Two IIT Madras-Incubated Startup join hands to create One Lakh AI & Deep Learning experts in India by 2020

Chennai: Two Startup incubated at Indian Institute of Technology Madras have joined hands with a mission to create One Lakh Experts in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Deep Learning by the year 2020. GUVI, which offers a platform for students in Tier 2,3 cities to learn in vernacular languages, is now collaborating with One Fourth Labs, a startup founded by IIT Madras Faculty which offers advanced AI courses at nominal fees, starting at Rs. 1,000/-.

AI is one of the dominant technologies of this generation, which has helped machines reach human-level performance on specific tasks such as identifying faces, classifying images, playing complex strategy games, detecting anomalies in medical images and so on. There is a huge demand for AI talent in India, but the supply is limited due to a shortage of affordable courses which take students from basics to advanced topics.

GUVI will be the platform partner and One Fourth Labs will be the content partner for this joint initiative. The course offered by One Fourth Labs is designed based on the Indian Context, which enables students to comprehend complicated concepts with relative ease and get skilled in solving AI problems. The prerequisites to learn this course have been designed to enable as many students in India to learn. It is open to every student who is strong in high school mathematics and Python programming who can now become an AI and Deep Learning expert using this course.

Speaking about this collaboration, Mr. S.P. Balamurugan, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, GUVI, said, “Students can sign up at www.guvi.in to access this ‘Deep Learning’ course. IIT Madras Professors have created the course content in the platform. Coding contests will be conducted periodically with the top performers rewarded through the platform. Periodic Assessment will be conducted in GUVI platform to issue the certificates upon Course completion. The learning history of the individual will be maintained as part of his GUVI Profile which the users can share with the Employers. The platform is Gamified to keep the learners attentive and to ensure the learners complete the course.”

The mission of the GUVI is to take technology skills to all the deserving students. Demography should never be a barricade to acquire skills. Towards this, GUVI offers technology skills that are in-demand in the industry in regional languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, Bengali and Arabic besides English. Till now GUVI has upskilled more than 1.5 lakh engineers in latest technology skills such as Python, Java and Machine Learning, among others and help them gain placement in IT firms

Highlighting the goals behind this collaboration, Dr. Pratyush Kumar, Co-founder, One Fourth Labs, and Faculty Member, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Madras, said, “The whole premise of online education is not only to broaden reach but also dramatically reduce the cost of education. In emerging areas such as AI where there is a large demand for courses, a majority of online education providers charge a huge fees often running into lakhs of rupees. With the intention of addressing this, earlier this year we offered a hands-on course on Deep Learning at a fraction of the typical cost.”

The course offered One Fourth Labs is priced at Rs 1,000 for students and faculty and Rs.5,000 for working professionals. It is a 6-month completely online program divided into four stages comprising a total of 15 course. Participants will receive certificates at the end of every stage. Registrations are now open at www.guvi.in/dl

Dr. Mitesh Khapra, Co-founder, One Fourth Labs and Faculty Member, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Madras, added, “This first iteration of our course was a resounding success with extraordinary feedback from participants. Looking ahead, we want to take this course to a much larger audience while maintaining affordability. In this context, we are collaborating with GUVI, another IITM incubated startup, which aims to make technical education accessible with their in-house learning management platform and support for vernacular languages.”

GUVI as an integrated ed-tech platform in vernacular language has a deep penetration in Tier 2 and 3 cities, with a presence in over 1,000 engineering colleges and reaching nearly 1.5 Lakh Students as Learners in their platform. PadhAI has a vision to upskill the Indian work force to AI to generate more employment and value in IT sector. Their collaboration will make ‘IIT quality’ education to more students by sharing the same knowledge and expertise through this online course.

GUVI is transforming lives by offering tech skills in the language, which the students are familiar throughout their life and is bridging the gap between academic and industry.

GUVI platform is now revamped for personalized learning. No two learners learn and grasp concepts in the same manner and speed. GUVI has now customized the skilling process based on the user’s skill level, learning speed and learning pattern, among others. Now, the platform is powered using AI which is learning the user’s data day by day and customize the learning path accordingly. ‘Micro Arc,’ Digital Skill Profile, ‘Code for Reward’ and ‘Codekata’ powered with 10,000 programming challenges curated by industry experts and new attractive UI/UX are some of the new features in GUVI 2.0