to prefer AI over many other disciplines -- including computer science in some cases,” said Vineeth N Balasubramanian, head – department of AI at IIT-H.
The department of AI at IIT-H has close to 30 faculty specializing in various areas of AI, providing a rich variety of teaching and research options to the undergraduate students. “The curriculum includes a healthy and holistic combination of mathematical foundations, basic AI/ML courses early in the programme, basic CS courses, many electives in applied AI, as well as opportunities to carry out semester-long internships and research projects -- which we believe the students find attractive and useful,” he added.
In the first round of Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA), apart from CSE and AI, mathematics computing engineering was a hot pick with most of the top rankers opting for it. According to figures, mathematics and computing opened at 642 and closed at 970.
