About Us
The National Council for Science & Technology Communication (NCSTC), under the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India, collaborates with the National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK) to conduct a children-centric outreach program titled “Creating Awareness in Artificial Intelligence.” This initiative introduces secondary school children in Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu to the fundamentals of AI through interactive sessions, real-world applications like object detection and sentiment analysis, and hands-on experiments. The program aims to make learning AI fun and engaging while preparing students for the future.
Our Vision
"Our vision is to create a future where young minds are empowered with the knowledge and skills to thrive in a technology-driven world. We aim to demystify Artificial Intelligence (AI) and make it accessible to students, fostering curiosity, creativity, and innovation in the field of AI."
Meet the Team
Dr. Anand Kumar M
Principal Investigator
Associate Professor, Department of Information Technology, National Institute of Technology, SCaLAR Lab
Dr. M. Anand Kumar’s research focuses on Natural Language Processing (NLP), Machine Translation for Indian languages, and Deep Learning for Text Analytics. He has published over 185 Scopus-indexed papers and received around 2200 citations on Google Scholar. He has led significant projects, including the "Computing Tools for Tamil Language Learning" funded by the Tamil Nadu government, the "Tamil-Malayalam Subtitle Translation System" for Sharp Software, and the "Q&A Extraction from Unstructured Documents" with EduMinster (U.S.). He is also a SERB-CRG awardee (2023-2026) for a project on "Deep Explainable Framework for Legal Text Retrieval and Summarization."
Email: m_anandkumar@nitk.edu.in
LinkedIn: Anand Kumar M
Dr. Bijuna C Mohan
Co-Principal Investigator
Associate Professor, School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Management, NITK
Received the ABP News National B –School Award 2012 for Best Professor Teaching Advertising Management. Areas of expertise include:
- Marketing Management
- Brand Management
- Consumer Behaviour
- Advertising and Sales Promotion
- Marketing Analytics
- Services Marketing
Email: bijuna@nitk.edu.in
LinkedIn: Bijuna C Mohan
Shreya G S
Project Assistant
Centre for System Design, NITK
A detail-oriented professional with expertise in project coordination, data analysis, and administrative support. Proficient in providing operational assistance, analyzing project data to inform decision-making, and maintaining accurate records. Experienced in supporting project teams to ensure timely and successful outcomes and attention to detail. Skilled in coordinating project-related activities and ensuring compliance with project management methodologies.
Email: shreyags200@gmail.com
LinkedIn: Shreya G S
Avanish S Velidi
Project Associate
MTech(Research), CSD, IT Department, NITK
An Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AIML) Engineer with a background in developing and implementing ML models. Experienced in building and deploying computer vision projects involving object detection, image classification, image segmentation, and real-time video analysis. Also skilled in web development, particularly in the Flask environment. Developer of AI awareness website.
Email: avanishsv@gmail.com
LinkedIn: Avanish S Velidi
Our Supporters
Centre for System Design (CSD)
The Centre for System Design (A Centre of Excellence at NITK Surathkal) envisages an interdisciplinary approach and means for realization of successful engineering systems. Key components include system modeling & simulation, understanding system dynamics, system optimization, virtual and physical experimentation. The Centre facilitates an environment for solving modern engineering problems that transcend traditional boundaries, ensuring integration to meet overall design objectives.
Department of Science & Technology (DST)
The Department of Science & Technology (DST) was established in May 1971 with the objective of promoting new areas of science and technology. As a nodal department of the Government of India, DST is responsible for organizing, coordinating, and promoting S&T activities across the country. NCSTS-DST has sponsored this project to ensure the dissemination of AI knowledge and the development of scientific temperament among students.
Contact Us
Email: ca.ai.kkt@gmail.com
LinkedIn: AI Awareness Program