IIT-Kharagpur Receives Landmark $5 Million Donation for AI and Digital Engineering School
In a significant boost to technological education and research, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur has pledged a substantial donation of 5 million US dollars, equivalent to approximately 46 crore Indian rupees, to his alma mater. This commitment, spread over a five-year period, marks the highest individual donation the prestigious institution has received in recent years.
Vision for a Pioneering Educational Institution
The funds are designated to establish the Jyoti Chatterjee School of Digital Engineering, Applied Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning. This initiative aims to advance IIT-Kharagpur's capabilities in cutting-edge fields such as AI, digital technologies, and affordable healthcare innovation. The school will be uniquely integrated within the institute's clinical and hospital ecosystem, creating a first-of-its-kind model in India.
"It will be India's first fully integrated digital engineering and applied AI engine embedded inside a super-specialty hospital ecosystem, where algorithms meet patients, chips meet clinics and innovation meets society," stated IIT-Kharagpur Director Suman Chakraborty. He emphasized that the school will power responsible AI for India, converging diverse technologies into deployable national capabilities.
Alumnus Jyoti Chatterjee's Commitment and Background
The donor, Jyoti Chatterjee, is a mechanical engineering graduate from the 1977 batch who now resides in California. He formalized this commitment by signing a Memorandum of Understanding with IIT-Kharagpur on Monday. Chatterjee's connection to the institute runs deep, as he spent the first six months of his life on the campus while his father served as a faculty member in the metallurgical engineering department.
"I was born in Kolkata but I spent the first six months of my life on the IIT-Kgp campus. My father was a faculty member at the metallurgical engineering department. It gives me immense satisfaction to be back in IIT Kharagpur and foster this collaboration," Chatterjee expressed. His academic credentials include receiving the Henry M Chance Research Fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania and a National Science Foundation Fellowship from the U.S. government.
Strategic Integration and Broader Impact
The new school will be seamlessly integrated into IIT-Kharagpur's existing innovation infrastructure, including:
- The School of Medical Science and Technology
- The Centre for Research in Digital Healthcare Technology
- Dr. Shyama Prasad Mookerjee Super Speciality Hospital
- AI and high-performance computing clusters
- Institute-wide innovation and entrepreneurship platforms
Chatterjee outlined his vision: "Through this initiative, I aim to position IIT-Kharagpur as a world leader in digital engineering, AI, IoT-driven applied tech, and translational innovation. It will support my alma mater in building a school that will advance frontier research in AI and data science, foster affordable healthcare innovation, enable translational product development and deep-tech entrepreneurship."
Funding Structure and Operational Framework
Director Chakraborty detailed that the school will commence operations with an initial seed fund of $1 million, which was previously donated by Chatterjee in November 2025 for developing India's first indigenous low-field bedside MRI system. This will be bolstered by the structured five-year $5 million funding plan.
"Unlike other AI centres, this school unifies digital engineering, AI and ML, IoT, cyber-physical systems, robotics, edge intelligence and biomedical AI, enabling full-stack innovation," Chakraborty explained. The school's activities will include:
- Hosting industry laboratories
- Deploying AI and Internet of Things testbeds
- Running pilot-scale field validations
- Supporting translational maturation for real-world adoption across multiple sectors
The initiative is expected to drive innovation across critical domains such as healthcare, manufacturing, energy, and infrastructure, positioning IIT-Kharagpur at the forefront of technological advancement and societal impact.
