Bengaluru : CHRIST (Deemed to be University) and IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the establishment of the IBM Innovation Center for Artificial Intelligence, aimed at advancing AI-driven education, research and innovation. The center will provide students, faculty members, researchers and PhD scholars with opportunities to develop and apply AI capabilities through access to enterprise technologies and real-world use cases.
The initiative will support learning and experimentation in areas including generative AI, agentic AI, large language models (LLMs), retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), intelligent automation and responsible AI. Participants will have access to IBM technologies to build enterprise AI applications through interdisciplinary research and solution development. These include watsonx.ai, an AI development studio; watsonx Orchestrate, an agentic control plane for scaling and governing AI; and IBM Bob, an AI development partner that supports the full software lifecycle.
Dr. Fr. Jose C C, Vice Chancellor, CHRIST (Deemed to be University) said, “Artificial Intelligence is redefining every sector of society. Through this collaboration with IBM, CHRIST University is creating a future-ready innovation ecosystem where education, research, and industry converge. The IBM Innovation Center for Artificial Intelligence will empower our students and researchers with enterprise-grade AI technologies, enabling them to build impactful solutions while contributing to the advancement of responsible and ethical AI.”
As part of the collaboration, IBM Expert Labs will conduct hands-on training and enablement programs for faculty members, PhD scholars and postgraduate students to help strengthen expertise in enterprise AI technologies and accelerate the development of AI-driven applications across disciplines. They will also have access to IBM SkillsBuild, IBM’s free technology education program, as part of their learning and certification journey.
“The future of AI innovation depends on strong collaboration between academia and industry. By fostering deeper industry-academia collaboration, we aim to strengthen India’s AI talent pipeline, accelerate research and innovation, and help prepare the workforce needed for an AI driven future,” said Siddhesh Naik, Executive Director, Growth Markets, Technology Sales, IBM India & South Asia. “This initiative will enable students, faculty, researchers and PhD scholars to gain hands on experience with enterprise AI technologies while applying them to real world challenges,” he added.
“The way software is built is being fundamentally reshaped by AI. Through this Innovation Center, students and researchers will work with IBM Bob to experience how AI can accelerate every stage of the software lifecycle. By bringing enterprise software development closer to academia, we hope to equip the next generation of innovators to build AI applications that are scalable, trusted and ready for real world adoption,” said Vishal Chahal, Vice President, IBM India Software Lab.
The center will also support collaborative research, industry engagement, internships, hackathons and innovation challenges, while providing a platform for students and researchers to experiment with emerging AI technologies and contribute to the development of future-ready AI solutions.