upGrad expands its GenAI portfolio; launches an invite-only Executive DBA with GGU, San Francisco
Mumbai: upGrad, Asia’s largest integrated learning, skilling and workforce development company has announced the launch of the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) in Emerging Technologies (specialisation in Generative AI) with its American partner – Golden Gate University, San Francisco. Designed for C-suite executives, senior industry professionals, and high-performing entrepreneurs, it will host nearly 30 learners at a time. The objective of the curriculum is to support the global workforce, across both tech and non-tech domains to become thought leaders and pre-empt market trends leveraging Gen AI capabilities in their respective fields.
The program spans three years and features a curriculum comprising seven foundational courses, biweekly Thesis Development Workshops, special one-on-one guidance sessions, and a final Dissertation Defense. Learners will gain comprehensive knowledge of Generative AI and other Emerging Technologies, enabling them to make data-driven decisions and drive innovation within their organizations.
The Faculty will also help learners achieve one of the three outcomes: a) Apply for adjunct faculty positions in GGU or any of the uGDx Institute of Technology’s campuses, b) Publish in top research journals or a book based on their thesis and c) Patent a product or service idea. As an integral part of the program to further enhance the outcome, learners will have the opportunity to embark on three week-long global immersions in prominent tech hubs across San Francisco, Singapore and Mumbai/Bangalore.
Learners even from non-tech backgrounds can earn the salutation of ‘Dr’ post-completion of the program. Learners will also be awarded digital badges ranging from Orange (Gen AI practitioner) to Brown (Gen AI grandmaster) as they progress in their DBA journey.
“Generative AI models are changing the way we think about machine intelligence, creativity and the world around us in general. At GGU tech school, the faculty and researchers are working on pushing the boundaries of this exciting technology responsibly. We developed this experiential, application-based DBA program with the goal to provide the right tools and skillsets to business leaders who want to harness the true potential of this technology,” said Prof. Venkatesh Sunkad, Dean of GGU Institute of Technology.
“The evolving dynamics of the global job market have encouraged Indian Inc to actively use upskilling as a lucrative career enabler. As technology takes centre stage, it is critical for our talent, especially seasoned professionals to upgrade their skill competencies and become domain experts. We have carefully structured a curriculum that encapsulates theoretical and hands-on learning in the most effective manner backed by stronger faculty support and global exposure for tangible career outcomes. It offers a flexible / viable option for professionals to gain a competitive edge and we are seeing positive demand for our executive Doctorate programs coming out of India, which further reinstates our commitment to leading the skilling segment,” concluded Phalgun Kompalli, Co-founder upGrad.
The program assumes no prior tech experience and is meant for business leaders even with non-tech backgrounds and zero AI experience who would get trained by the globally renowned faculty with 125+ research papers, 15+ patents, and 80+ years of collective teaching experience. The skilling giant has been actively embedding Gen AI into different curriculums and has also built a one-of-a-kind GPT-powered Chatbot to allow learners to conduct mock interviews anytime anywhere with real-time performance scores and feedback to further guide them through corrective measures.