Hyderabad: Kohli Centre on Intelligent Systems (KCIS) at International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad (IIITH) will be marking Sri F C Kohli’s birth anniversary on 19 March with a special program celebrating his life through research and innovation.
Faqir Chand Kohli is referred to as the “Father of the Indian IT Industry”, for his contributions to the establishment and growth of Indian Information Technology. He was the founder and CEO of TCS. The government of India honoured him with Padma Bhushan, India’s third-highest civilian honour. His contribution to the Indian IT Industry is highly significant.
This annual event, which is being launched this year, will include reminiscing on FC Kohli by S Ramadorai, former CEO and Vice Chairman, TCS, Prof Raj Reddy, from Carnegie Mellon University, as well as others from TATA and IIITH community.
The online event will also include an interactive session with Viswanathan Anand, Indian chess grandmaster and former world chess champion on AI In Chess: A World Champion’s Perspective; a distinguished lecture by Prof Devi Parikh, School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Tech, Facebook AI Research; live interactive research demos by IIITH students and multiple faculty-alumni advisee interactions.
Commenting on the established of an annual F C Kohli Day at IIITH, Prof P J Narayanan, Director, IIITH said, “The institute has worked closely with TCS since the early 2000s that led to the establishment of the Kohli Centre on Intelligent Systems (KCIS) in 2015 with an endowment from TCS. It is, without doubt, a rare and unparalleled honour to the institute to have an effort named for a colossus like Mr Kohli. KCIS has now developed into one the country’s largest AI research centres. Through the establishment of an annual F C Kohli Day we hope to celebrate his vision and carry his work forward”.
