The AI Centre at BITS Pilani Campus is a cutting-edge hub dedicated to advancing the integration of artificial intelligence in education through innovative research and development. It focuses on creating AI-powered teaching aids and instruments to assess the efficacy of instruction, including automated grading and feedback systems for student contributions, known as assessment automation. The centre employs AI to generate diverse yet equivalent question papers to uphold assessment integrity and uses AI models to evaluate and provide commentary on student dissertations. Supporting this initiative is the AI for Education Innovation Lab—a dedicated space for designing, testing, and evaluating AI applications tailored to educational contexts, fostering collaboration among researchers, educators, and students.

Advanced robotics research and development is centered at BITS Pilani's Centre for Robotics & Intelligent Systems (CRIS). CRIS seeks to develop robotic systems that can function in dynamic and complicated contexts by fusing enhanced sensing, intelligent control, and mechanical design. The center makes a substantial contribution to the development of robotics technology in India through interdisciplinary cooperation and a dedication to innovation.

Water resources are fast diminishing world wide and the quality of the available water has also deteriorated over time. There is a need to conserve this important natural resource through education, training, technology driven systems approach, etc. Israel and some other countries have done pioneering work in the area of desert development technologies. The Ben Gurion University in Israel has developed technologies for conservation of water in irrigation, particularly the drip irrigation systems. In India, some companies have taken know how from Israel for the production of drip irrigation systems.Further, rapid developments have taken place in integrated computer based sensors and associated wireless systems. By developing wireless sensor systems, a higher level of sensor technology is possible. Tissue culture and biotechnology have revolutionised the development of new variety of plants, etc. Thus there is a need to develop advanced technologies in this area for conservation of water, energy etc. and improve productivity.

Over the years, BITS has proven & proudly owns a legacy dating from the 1970s when most of the nation was unfamiliar with the terms “Entrepreneurship & Startups”. A strong alumni entrepreneur’s BITS family tree consisting of the largest alumni network available of serial entrepreneurs, investors, VCs & mentors, corporate professionals. The institute has highly experienced and trained faculty members and mentors in the area of entrepreneurship, research & Innovation, along with an ecosystem to promote innovation start-up culture.

BITS Pilani is proud to be a core part of the Indian startup ecosystem, with our alumni rising to great heights, building companies like Swiggy, BigBasket , and RedBus, to name a few. Often, such ideas or the fire are born in college hostels, and through the passion of the founders, they grow up to be such giants. BITSians swear by the spirit of entrepreneurship, and it is this spirit that we are trying to thrive by our never-ending sincere efforts.

BITS Pilani looks at inculcating innovation and entrepreneurship in the minds of people from the first year itself, it has a dedicated department called CIIE- BITS Pilani for each campus (Center of Incubation, Innovation and Entrepreneurship) from the beginning of 21st Century that holds a series of projects that promote innovation & entrepreneurial spirit around the campuses pushing people to identify and solve problems around them. Each campus has a state-of-the-art Technology Business incubator to help in creating, identifying, and enhancing budding entrepreneurs, pushing the potential startups with the necessary resources.

The institute also offers a specifically designed academic course drawn from years of experience for budding entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship enthusiasts called New Venture Creation (NVC), where students work on an idea and take it into implementation, getting hands-on experience and spending some time with the few innovators who have walked the path.

Each campus has a dedicated Student E-Cell where students engage freely in the leadership role of activities and events promoting entrepreneurship, not only restricted to the campus but nationwide. It provides them exposure to the current trends, engages with serial entrepreneurs, experts, leaders,s and learn to hone their skills in managing a thriving Ecosystem.

With all of these initiatives by the BITS Pilani administration and the student-run CEL, the entrepreneurial spirit in BITS is heading in the right direction, with over 25 startups hustling at different scales and domains, and many more are on the horizon. The growth in passion has walked hand in hand with the growth in results.

The Technology Business Incubator at BITS Pilani was set up in 2004, and formally inducted into a separate not-for-profit society called Pilani Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development (PIEDS), in 2012. Since its inception, the incubator has played a pivotal role in supporting 75 startups, and many more that did not graduate and folded up. 

The Incubator has been instrumental in defining and supporting an innovation, commercialization, and entrepreneurship ecosystem at the Pilani Campus. Directly or indirectly, the incubator has motivated and inspired many BITSians to take up entrepreneurship. As per an estimate, BITS students and alumni have formed more than 300 startups after the incubator was set up in 2004, which may be attributed to the incubator and the ecosystem created in BITS, with many of them creating economic value for investors, and leading to job creation.

To know more about the incubator and reach out to them, please visit  https://pieds-bitspilani.org/

Center for Technical Education (CTE) is a department headed by Prof Bharat Deshpande, HOD, CS/IS ( http://www.bits-pilani.ac.in/goa/bmd/profile ), for the purpose of imparting knowledge on application-oriented courses/topics.

• The idea is to build a sustainable system for passing knowledge from seniors to juniors. In the sense that juniors wanting to learn a new field may benefit more by learning the basics from their seniors quickly and building much more on top of that, rather than the DIY(Do It Yourself) approach from scratch.
• To expose students early on to the popular research areas in Engineering, to broaden their knowledge base, rather than simply sticking to the academic curriculum.
• We employ a mentorship model, with 3rd or 4th-year students teaching under the guidance of faculty members and 2nd-year students acting as mentors for the course. This helps us ensure sustainability.
• The courses are designed to be more practice-oriented oriented and some evaluation components are Hackathons and a coding assignment, or a term project in a few courses.
• Each course has a faculty mentor assigned, who oversees the quality of the course being taught.

The Centre for Excellence in Water Resources Management (CEWRM), Department of Civil Engineering, was initiated with the vision of becoming a centre for innovation in sustainable research, education, and training in water resources management and allied fields.

It was established as an initiative of the Department of Civil Engineering, BITS-PILANI, Hyderabad campus, in 2010.

Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) was envisaged by Prof. V. S. Rao, Director, BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus, with a vision to foster innovation-driven entrepreneurship, in alignment with BITS Pilani’s VISION 2020. 

Our vision is to “Be amongst the top 3 Technology & Science institutions in India by 2015 and amongst the top 25 Technology & Science institutions in Asia by 2020. One of the imperatives to achieve our vision is “Innovation & Entrepreneurship”. 

CIIE got an impetus in August 2013, when the dedicated physical infrastructure was created in the basement of the library. CIIE is a one-stop source that offers multiple services associated with entrepreneurship. 

BITS Pilani's Center for Research Excellence in Semiconductor Technologies (CREST) serves as a center for state-of-the-art semiconductor research, innovation, and cooperation. With its cutting-edge facilities, wide range of focus areas, and solid industry relationships, CREST is well-positioned to contribute significantly to the development of India's semiconductor capabilities and the education of the country's future workforce.

More details about CREST-> https://crest.bits-pilani.ac.in/