Microsoft has announced a three-year "Intelligent Cloud Hub" collaborative programme in India on Thursday, for empowering institutes to skill students in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Cloud technologies.
The company said in a statement that the dedicated AI infrastructure and Internet of Things (IOT) hub programme will provide selected research and higher education institutions with AI infrastructure and also build curriculum with faculty capability to skill students in AI and cloud technologies.
India will be one of the first countries to have such a programme in which Microsoft will support selected institutes that have the best-in-class infrastructure, curriculum and content, onsite training for faculty and students, access for participating students to cloud and AI services, developmental tools and developer support.
"Jobs of tomorrow will require a very different set of skills, and collaborating, training and working with AI will be as important as collaborating with people," said Manish Prakash, Country General Manager-PS, Health and Education, Microsoft India.
"The Microsoft 'Intelligent Cloud Hub' programme aims to catalyse this with technology insights, cognitive skills, and a practical, in-depth understanding of developing intelligent connected solutions for application across industry and citizenship scenarios," Prakash informed.
Microsoft will also offer a wide range of AI developmental tools and Azure AI Services such as Microsoft Cognitive Services, Azure Machine Learning and Bot Services.
Training will include development workshops to help both the faculty and students build their skills and expertise in cloud computing, data sciences, AI and IoT.
"Our vision is to make participating universities and institutions 'Intelligent Cloud Hubs' in their own right at the end of the first three years," Prakash added.
Microsoft would also assist faculty in strategising content and curricula for project-based and experiential learning.
For research-focused institutions, Microsoft will provide AI-based recommendations for potential areas of research.
In April this year, the company announced the Microsoft Professional Programme (MPP) for the public.
This programme will help in providing job-ready skills along with real-world experience to engineers as well as others who plan on improving their skills in Artificial Intelligence and data science, using a series of online courses.
(With IANS inputs)
