CSE faculty attends launching ceremony of AI/ML course under ASAP

Mr. Ravishankar S (AP, CSE Det) attended the inaugural ceremony and MoA (Memorandum of Understanding) signing ceremony of the Advanced Skill Development Center (ASDC) in engineering colleges across the state on 15 November 2018 held at Mascot Hotel, Thiruvananthapuram.
On ASAP and ASDC
To address the concern of the growing educated-unemployment rates of the State, the State Skill Development Project (SSDP) was launched in the year 2012. SSDP involves the participation of industries and training partners to execute the project tactically branched into two, ASAP (Additional Skill Acquisition Programme) and ASEP (Additional Skills Enhancement Programme). ASAP, under the General and Higher Education Departments, works on the preventive side by training Higher Secondary and Graduate students, offering skill courses to students in need of immediate employment. ASEP, under the Department of Labour, on the curative side offers enhancement training to educated unemployed youth. Funded by ADB, ASAP has now spread out into 1052 educational institutions across the state, offering 83 courses from 24 sectors, and is expanding skill training services to all age groups through the innovative idea of Community Skill Parks.

To address the skill gap of engineering students, ASAP launched Advanced Skill Development Centers in selected 19 engineering colleges across the state. The ASDCs are intended to provide a platform for students to acquaint with futuristic technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Block Chain Technology, Data Analytics etc. MoA’s were signed between ASAP and 19 Engineering colleges to set up ASDCs and to deliver Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning courses to the selected students in the initial phase.

The cermonies

The Honorable Minister for Higher Education, Shri K T Jaleel formally inaugurated the event and launched the program. He emphasized the role of skills in the job market and how ASAP is playing a crucial role by providing futuristic skill courses to the students.The Principal Secretary, Higher Education Department, Dr Usha Titus, IAS, presided over the function and she elucidated the efforts put forth by ASAP to bring the idea of futuristic skill courses to engineering students, into fruition.

The CEO of ASAP, Smt Reetha S Prabha, delivered the welcome speech. Smt Indira Devi, Director of Technical Education, spoke on the relevance on maintaining the quality of classes and extended their wholehearted support in this venture of ASAP.

Shri Saji Joseph, Head-ILP Corporate Functions,TCS, talked about how Artificial Intelligence is becoming common in our lives, and cited the example of TCS who employ AI for their HR applications, which is used by all employees. Dr. Benny Joseph and Dr Jiji C V, principals of engineering colleges, detailed on how the engineering students or graduates would benefit from this course.

Shri Arun P S, a student who joined this course thanked ASAP for making such courses affordable to all without compromising on the quality.

The vote of thanks was delivered by Shri Vigil Kumar V V, Head-IT and ASDC, ASAP. Other Heads from ASAP and faculties of various engineering colleges attended the event.