Moodubidire: Alva’s Institute of Engineering and Technology (AIET), Moodubidire, on Wednesday launched an IBM AI Lab developed in collaboration with IBM Software Labs, marking the first IBM AI Lab in an engineering college in India.
The initiative has been set up with the objective of strengthening industry-academia collaboration and providing students access to enterprise-grade artificial intelligence technologies. Powered by IBM watsonx.ai, watsonx Orchestrate and AI-assisted developer tools, the lab will provide hands-on exposure to enterprise AI platforms and real-world applications. IBM experts also began a two-day training program covering Foundation Models, Prompt Engineering, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), AI Agents, Workflow Orchestration and AI-assisted software development.
The IBM AI Lab will serve as a Centre of Excellence for innovation, research and skill development, providing students with direct exposure to enterprise AI platforms and real-world applications. With this initiative, AIET further strengthens its commitment to creating an industry-ready learning ecosystem and empowering students with the knowledge and skills required to lead in an AI-driven future.
Speaking on the occasion, Ratheesh Muraleedharan, Program Director and Leader for watsonx, IBM India, said the initiative is IBM’s first university-level AI program of its kind in the country and that AIET had emerged as the pioneering institution in this collaborative effort. “AI has democratized knowledge by making powerful tools accessible to everyone. The key differentiators will be curiosity, adaptability and the ability to solve meaningful problems,” he said, expressing hope that students would make use of the opportunity and emerge as future technology leaders.
Presiding over the program, AEF Managing Trustee Vivek Alva said artificial intelligence should be viewed as a means to enhance human potential rather than replace it. “AI, when combined with human common sense, can create powerful solutions. Technological shifts have historically transformed the nature of jobs rather than eliminated them, and AI will be no different,” he said, adding that academic institutions must continuously update their curricula to meet emerging industry requirements.
AIET alumnus and AI specialist at IBM India, Manoj B. Shetty, AIET Principal Dr Peter Fernanadies, Computer Science Dept Head Dr Manjunath Kotari, were present among others.