Amit Sheth

𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗕𝗜𝗧𝗦𝗶𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝟭𝟵𝟲𝟬𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗮𝗰𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗕𝗜𝗧𝗦𝗶𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮’𝘀 𝗔𝗜 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲, 𝗔𝗵𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗮𝗯𝗮𝗱 𝗴𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗺𝗲 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗴𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗽𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗱. That, in many ways, was the story of my visit to Ahmedabad last week. It brought together two ends of the @bitspilaniindia journey, the generations that built the institution and a new generation working on technologies that will shape its future. It was wonderful to meet #BITSians spanning more than six decades, from the 1960s to the Class of 2025. We felicitated some of our alumni from the 1960s and listened to their stories of BITS from another era. Ahmedabad itself is now home to more than 1,500 BITSians. @BITSAA International has completed 25 years. Ahmedabad chapter alumni have been meeting formally every second Sunday since the year 2000 and is among the earliest chapters of BITSAA. At the other end of this journey was my interaction with the Indian AI Research Organization (IAIRO), and particularly Prof. Amit Sheth, one of our distinguished BITS Pilani alumni and the founder of @IAIRO_official . #IAIRO is an exciting experiment. Its ambition is not merely to use AI developed elsewhere, but to build India's own capabilities in AI. It is bringing together world class researchers, engineers, entrepreneurs and industry to create AI talent, undertake original research, develop indigenous IP and technologies, and translate research into products and applications. I particularly liked their emphasis on sovereign AI and on building compact, custom and neurosymbolic AI systems for high value applications. 𝗕𝗜𝗧𝗦 𝗣𝗶𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗶 recently signed an MoU with 𝗜𝗔𝗜𝗥𝗢, and we are now exploring much deeper collaborations in research, PhD programmes, talent development and translation of research into impact. I thoroughly enjoyed the visit. There is something very satisfying about seeing an institution's past and future come together in the same city.