IIT Kharagpur: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur has signed a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with its alumni and philanthropist Vinod Gupta and the IITKGP Foundation USA to establish the Benjamin Gupta School of Physical AI. The intent behind this is to promote artificial intelligence research, interdisciplinary education and the development of technologies that can interact with the physical world.
The school is projected as India’s first dedicated academic institution focused on Physical AI. This initiative depicts a shift from conventional artificial intelligence, which relies on data, digital application, to a system which can understand, predict and control real-world environments.
Funding Details
As per the report, the proposed school involves a total investment of Rs 35 crore. The Vinod Gupta family will contribute Rs 12.5 crore, along with one alumni who wishes to remain anonymous will contribute Rs 10 crore. The remaining amount will be provided by IIT Kharagpur.
The institution will be named the Benjamin Gupta School of Physical AI in memory of Vinod Gupta’s late son. The funding will support infrastructure for the Department of Artificial Intelligence and associated interdisciplinary academic and research activities.
The school will focus on integrating artificial intelligence with physics, engineering, biological systems and specialised scientific knowledge. Its research areas will include Physics-informed machine learning, scientific AI, digital twins, intelligent robotics, autonomous systems,advanced sensing, computational engineering and AI-enabled experimentation.
Prof. Suman Chakraborty, Director, IIT Kharagpur, said, “Artificial intelligence has transformed the way we process information. Its next great leap will be in transforming the way we understand, engineer and interact with the physical world. IIT Kharagpur aspires to lead this transition in India through the Benjamin Gupta School of Physical AI.”
He also added, “Our vision is to move beyond treating AI as a black-box solution. An engineer must understand the physics behind an intelligent machine; a scientist must connect AI predictions with fundamental scientific principles; and a medical professional must combine algorithmic intelligence with biological and clinical understanding. The future belongs not simply to those who can use AI, but to those who can integrate AI with deep domain knowledge to create technologies that are reliable, explainable and impactful.”