Authored by: Dr. Debarka Sengupta, Founding Program Director and Associate Professor, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi

To win the race of digital supremacy, enterprises are adopting bleeding-edge technologies such as automation, hybrid cloud, quantum computing, and AI. We can rightly say that Data Science & AI have brought about the advent of the fourth industrial revolution in the world. Data Science is one of the hottest skills organizations are looking for in the market. 

Companies are increasingly reliant on data-backed intelligence and are eager to hire data professionals who can make sense of the information their respective businesses collect day in and day out. With the fast-paced expansion of AI/ML usage in day-to-day business operations, the demand for these roles is increasing. The employer demand for AI skills out stripped job seekers by 2.2 times in June 2018. Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have emerged as a thriving field from an industry utility and employability point of view. This market is likely to swell up to USD 20 billion by 2025. 

IBM and Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi (IIIT-Delhi), collaborated to launch a nine-month PG Diploma in Data Science and AI (PGDDSAI) on IBM Watson Analytics to address the upskilling needs of professionals from diverse backgrounds including students of basic sciences, IT professionals and medical practitioners (https://pgddsai.iiitd.ac.in/).

We saw a wide gap between the demand and supply of skilled professionals in this space and understood the need for credible Data Science and AI programs to bridge this gap. Thus the program was launched to impart quality education along with practical knowledge and hands-on skills.

Today, Data Science & AI have become the reigning technologies that have begun to transform the way businesses are managed across industries. It has become a dire need for organizations that use data to make careful decisions using analytical tools. The program offers access to IBM Watson Analytics, which advances trust from principle to practice and offers data privacy, compliance, and security across highly regulated industries, and supports an open, diverse ecosystem driving responsible use of AI.

This course introduces scientific approaches and the quantitative analysis of industry-scale data using methods from various disciplines, including statistics, mathematics, algorithms, optimization, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. The IIIT-Delhi & IBM collaboration will allow students to get ample opportunities to work on real-life data science projects. The course is administered and taught by IIIT-Delhi faculty members and IBM leaders in Analytics. It is possibly the only program that also provides placement assistance.

We have now successfully trained two batches of AI warriors, who represent diverse professional disciplines, and are geared up to start enrolment for the next intake. With this one-of-a-kind course, we have embarked upon a journey to equip individuals with the skills to keep up with the changing landscape of technology and will continue to do so.