CNN Central News & Network-ITDC India Epress/ITDC News Bhopal: The Association of Indian Universities (AIU) and Rabindranath Tagore University (RNTU), Bhopal, jointly organised the AIU West Zone Conference. The theme of the conference was ‘Strategic Integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Higher Education: Opportunities, Challenges and Impact’.
The programme was attended by RNTU Chancellor Dr. Santosh Choubey, Pro-Chancellor Dr. Aditi Chaturvedi Vats, SGSU Chancellor Dr. Siddharth Chaturvedi, AIU Research Division Joint Director Dr. Amarendra Pani, keynote speaker Srijan Pal Singh, entrepreneur, futurist, author and founder of the Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Centre, Dr. Abha Rishi, Executive Head of the Madhya Pradesh Startup Mission, Government of Madhya Pradesh, cyber expert Amit Dubey, Vice Chancellor Prof. (Dr.) R. P. Dubey, Registrar Dr. Sangeeta Johri, and West Zone Conference Convener Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Professor and Head, Centre for IoT and Advanced Computing, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, along with vice chancellors of several universities.
Apart from the inaugural session, the conference included three technical sessions, a panel discussion on startups and a talk show. Discussions covered teaching, research, evaluation, institutional operations and the social impact of AI.
Dr. Abha Rishi, Executive Head of the Madhya Pradesh Startup Mission, Government of Madhya Pradesh, said India would have to develop original solutions while using AI. She cautioned against excessive dependence on technology. She also referred to government support and prototype assistance for startups. Her address mentioned assistance of up to Rs 5 lakh. She said original ideas and market needs were important.
RNTU Chancellor Dr. Santosh Choubey delivered the presidential address. He discussed the university’s AI mission and AI policy. He stressed the need to make universities centres of research, innovation and production. Referring to his book on artificial intelligence, he said AI should help in decision-making and should not dominate it. He also raised ethical questions related to the impact of AI on language, thought and democratic discourse. He underlined the importance of philosophy, history and human values in education.
In the inaugural session, emphasis was laid on AI policy, human discretion and ethics. RNTU Pro-Chancellor Dr. Aditi Chaturvedi Vats delivered the welcome address. She spoke about the vision and work of AISECT and RNTU in the era of digital transformation. Dr. Amarendra Pani, Joint Director of the Research Division at the Association of Indian Universities, said AI had now become a reality. He cited examples such as identification through CCTV during the Kumbh. He also discussed blockchain, the fifth industrial revolution and human-machine collaboration. He said a strong framework was needed to guide the use of AI.
Dr. Siddharth Chaturvedi, Chairman of the CII Madhya Pradesh State Council and Chancellor of SGSU, said universities should teach students how to use AI tools. He stressed critical thinking, adapting to changing circumstances and including AI in classrooms. He also underlined the need to take AI skills to rural areas and small towns.
As keynote speaker, Srijan Pal Singh, entrepreneur, futurist, author and founder of the Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Centre, said universities needed to formulate a clear AI policy. He emphasised AI literacy and training of teachers. He said teachers should teach students to verify the accuracy of information received from AI. He also spoke about integrating art, science and entrepreneurship. RNTU Vice Chancellor Prof. (Dr.) R. P. Dubey proposed the vote of thanks. He spoke about the importance of effective teaching, the learning process and ethical changes in education.
The technical sessions discussed teaching, research and institutional operations. The first technical session was on ‘AI-enabled Teaching and Learning’. Aanchal Chopra of Google spoke about AI tools, AI agents and problem-solving. She mentioned the use of AI in teaching and its help in tasks such as checking examination answer sheets. SGSU Vice Chancellor and session chair Prof. Dr. Vijay Singh said AI should remain in the role of an assistant and should not become the final basis for every decision. Dr. Sanjay Kumar discussed the growing use of AI in fields such as medicine and law. He said AI results are not always completely accurate. Dr. Ranveer Singh spoke about the increasing responsibilities of teachers and the need to verify results obtained from AI. AIU President Prof. Vinay Kumar Pathak spoke about changes in education, training of teachers and the use of open-source AI models in universities.
The second technical session was organised on ‘AI Research, Innovation and Public Relations’. Prof. (Dr.) Amitabh Saxena, Executive Director, ITDPR, AGU, compared the situation with the early phase of online classes and said that despite technological changes, the role of teachers remained important. Dr. Tanmay Basu, Head of the Department of Data Science at IISER Bhopal, discussed convolutional neural networks (CNN) in image classification, explainability of AI and indigenous AI solutions. Amit Naik, Director at Deloitte, gave the example of Arjun and Krishna from the Mahabharata. He underlined the importance of guidance and mentorship in the AI era.
The third technical session on ‘AI Evaluation and Institutional Governance’ discussed evaluation, campus operations and institutional integration. Prof. (Dr.) Arun Ramesh Joshi, Vice Chancellor of Dr. C. V. Raman University, Khandwa, spoke about possibilities of integration and institutional change through AI in higher education. Dr. Abhishek Pandit, Director of Advantage Private Limited, said the form of examinations was going to change significantly in the future. He explained the possibilities of linking course outcomes (CO) and programme outcomes (PO) with AI. He said that along with the result, the process of achieving it was also important. Dr. Rahul K. Chaurasia, Associate Professor in the Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering and Centre for AI at MANIT Bhopal, spoke on AI, machine learning, VLSI and control systems. He said students should be developed for problem-solving ability instead of merely being given information. He highlighted the importance of original thought in work prepared with AI.
Prashant Rathi, Customer Partner and Chief Operating Officer at TCS, focused on campus operations. He said there was a need to move beyond general, separate solutions and adopt enterprise artificial intelligence. He said artificial intelligence could help build effective enterprise resource planning systems. He advised students to develop good knowledge of every field.
A panel discussion on ‘AI as a Growth Engine for Start-ups’ was held during the conference. It was moderated by AIC-RNTU Incubation Manager Krati Jain. The panel included Pulak Rizwani, Founder and CEO of Opsite AI Private Limited, Dr. Anant Singh, CEO of Remote Physios, and Vivek Pandey, CEO of Bright Hustle. The discussion focused on the role of AI in the growth of startups, possibilities for developing new solutions and converting technology into practical business.
A talk show featured cyber expert Amit Dubey. It focused on cyber security in the era of AI, digital risks and aspects related to safe online behaviour.
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