Kerala sets up India’s first digital varsity

Kerala inaugurated India’s first digital university opened doors in Kerala on February 20.

Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan presided over the function and governor Arif Mohammed Khan, the chancellor of the Kerala University of Digital Sciences, Innovation and Technology (KUDSIT), unveiled the varsity plaque.

The governor and the chief minister addressed the inaugural function through video-conferencing.

The launch of the digital university is part of the Kerala government’s resolve to embrace new technologies and use them for bringing positive changes to the life of people and become a global hub for higher learning and technology.

Located in Technocity, Mangalapuram, the university has been set up by upgrading the Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management Kerala (IIITM-K), a centre of excellence in information technologies. It will provide intellectual support for the new world of opportunities arising through artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, data analytics and other digital transformation courses.

Post-graduate programmes and research, building strong industry-academic and academic- academic linkages with leading institutions in India and abroad are the major areas the varsity proposes to focus on.

Five schools of knowledge — School of Computer Science and Engineering; School of Digital Sciences; School of Electronic Systems and Automation; School of Informatics; and School of Digital Humanities and Liberal Arts, covering science, technology, and humanities aspects of the Digital world have been established on campus.

Each school will be offering master’s-level programmes in computer science, informatics, applied electronics and humanities with various specialisations of Industry 4.0. Specialised centres in areas like blockchain, AI&ML, cyber security, big data analytics, biocomputing, and geospatial analytics are to be set up in collaboration with leading international academic, research, and industry bodies.

The university will also lead the Digital Transformation Initiatives announced by the Kerala government in Budget 2021.

Spread across a 10-acre campus in Technocity, the first phase of the university has been completed with an academic and a hostel block.