Mangaluru: The Association of Indian Universities (AIU), New Delhi, and National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK) Surathkal, organised a South Zone conference on the Strategic Integration of Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education at NITK’s Digital Library on Friday.Around 60 delegates from universities, colleges and industries across AIU’s South Zone attended the one-day conference. The event provided a platform to share institutional initiatives, professional experiences and best practices related to the use of AI in higher education.The conference was organised by NITK’s departments of computer science and engineering, information technology, and mathematics and computational sciences. It was sponsored by USDC Global, Bengaluru.Prof Vinay Kumar Pathak, president of AIU, delivered the inaugural address online from New Delhi. Amarendra Pani, joint director (research), AIU, and Prof B Ravi, director, NITK Surathkal, addressed the gathering. They highlighted the role of AI in reshaping teaching, research, administration and the future of higher education.The technical sessions and panel discussion focused on AI-enabled teaching and learning, governance and data-driven decision-making, research and innovation, curriculum development, future skills and ethics.Prof Karthik Raman of IIT Madras, who heads computational systems biology research at Wadhwani School of Data Science and AI, spoke on AI-enabled teaching and learning.K Visalini, director of research and development at VIKA Park, addressed governance and data-driven decision-making.Sarath Kummamuru, head of technology at Bharat Connect and former executive at Airtel Payments Bank and Razorpay, spoke on AI in research and innovation.The afternoon panel on curriculum, future skills and the ethical challenges posed by AI in education featured Kummamuru and Prof Raja Subramanian, senior vice-president, USDC Global, Bengaluru. Subramanian also led a separate session on curriculum design and technology integration.
