The 18-month long course, M.Tech in Industrial AI, will be offered online and will focus on industrial analytics.

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras has partnered with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to launch an online masters course, M.Tech in Industrial AI. The course is targeted at upskilling corporate employees in applications of artificial intelligence to industrial problems, according to a press statement issued by TCS.

The 18-month-long course will be offered by IIT Madras through virtual classrooms. The first cohort of students for the program will be from TCS.

Each subject in the programme will have a mid-term and a final examination conducted in online mode, besides project work.

There will be a total of 28-30 hours of online classes per week with post-classroom activities.

"This program, designed in consultation with TCS, will have strong theoretical courses and labs covering important topics in data science and AI. Theoretical courses will cover concepts in fundamental mathematical techniques required for understanding data science algorithms, time series analysis, multivariate Data Analysis, machine learning, deep learning and reinforcement learning," Professor V Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, said.

"Applied courses will describe implementations of AI solutions for industrial problems in a case study format. Put together, these courses are expected to provide a strong theoretical foundation and significant application perspective to the participants in the course," he added.

Speaking about the collaboration, K Ananth Krishnan, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, TCS, said, "We are happy to collaborate with IIT-Madras, a member of the TCS Academic Co-Innovation Network, to create a new M.Tech program in Industrial AI for working professionals so that they gain a deeper understanding of data science and AI which they can apply to drive innovation in industry."