IIIT Hyderabad Celebrates 27th Foundation Day

Sri Jayesh Ranjan viewed a showcase of IIITH’s seminal works with wide impact that have benefited society. These ranged from using AI for oral cancer detection, iRASTE road safety project, computational drug discovery, geospatial solutions for nature conversation - from lakes to tigers, earthquake and drone-based building safety assessments, brain mapping, shape shifting drones, ornithopter, language technologies, lipSync and language translations, smart city research and implementations.

Speaking on the occasion, Sri Jayesh Ranjan , Special Chief Secretary for Information Technology, Telangana, said, “We are happy that IIITH ranks highly on many parameters, and is considered to be among the best engineering institutes in the country in various fields especially AI. The Telangana government is proud that IIITH exists in Hyderabad. Interestingly the iRaste road safety project, a collaboration between the Telangana Government, IIIT Hyderabad and Intel was recently presented to the Prime Minister Sri Narendra Modi who greatly appreciated it and wants to see it implemented across the country”.

This year’s Foundation Day also included the presentation of the inaugural edition of alumni awards. The Alumni Outstanding Service Award for 2024 was given to Soujanya Lanka B.Tech CSE -1998, Ph.D -2003 and Vipul Kedia B.Tech CSE (Hons) -1999. This is the highest honor IIITH confers on its alumni. The institute also felicitated the winners of the Outstanding Service award for the years 2024 and 2023 at the event.

From just 50 students in the first batch to around 2000 students in 28 programs, the institute is now widely ranked as the No 1 institute in AI (computer vision, machine learning and data mining, and Natural Language Processing) in India, and Asia’s 2nd best institute for robotics. The institute has grown to include 29 research centres, a Technology innovation hub for AI Data Banks, Data Services and Data Analytics (TIH-Data), and an Applied Artificial Intelligence Research Centre (INAI) in collaboration with Intel. IIITH’s Kohli Centre on Intelligent Systems, set up in 2015 with funding from the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) continues to be a leading center on Intelligent systems bringing together sharpest minds of India to take research from lab to land for sustainable social impacts. IIITH’s alumni are nearly 6000 strong now and are making a meaningful impact in different institutions, in different roles, and across different geographies.

Research-led education from the undergraduate level has enabled IIITH to contribute much to society through technology solutions. The institute has always endeavored to produce competent, creative, and caring individuals who are eager and ready to take up the challenges the world offers.

The Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (CIE) of IIIT Hyderabad Foundation completed 15 years of innovation this year. CIE has incubated more than 300 startups and generated employment for 2000+ youth. With 80 incubated companies and about 350 employees working in them, CIE holds its position as one of the largest academic incubators in the country. It is complemented by an Atal Innovation Centre and a BIRAC BioNEST incubator.

Going forward, the institute plans on scaling up to 250+ faculty and 5,000+ students in the next 25 years, maintaining a strong focus on academic research and applied/translational research with social impact, and connecting computing with bigger issues such as sustainability, privacy, responsible AI etc.

Speaking on the occasion Prof P J Narayanan, Director, IIIT H, said, "Today marked the grand finale of the institute's extended Silver Jubilee celebrations that began on September 2nd, 2022. These events have fostered a strong bond with our alumni community. The institute also introduced the Alumni Awards to honor graduates who have excelled in their professional careers or contributed significantly to society or the institute. The inaugural awardees were celebrated today. It is deeply gratifying to witness the accomplishments of our alumni. Meanwhile, the institute continues to advance in research and increase its global impact. We look forward to accelerating this progress in the coming years, in collaboration with the Government of Telangana, NGOs, and industry partners."