byteXL's Goa AI Symposium Highlights Need for Curriculum Modernisation and Upskilling in Engineering Education

Panaji, July 20, 2024: Artificial intelligence (AI) is not the disruptive behemoth it was initially perceived as and has the potential to fill in gaps in existing curricula and help practically upskill and keep updated the hundreds of engineers churned out of technical educational campuses in India, according to leaders in the education and technology space, edu-tech sector venture capitalists, skilling experts and talent acquisition (TA) specialists, who attended AiGENDA, a symposium on ‘AI in Education’ held at a coastal resort in North Goa on Saturday.

ByteXL, a Hyderabad-based edu-tech firm, that organised the symposium, also launched ‘Nimbus,’ a self-hosted cloud-based coding environment. The platform quickly sets up workspaces, allowing students to start coding with templates in Visual Studio Code.

Karun Tadepalli, co-founder and CEO of byteXL, urged at the symposium that India's higher education classrooms urgently need modernisation.

“The numbers are shocking. There are 4,351 engineering colleges and 1,182 universities in India, enrolling 1.1 million computer science engineering (CSE) students each year. However, there’s reportedly a 16-year gap between their skillset and market requirements. Furthermore, only 1 lakh out of 1.5 million engineering students that graduate each year in India are employable,” said Karun Tadepalli, who, along with his brother Sricharan, founded byteXL in 2019.

He also said that currently, there are almost “8 to 10 million jobs that are going vacant” because of a lack of adequate AI skills. “There's a lot more opportunities and we’re talking about 20-30 million jobs in the future. AI is going to create more jobs, but at the same time, it is going to expect to have a lot more skills,” he said.

Sampath P, partner at Bengaluru-based Kalaari Capital, which has invested in around 120 tech startups, noted that technology assessments are outdated, particularly in AI, where constant evolution requires staying updated. He emphasised the need to enhance tech evaluation systems and use AI to identify learning gaps based on data.

“The real opportunity lies in staying on top of technology and solving global problems, and we're beginning to see this in India. We should continue this effort, as it allows those in the education system to help students realise their potential. The numbers (of engineers annually passing out) are staggering, presenting both a responsibility and an opportunity for us,” Sampath said. Earlier this month, byteXL secured $5.9 million in a Series A funding round, which was led by Kalaari Capital, along with the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation.

Speaking at the event, Sumit Premi, Director of Talent Acquisition at Flipkart, suggested that having an updated skill-sets could soon become more or as important than a formal degree in tech recruitment. “So far, we are programmed to hire people with a qualification or a degree. However, the industry is open to hiring based on how skilled they are, not on how educated they are. Recently, a start-up came to us and said they will train individuals while we at Flipkart will hire them. The discussion revolved around skills, a degree wasn't even mentioned,” he said.

Dr. Shitala Prasad, Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Goa, said that while coding is critical to the current scenario, in the near future, things might evolve. "I believe that the whole market of coding will change. More creative ideas will be there to code or do similar jobs," he said.

Dr. Malineni Perumallu, chairman, Malineni Lakshmaiah Women's Engineering College, also put the spotlight on states with high literacy like Goa and Kerala, which he said had a strikingly high 28 percent unemployment rate. “This disparity points towards the large gap that exists between academics and industry,” he said, adding that while the existing focus was on training students, in reality, it is the faculty “that needs more training.”.

“The honest truth is that faculty is grappling with the advancement of new technology,” he said.

“Increasing excitement and engagements levels of the students is going to be crucial in higher education in the coming years. AI will be playing a pivotal role in that. AI can help us have a personalised approach to individual students,” said Divyanshu Patel, president of Parul University. “Similarly, AI will also have a role in playing assistant to the teacher. The teacher on the other hand can be a resource on things AI can’t find. AI will not replace human intelligence,” he added.