KPIT Technologies, the Pune-based global technology company specialising in product engineering and IT consulting, has announced its partnership with the Silicon Valley-based learning platform Udacity, for upskilling talent in autonomous vehicle engineering.

The company will also invest in training its employees on the Udacity Nanodegree programs, along with providing scholarships for Udacity self-driving car engineers. KPIT says the partnership aims to upskill and build the engineering talent ecosystem for autonomous technology, including self-driving cars and autonomous flight.

The technology company is a global partner for OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers and is helping them accelerate the implementation of next-generation vehicle technologies including autonomous driving. With the autonomous driving space witnessing a rapid growth with adoption of new technologies that demands new skills. Artificial lntelligence (AI), Machine Learning, Deep Learning and Big Data are some of the key skills being required.

KPIT and Udacity partnership will accelerate the scalability required in these areas by providing training and competency in AI, self- driving car engineering and data engineering. For KPIT employee training and upskilling has been a key focus area, for which it has also instituted programs like:
- Pace: to bridge industry academia gap in collaboration with universities; Genisis - to get employees project ready right after induction;
- HEI: a pioneering higher education initiative co-created and co-delivered with renowned universities;
- Ecodekaizen: to provide continuous incremental training to make every employee upskill every day.

The strategic partnership will see KPIT invest in upskilling employees with Udacity courses, which it says will result in industry recognised certification. The Pune-based company has also announced and launched a program for several hundred scholarships for self-driving car engineering Nanodegree program from Udacity.

Speaking on the announcement, Dr Sebastian Thrun, founder and executive chairman, Udacity, said: "Our mission is to make self-driving car engineering education accessible to all and make a world a safer place. Self-driving cars is a field of vastly growing opportunities, but with an alarming shortage of talent. Our Udacity India partnership with KPIT Technologies is in line with our commitment to create an entire ecosystem around autonomous vehicle technologies in India."

Kishor Patil , co-founder, CEO and MD, KPIT Technologies, said, "While autonomous systems and self-driving technologies are finding great reception in the US and Europe, their impact on the larger mobility landscape of evolving economies such as India could be even more significant. This association enables us to combine our deep domain knowledge of automotive industry with Udacity's world-class learning platform to enable our employees with an unparalleled upskilling opportunity. Such collaborations will bring benefits to industry as well students community to learn latest technologies. We are also pleased to announce a scholarship program for self-driving car engineering program from Udacity."

Udacity is a global lifelong learning platform that connects education to jobs and provides students with skills to advance careers. Udacity Nanodegree programs provide credentials earned through a series of online courses and projects in an array of subjects from self-driving car engineering and AI to data science and digital marketing.

The platform collaborates with more than 200 global employer-partners that includes AT&T, Google, Facebook, Mercedes-Benz and Nvidia to close talent gaps. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, the privately-funded company has operations in India, Brazil, China, Egypt, Germany and the United Arab Emirates. Its investors include Bertelsmann, Andreessen Horowitz, Charles River Ventures ond Drive Capital.

KPIT says the scholarship program is open to all applicants interested in joining the self driving car revolution. The company will select 500 shortlisted recipients to participate in the Term 1 of the self driving car engineer Nanodegree program. The candidates will spend 2 months to apply computer vision and deep learning to automotive problems. The students will be teaching the vehicle to detect lane lines, predict steering angles, and more, all based on just camera data. All students who complete Term 1 will be interviewed by KPIT for job openings worldwide, including Europe.

Also read: BMW Group partners KPIT and TTTech for autonomous driving platform