IIT Madras To Offer BSc, MSc In Data Science, AI At IIT Zanzibar; Preeti Aghayalam To Head

V Kamakoti, director of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras), announced today that Preeti Aghayalam will lead the first IIT to be built abroad, IIT Zanzibar. The worldwide IIT Madras campus will initially offer BSc and MSc degrees in data science and artificial intelligence (AI) for a total of 70 seats, with academic classes beginning on October 24, 2023, according to the IIT-M director at a press conference today.

IIT Madras, which has been ranked top in the overall category for the past five years in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF 2023) by India's minister of education, has become the first to create an international campus abroad. He stated that IIT Zanzibar has been given 200 acres of land and that the Zanzibar Government will pay the campus administration. He further stated that IIT Madras will serve as the knowledge partner.

"The land for the main campus will be ready by 2026, or no later than December 31, 2025," the director stated. The IIT Zanzibar admissions process has already begun. The institute will offer two full-time academic programmes: a four-year BSc Data Science and AI programme and a two-year MSc Data Science programme.