3i Infotech’s Business Unit - FutureTech Signs MoU with SRM Valliammai Engineering College, Chennai
- To Build a First-of-its-Kind ‘AI Lab’, Making Learners Industry Ready
- FutureTech, housed inside IIT Madras Research Park, Chennai, solidifies its commitment to expanding Campus to Corporate Goals through this MoU
Chennai, June 12, 2023 – FutureTech, a business unit of 3i Infotech Limited,
as the accelerator and transformation partner for the company has signed a
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Department of Computer Science at SRM
Valliammai Engineering College, Chennai. This
partnership aims to establish a path-breaking AI Lab within the institute’s campus.
The collaboration will foster a mutually beneficial relationship for both the
partners through promoting knowledge exchange, research opportunities, and
academic growth. This Campus to Corporate initiative expands the idea of
FutureTech to bridge the learning gap between academia-industry. In early 2022,
3i Infotech opened its office in IIT Madras Research Park, Chennai to establish
FutureTech business labs to work on next-gen technologies.
The MoU was signed at the IIT Madras Research
Park in the presence of Dr B. Chidhambararajan, Director SRMVEC, Dr M. Murugan
Principal SRMVEC, Dr B. Vanathi, Professor and Department Head of Computer
Science and Engineering (CSE), Dr B. Muthusenthil, Professor and Department
Head of AI & Data Science (DS), and faculties from the Departments of CSE
and AI & DS.
The scope of this partnership will be
expanded to include other departments within the college, such as Information
and Technology, Artificial Intelligence and Data Science. Each
batch is expected to include 50 students with a faculty strength of 27 professors.
The course structure will range from Level 1 - Level 4 encompassing - Introduction to AI and Data Science, AI Foundations,
Introduction to AI Techniques, and AI in Production. This will
further be extended to specializations in AI in healthcare, manufacturing,
agriculture, energy, communication, transportation, environment, and education.
Additionally, the initiative of making the
students industry ready will be highly leveraged through the well-rounded
internship programme that will further be split into two stages: (1) Train
the trainers: Training for the professors who want to constantly upskill on
AI/ML/DL and other relevant technologies. (2) Train the students: Training,
practical learning, and internship opportunities for the students on
technologies and tools.
Speaking
on the alliance, Mr Thompson P. Gnanam, MD & Global CEO, 3i Infotech
said, “We believe this academia-industry partnership will be a gamechanger to
bridge the skill-gap in the industry and will pave the way for many more such
initiatives. With the world rapidly progressing towards adopting AI, it’s
important that an intervention of this nature between academia and industry is
made paramount. While we are excited to announce this future-ready learning program,
tailored for passionate and qualified students who are eager to explore the
realms of AI/ML/DL research, we also strongly believe that it is important for Professors
of Practice to be brought into this curriculum design to ensure ‘Campus to Corporate’
is a smooth transition.”
Speaking
at the signing event, Mr Damodharan Padmanaban, Global Head Cognitive
Computing, 3i Infotech said, “The very core structure of technology will
remain the same irrespective of the extent of its development over the years.
The gamechanger aspect of tech will only be an enhanced problem-solving
mechanism in the complex business solutions, where we can make the AI work for
us instead of being overtaken by it. In the contemporary world, a facet of
utmost importance is the real-world application of learning. However, being
trained through a certain course is distant from actually performing a task in
the ever-evolving complex business scenarios. It is here that this AI Lab will
play a pivotal role in making the learning realistic and future ready”.
Speaking
on the initiative, Dr S. Ramachandran, Director Academic, SRM Group
said, “SRM has a rich legacy of academic excellence with a strong bent towards research
and innovation. Our professors are highly regarded within the country’s
educational ecosystem, who are always eager to upskill and stay abreast around
emerging trends and technologies. In this endeavor, we are delighted to partner
with FutureTech in setting up a next-gen innovation lab that will completely
upskill and give our students a competitive advantage in the market. This
initiative will inspire curiosity among our students and hopefully generate new
knowledge and discoveries. To achieve this, the learners will be
offered comprehensive resources and ample technical guidance for them to learn
and innovate. They will have access to essential resources such as servers,
deployment support, and a suite of powerful AI developer tools”.
Other propositions offered by the programme are the holistic support system, social entrepreneurship, and decentralized learning ecosystem for the students where they will be trained in terms of their ability to solve real-world business problems through use cases. The training model will facilitate an ecosystem where the students and professors will have the flexibility and control over their educational journeys. Individuals can choose their preferred learning resources, pathways, and pace, fostering a personalized and self-directed learning experience. It will also enable learners to connect and interact directly with one another, fostering knowledge sharing, collective problem-solving, and the development of social networks based on shared interests or expertise.
About 3i Infotech
3i Infotech Limited
incorporated in 1993 and headquartered in Mumbai, India, provides information
technology services and software solutions. Since its inception the company has
25+ years of experience in delivering business value to its clients across
multiple industry verticals. 3i Infotech has emerged as a leading name in
propelling the current wave of digital transformation initiatives, with deep
domain expertise across BFSI, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Retail, and Government
sectors. The company currently stands with a strength of 8000 employees and
over 500+ clients across the globe.
It
operates through three key segments, (1) Enterprise Services (includes ADMS,
ISMS, Testing, Classic BPS, MVS etc.), (2) Professional Services (includes
Human Capital Mgt. Services) and (3) Digital Business Services (includes IT
& Digital Consulting, Application-Automation-Analytics (AAA), Digital
Infrastructure Management Services (Digital IMS), CloudFirst, Oracle COE,
Global Command Centre (GCC), Cyber SOC, Digital BPS, Cognitive Computing
Services, 5G Lab as Service, Private 5G, IoT, Cyber Security Services, Secure
Access Service Edge (SASE), AgriTech, Telecom Media Entertainment (TME), Edge
Computing, Edge Analytics, NuRe Campus, FutureTech, etc.)