Kolkata: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) opened its first centre of excellence in AI in eastern India at Heritage Institute of Technology, Kolkata (HITK) on Friday. Talks are on for two such centres at IIEST and Jadavpur University.The centre, built in collaboration between industry and academia, will train students in developing AI-based solutions.KM Suceendran, head of the academic alliances group at TCS, said, “We are coming up with these centres in our priority colleges. This year, we are planning to set up 50 centres across the country.”“The centre of excellence at HITK represents an important step in bringing industry and academia closer together, enabling students and faculty gain exposure to real-world applications, emerging technologies and industry practices.” he said.While the private institute has offered infrastructure to develop the centre, professionals from the IT major will groom the students with technical knowhow.In the first phase, the centre will train the students of the private institute but later, it will also open doors for AI skill-building to other “TCS-priority” colleges.Souvik Das, regional head of academic alliances group at TCS Eastern India, said, “The collaboration will feature faculty development programmes and co-supervision of final-year capstone projects aligned with industry needs, new TCS-designed elective courses and a joint symposium on AI’s transformative role in engineering education.”HITK vice-chairperson Vikram Swarup said, “The partnership will provide students sustained access to live industry projects, advanced research opportunities and mentorship from leading TCS experts. A selected HITK cohort will undergo training at the centre.”
