The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati today announced the availability of an online Bachelor of Science (Hons) degree programme in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence through Coursera. To apply for this programme, interested students should visit the official website at iitg.ac.in/acad/.

According to the official schedule, applications for the BSc (Honours) in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence programme will open on July 19, 2023, with classes beginning in October 2023.

"There is no upper limit in this course." Any student who had Mathematics in Class 12, regardless of their stream (Science, Commerce, or Humanities), if they have mathematics as a composite subject, is eligible for admission to this programme," IIT Guwahati director Parameswar K. Iyer told indianexpress.com.

This new programme will also offer a variety of entry and exit points. If a candidate leaves the programme after the first year, he or she will receive an Advanced Certificate as part of the programme.

"One significant advantage that IIT Guwahati is introducing to this programme is that candidates will have a total of eight years to complete this degree." Furthermore, all components of this course will be delivered online, so students will not have to worry about travel or other issues," Prof Iyer added.

“I would like to highlight that every time a technology has come up, the thought that this will take away our jobs or create problems has always popped up, but humans have always found ways to use the technology in the most appropriate way and to enhance our capability, and make things simpler and more efficient,” he said.

“We have the means to generate a load of data to do a lot of things. But now if you want to manage so much data, and if you want to manage so much of things around, we need additional support, which comes in the form of both the data science, the analysis of the data science, and artificial intelligence. AI will help us become more efficient,” he concluded.