Heritage Institute of Technology, Kolkata (HITK), has inaugurated a Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Artificial Intelligence in collaboration with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), marking the establishment of the first TCS Centre of Excellence in AI in Eastern India.

The inauguration coincided with TCS Technology Day, which featured a two-track hackathon that gave students the opportunity to work on industry-relevant problem statements from the outset.

Designed as a long-term strategic partnership, the CoE brings together TCS’s technological expertise and HITK’s academic excellence to build an innovation-driven ecosystem. It aims to nurture future-ready AI professionals through live industry projects, mentorship from TCS experts, faculty collaboration, and industry-relevant research and innovation.

Senior leaders from both institutions attended the inauguration. HITK was represented by Mr. Vikram Swarup, Vice-Chairman; Mr. Pradip Agarwal, CEO; Prof. Basab Chaudhuri, Principal; Prof. Souvik Bhattacharyya, Principal Advisor; and Dr. Subhajit Datta, Faculty Coordinator of the CoE.

TCS was represented by Dr. K.M. Suceendran, Head—Academic Alliances Group, TCS; Mr. Souvik Das, Regional Head—Academic Alliances Group, TCS Eastern India; and other members of the TCS leadership team.

What Changes for Students, Starting Now

The Centre is built around clearly defined milestones, not open-ended promises. A selected cohort of HITK students will receive joint AI training from TCS professionals and HITK faculty, culminating in a jointly awarded certification.

The collaboration will also include faculty development programmes, mentorship for HackHeritage teams, the co-supervision of final-year capstone projects aligned with industry needs, new elective courses designed by TCS, and a joint symposium on AI’s transformative role in engineering education.

Looking ahead, the CoE will anchor collaborative research in natural language processing (NLP), computer vision, and neuromorphic computing. It will also incubate AI-driven startups rooted in indigenous innovation and extend AI literacy and skill development to neighbouring communities—in step with the national vision of Digital India and Viksit Bharat 2047.

Quotes

“The future of AI will be shaped not only by technology, but by the quality of talent that builds and applies it. This Centre of Excellence represents an important step in bringing industry and academia closer together, enabling students and faculty to gain exposure to real-world applications, emerging technologies, and industry practices. We look forward to working with Heritage Institute of Technology to nurture future-ready talent and create meaningful outcomes for students, faculty, and the broader innovation ecosystem.”

— Dr. K.M. Suceendran, Head-Academic Alliances Group, TCS

“Our students have always demonstrated exceptional talent and curiosity. This partnership strengthens that foundation by providing sustained access to live industry projects, advanced research opportunities, and mentorship from leading TCS experts.”

— Mr. Vikram Swarup, Vice-Chairman, Heritage Institute of Technology

“For us, this Centre of Excellence isn’t a ceremony — it’s an operating model. We have built it around clear milestones, joint ownership and shared accountability, because that is how partnerships like this endure, rather than merely launch.”

— Mr. Pradip Agarwal, CEO, Heritage Group of Institutions

“A catalyst lowers the barrier, changes the pace, and lets a transformation happen that was always possible but never quite within reach. That is what this partnership is for our classrooms — not a replacement for what we teach, but the activation energy our students needed to turn knowledge into practice.”

— Prof. Basab Chaudhuri, Principal, Heritage Institute of Technology

“I have watched institutions rise and stall on the same question: do they build depth, or merely add activity? This Centre answers it — research, curriculum, faculty development and mentored practice are not separate initiatives here, but a single architecture. That is the difference between a programme and an institution.”

— Prof. Souvik Bhattacharyya, Principal Advisor, Heritage Group of Institutions

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