Alva's Engineering Institute Opens India's First IBM AI Lab in a College

Alva's Institute of Engineering and Technology (AIET) in Moodbidri launched an artificial intelligence lab on Wednesday, developed in partnership with IBM Software Labs. According to a release from AIET, this is the first IBM AI lab established in an engineering college in India.

The lab aims to strengthen industry-academia collaboration and provide students with access to enterprise-grade AI technologies. It is powered by IBM's watsonx.ai, watsonx Orchestrate, and AI-assisted developer tools, offering hands-on exposure to enterprise AI platforms and real-world applications.

IBM experts have begun a two-day training programme covering foundation models, prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), AI agents, workflow orchestration, and AI-assisted software development.

The lab is intended to serve as a centre of excellence for innovation, research, and skill development, giving students direct exposure to enterprise AI platforms and real-world applications.

Ratheesh Muraleedharan, IBM India programme director and leader of watsonx, said the initiative is IBM's first university-level AI programme in the country. "AI has democratised knowledge by making powerful tools accessible to everyone. The key differentiators will be curiosity, adaptability, and the ability to solve meaningful problems," he said.

M. Vivek Alva, Managing Trustee of Alva's Education Foundation, said AI should be viewed as a means to enhance human potential rather than replace it. "AI, when combined with human common sense, can create powerful solutions. Technological shifts have historically transformed the nature of jobs rather than eliminated them, and AI will be no different," he said.

AIET alumnus and AI specialist at IBM India Manoj B. Shetty, AIET Principal Peter Fernanadies, Computer Science Department Head Manjunath Kotari, and others were present at the launch.