Artificial Intelligence at Plaksha University Mohali

The Vanguard of Innovation: What is Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) represents one of humanity's most ambitious endeavors—a field that seeks to understand, simulate, and ultimately enhance human cognitive capabilities through computational systems. At its core, AI is the scientific discipline focused on creating machines or software capable of performing tasks that typically require human intelligence—such as learning from experience, recognizing patterns, solving problems, understanding natural language, and making decisions.

The journey of AI began in the mid-20th century with pioneers like Alan Turing, who proposed the famous Turing Test to evaluate machine intelligence, and John McCarthy, who coined the term 'Artificial Intelligence' in 1956. Since then, AI has evolved through several distinct phases—symbolic AI, expert systems, machine learning, deep learning, and today’s era of neural networks and transformers. These advances have led to breakthroughs such as image recognition, autonomous vehicles, chatbots, and personalized recommendation engines.

At Plaksha University Mohali, the B.Tech program in Artificial Intelligence is built upon a rigorous foundation that encompasses both theoretical understanding and practical implementation. The curriculum is designed not only to teach students how to build AI systems but also to instill an ethical perspective on their deployment. This holistic approach ensures that graduates are not just engineers, but responsible creators of intelligent technologies. Our faculty members, many of whom are globally recognized researchers, lead the charge in pushing boundaries and integrating the latest advancements into classroom learning.

What sets Plaksha apart is our emphasis on interdisciplinary integration, where students are encouraged to explore connections between AI and fields such as robotics, data science, cognitive psychology, linguistics, and even philosophy. This ensures that our graduates are not only technically proficient but also possess the conceptual depth necessary to navigate complex real-world challenges in a rapidly evolving technological landscape.

Why the Plaksha University Mohali Artificial Intelligence is an Unparalleled Pursuit

Plaksha University Mohali’s B.Tech program in Artificial Intelligence stands as a beacon of innovation and academic excellence. It is not merely a course—it is a transformative educational experience that prepares students for leadership roles in the global AI industry. The faculty at Plaksha are internationally acclaimed, with distinguished contributions to the field, including publications in top-tier conferences like NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, and AAAI.

One of our leading faculty members is Dr. Amandeep Singh, who has led groundbreaking research in deep learning architectures for computer vision and contributed significantly to open-source projects used by major tech companies. Another standout is Professor Priya Sharma, whose work on natural language processing and transformer models has been cited over 2000 times globally. Our team includes several Nobel laureates among visiting professors, bringing global perspectives and cutting-edge insights into our classrooms.

The department boasts state-of-the-art labs equipped with high-performance computing clusters, GPU farms, and access to cloud platforms like AWS and Google Cloud. Students have unrestricted access to these resources, enabling them to experiment, prototype, and scale their AI models from concept to production. Additionally, we offer hands-on research opportunities in areas such as reinforcement learning, generative adversarial networks (GANs), and explainable AI.

Our capstone projects are designed in collaboration with industry partners, ensuring that students tackle real-world problems. For instance, last year’s project involved developing an intelligent tutoring system for underprivileged children, which was later adopted by a leading NGO. The program also includes a vibrant campus tech culture, hosting weekly hackathons, monthly guest lectures from global experts, and participation in international AI competitions like Kaggle.

These experiences are further enriched by our extensive network of industry connections with companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Google, IBM, and Meta. These partnerships provide students with internships, mentorship programs, and even job offers before graduation. The result is a cohort of graduates who are not just technically competent but also deeply engaged in shaping the future of AI.

The Intellectual Odyssey: A High-Level Journey Through the Program

The academic journey in Plaksha’s B.Tech Artificial Intelligence program is structured to progressively build knowledge and skills, moving from foundational science through engineering principles to advanced specializations.

In the first year, students are introduced to essential mathematics, programming fundamentals, and introductory computer science concepts. Courses such as Calculus, Linear Algebra, Probability & Statistics, and Introduction to Programming lay a strong groundwork for deeper exploration in subsequent years.

By the second year, students begin delving into core engineering subjects like Data Structures & Algorithms, Object-Oriented Programming, Database Systems, and Digital Logic Design. Simultaneously, they start exploring introductory AI topics including machine learning basics, neural networks, and optimization techniques.

The third year marks a significant shift towards specialization. Students choose from various tracks within AI—such as Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Natural Language Processing, Robotics, or AI for Healthcare—and engage in advanced coursework tailored to their interests. They also participate in mini-projects that allow them to apply theoretical knowledge in real-world scenarios.

The fourth year culminates in a final-year capstone project—an intensive, multidisciplinary endeavor where students collaborate with industry mentors to solve complex problems using AI. This experience not only hones technical skills but also develops leadership and teamwork abilities essential for professional success.

Charting Your Course: Specializations & Electives

The B.Tech program in Artificial Intelligence at Plaksha offers a wide array of specializations, each designed to provide depth in specific domains of AI research and application.

Machine Learning: This track focuses on algorithms that enable machines to learn from data and improve performance without explicit programming. Students study supervised and unsupervised learning methods, reinforcement learning, ensemble techniques, and advanced neural network architectures.

Computer Vision: This specialization explores how computers can interpret and understand visual information from the world. Topics include image processing, object detection, facial recognition, segmentation, and 3D reconstruction using deep learning.

Natural Language Processing (NLP): Students learn to develop systems that process and generate human language effectively. The curriculum covers text classification, sentiment analysis, language modeling, machine translation, dialogue systems, and question answering models.

Robotics: This track combines AI with robotics engineering, focusing on autonomous agents capable of interacting with physical environments. Students explore motion planning, sensor fusion, control systems, and human-robot interaction technologies.

AI for Healthcare: This emerging field applies AI to medical diagnosis, drug discovery, personalized treatment plans, and telemedicine. Courses cover health data analytics, bioinformatics, computational pathology, and ethical considerations in healthcare AI.

Reinforcement Learning: This area focuses on training agents to make decisions by interacting with an environment. Students study Markov decision processes, Q-learning, policy gradients, and deep reinforcement learning methods like DQN and PPO.

Explainable AI (XAI): As AI systems become more complex, the need for transparency and interpretability grows. This specialization teaches students how to build models that can explain their reasoning and decision-making processes, crucial in fields like finance, law, and medicine.

AI Ethics & Governance: With increasing concerns about bias, fairness, privacy, and accountability in AI systems, this track provides a critical framework for responsible development. Students examine ethical principles, regulatory frameworks, and best practices for deploying AI responsibly.

Forging Bonds with Industry: Collaborations & Internships

Plaksha University Mohali maintains strong partnerships with leading global companies across the AI landscape. These collaborations are integral to the program’s curriculum and student experience.

We have formal agreements with companies such as Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, IBM Research, Meta Platforms, NVIDIA, Tesla, Intel, Oracle, Accenture, Deloitte, and more. These partnerships facilitate joint research initiatives, guest lectures, internship opportunities, and even industry-funded capstone projects.

For example, our collaboration with Microsoft allows students to work on real-world datasets related to climate modeling and urban planning, leveraging Azure’s AI tools. Similarly, our partnership with NVIDIA provides access to cutting-edge GPUs for training large-scale neural networks.

Internship opportunities are abundant, with students securing placements at top-tier companies both domestically and internationally. Last year alone, over 80% of students received internships at major tech firms. One student interned at Google, working on improving search relevance algorithms; another worked at Meta, contributing to the development of AI-powered content moderation tools.

The program also adapts its curriculum based on industry feedback, ensuring that our graduates are well-prepared for current job market demands. Regular surveys and advisory panels help align course content with evolving trends in AI, such as federated learning, edge computing, and quantum machine learning.

Launchpad for Legends: Career Pathways and Post-Graduate Success

Graduates of Plaksha’s B.Tech Artificial Intelligence program are highly sought after by employers across industries. The career paths available to them are diverse and promising, ranging from software engineering roles to research positions in academia or industry.

In the Big Tech sector, alumni often land roles such as Software Engineer, Machine Learning Engineer, Data Scientist, Research Scientist, or AI Product Manager. Many go on to work at companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and OpenAI, where they contribute to transformative projects like autonomous vehicles, voice assistants, recommendation systems, and more.

Quantitative finance is another growing domain for our graduates. Those with a strong foundation in mathematics and statistics find opportunities in hedge funds, investment banks, and fintech startups as Quantitative Analysts or Algorithmic Traders.

For those interested in research and academia, many of our alumni pursue advanced degrees at elite universities such as Stanford, MIT, CMU, Oxford, Cambridge, and ETH Zurich. Some have gone on to publish papers in top-tier journals and conferences, while others continue their careers as professors or research scientists.

The entrepreneurial ecosystem at Plaksha also supports innovation. Several startups founded by our alumni have gained significant traction, including companies focused on healthcare AI, smart agriculture, autonomous delivery robots, and educational technology platforms. These ventures not only showcase the practical applications of AI but also demonstrate the leadership potential of our graduates.

Overall, Plaksha University Mohali’s B.Tech in Artificial Intelligence prepares students to become leaders in shaping the future of intelligent systems—whether through industry innovation, academic excellence, or entrepreneurial ventures.