Cracking competitive exams is not the only way to get a foothold in a prestigious Indian engineering college. IIITH’s intern-to-MS/PhD pathway lays emphasis on proven research mettle, trust built over time (between mentor and intern) and academic alignment. November 21st 2025 is a date very close to Om Kathalkar’s heart. It was the day he successfully defended his thesis as an MS by Research student at the Signal Processing and SPCRC at IIITH. “Two international conference papers, two patents, two one-of-a-kind datasets, and two technologies have emerged from this thesis,” remarks Prof. Sachin Chaudhari, his advisor with heartfelt pride. Apart from Om’s valuable contributions to one of India’s most pressing challenges, that of scalable urban air quality monitoring, his work on the Pandora project – a multi-partner EU-funded research initiative – has earned him an on-site invite (to Greece) by Prof. K. Tserpes, Deputy Coordinator of the PANDORA project and key representative of the National Technical University of Athens.

IIITH is spearheading innovations that promise faster, more accurate, and non-intrusive solutions. Prof S Bapi Raju highlighted the institute’s advancements in automatic diagnosis of sleep stages, a critical step in diagnosing conditions such as insomnia, sleep apnea, and narcolepsy. Sleep plays a vital role in physical, cognitive, and emotional health. Poor sleep has been linked to cardiovascular diseases, metabolic diseases, and even mental health issues like anxiety and depression. Traditional diagnosis of sleep disorders involves labor-intensive processes like overnight polysomnography (PSG). AI, particularly deep learning (DL), is now offering a paradigm shift. Sleep is divided into NREM (N1, N2, N3) and REM stages, with disorders linked with disruptions in these stages. AI models such as Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) have demonstrated remarkable performance in classifying sleep stages using annotated datasets from polysomnography. This technology has resulted in an 8x increase in training efficiency.

In 2025, higher education shifted from expansion to impact, with institutions now judged on graduate readiness and research relevance. This structural reinvention was driven by AI’s integration, the erosion of the degree as the sole competence marker, and a global reality demanding adaptable, outcome-driven learning. Universities are now continuous talent-development platforms, prioritizing skills and lifelong learning for relevance. Prof. Sandeep K Shukla, Director of International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad, highlights how NEP-enabled credit sharing and online education—such as IIITH’s four-semester AI and Machine Learning minor—are enabling flexible learning across institutions. At the same time, there is renewed attention on human skills like communication, empathy, resilience, and ethical thinking, leading to a stronger integration of the humanities into technical education. However, several academic leaders also caution against adopting new technologies without careful evaluation.