IIIT Delhi signs MoU with Vehant to offer fellowships in AI/ML research

The Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Delhi has announced a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Delhi-based artificial intelligence and machine learning surveillance development firm, Vehant. Under the MoU, five students pursuing graduate and research courses at IIIT Delhi will be granted a fellowship amounting to up to ₹10 lakh for two years — which can be used for any academic and research purposes.

To be sure, Indian institutes offer a range of fellowships in AI and ML research. For instance, the Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (RBCDSAI) at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras offers a fellowship that grants students a fellowship stipend of ₹18 lakh per annum, along with the chance of a one-time grant of ₹30 lakh, to pursue research on developing AI for social improvement causes.

Others, such as Microsoft’s Research Fellows in India, and Qualcomm’s Innovation Fellowship in partnership with numerous IITs across India, also offer similar AI fellowship opportunities in the field of research and development.

Vehant Technologies uses its proprietary artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and deep learning technologies to develop physical security, surveillance and traffic monitoring services. While the student research projects to be funded by Vehant are not necessarily restricted to security and surveillance, Pushpendra Singh, dean of academics at IIIT Delhi said that the projects that are sanctioned for funding will largely include AI and ML-based research.

AI and ML technologies play a key role in offering digital surveillance services to public governance bodies in India. Over the past three years, the use of AI-based facial recognition systems in public surveillance have become commonplace, and recently, was used by the Delhi Police to identify terror suspects during the 2022 Republic Day parade in the national capital. 

The use of AI video analytics and surveillance have not been restricted only to public divisions. In the aftermath of the covid-19 pandemic, businesses offering AI video analytics services told Mint in November last year that they saw a clear rise in demand for their services to monitor public compliance of safety norms, among other services.

The joint statement issued on the fellowship to be offered to IIIT Delhi students by Vehant said that students selected in Masters and Ph.D programs at the institute this month would be eligible to receive these grants. The courses are set to commence next month, and five students every academic year would be sanctioned the fellowship mentioned above.