IIT Madras launch Fellowship in ‘AI for Social Good’

CHENNAI, 9^th April 2021: IIT Madras’ Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science and AI (RBCDSAI) and Narayanan Family Foundation are collaborating to launch a Fellowship in ‘Artificial Intelligence for Social Good.’ The objective is to attract early career AI researchers with exceptional promise to RBCDSAI, IIT Madras.

The Fellows will be primarily drawn from recent PhD graduates or early career researchers in computer science, computational and data sciences, biomedical sciences, management, finance and other engineering branches.

Applications are now being accepted. Interested candidates can apply for the Fellowship through the following link - https://rbcdsai.iitm.ac.in/nf3/  

RBCDSAI works with central, state and local governments besides industry and clinical sector, among many others, to gain transformative insights and actionable steps to make a credible impact on the relevant stakeholders.

Highlighting the unique aspects of this Fellowship, Prof B. Ravindran, Head, RBCDSAI-IIT Madras, said, “This fellowship is designed to enable outstanding candidates to establish their independent research profile and to contribute in a significant way to socially relevant AI research.”

Further, Prof. Mahesh Panchagnula, Dean (Alumni and Corporate Relations), IIT Madras, said, “We are thankful to Mr. Srinivas and the Narayanan family for setting up a revolutionary Postdoctoral Research Program in an important area of research.”

Funded by the Narayanan Family Foundation, the Fellows will get a very attractive salary of Rs. 15 lakh to Rs. 18 lakh (approx. US$ 20,000 - 24,000) per year depending on the experience (equivalent to Assistant Professor’s starting salary at any IIT) for a non-renewable term of three years. The Fellows are also eligible for a one-time research grant of up to Rs. 30 lakh (approx. US$ 40,000).

Speaking about their objectives in launching this Fellowship, Mr. Srinivas Narayanan, Co-Founder, Narayanan Family Foundation, said, “We believe the program can bring significant benefits for society through the advancement of AI, and we are very excited to support it.”

The Fellows are expected to conduct their independent research under the mentorship of the Centre in the area of AI for Social Good and will have access to high-end compute infrastructure and datasets at RBCDSAI. Interested candidates seeking additional information can write to - [email protected]

RBCDSAI is a pre-eminent interdisciplinary research academic centre for Data Science and AI in India with the largest network analytics and deep reinforcement learning research groups. It also has the most active natural language processing and deep learning groups. The primary mission is to carry out fundamental research in AI and develop Data Science and AI-based innovations to a broad range of domains, including manufacturing, infrastructure, smart cities, financial inclusion, and healthcare.

RBCDSAI was founded in August 2017 with a vision to expand and further the research, education and outreach activities in the areas of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. It comprises faculty from several departments across the Institute, who carry out research in various areas of data science and artificial intelligence.

ABOUT IIT MADRAS

Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) was established in 1959 by the Government of India as an ‘Institute of National Importance.’ The activities of the Institute in various fields of Science and Technology are carried out in 16 academic departments and several advanced interdisciplinary research academic centres. The Institute offers undergraduate and postgraduate programmes leading to B.Tech., M.Sc., M.B.A., M.Tech., M.S., and Ph.D., degrees in a variety of specialisations. IITM is a residential institute with more than 580 faculty and 9,500 students. Students from 18 countries are enrolled here. IITM fosters an active entrepreneurial culture with strong curricular support and through the IITM Incubation Cell.

IITM has been ranked No.1 in the ‘Overall’ Category for the second consecutive year in India Ranking 2020 released by National Institutional Ranking Framework, Ministry of Education, Govt. of India. The Institute has also been ranked No.1 in the ‘Engineering Institutions’ category in the same Rankings for five consecutive years – 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. It was also adjudged as the ‘Top innovative Institution’ in the country in Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) in 2019 and 2020. ARIIA Ranking was launched by the Innovation Cell of Ministry of Education.

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