In 2015, Vineet Gupta and several prominent technology entrepreneurs came together with the idea of building an institution that would re-imagine science and technology education for India and the world. Their belief was that the current disciplines of engineering education and the way engineering is taught, are inadequate to prepare students for twenty first century challenges. With this vision, Plaksha University was set up as a greenfield institution and opened in 2021.
Plaksha University aims to make engineering education inter-disciplinary, make education experiential and hands-on and train students to solve some of the most pressing challenges faced by society. Plaksha is located in Mohali, Punjab right next to the Chandigarh International Airport. It has a fifty-acre campus which will be built over the next seven to eight years.
Plaksha University has attracted some of the best faculty from across India and the world and offers four distinctive undergraduate programs across artificial intelligence, economics and data science, bio-systems and cyber physical systems. Its flagship Mater’s program called the Technology Leaders Program aims to train students to lead organization and use technology to solve some of the toughest problems that our planet faces.
Global Partnerships & Collaborations
Plaksha University is one of India’s biggest collective philanthropic endeavors to establish a world-class technological institution. With a focus on sustainable farming, accessible healthcare, sustainable urban ecosystems and the water-food-energy hub, the higher education institute is dedicated towards practicing research and developing novel solutions to the social and community issues confronting our nation. From the first day of the four-year B.Tech degree, students begin this integrated, project-based journey, working on various projects along the way.
Plaksha University has collaborated with world’s leading universities on curriculum development, implementation, student and faculty exchange, and joint research. Among the esteemed institutions, Plaksha has partnered with UC Berkeley in 2019 when the agreement was signed by Vineet Gupta, Co-Founder & Trustee of Plaksha University and Dr. Ikhlaq Sidhu, Chief Scientist SCET, UC Berkeley. The collaboration aims towards cooperative research initiatives and academic programmes as well as faculty, student and post-doctoral exchanges, among other things.
Plaksha group has also signed MoU with SRI International in 2018. The partnership includes the establishment of cooperative Research and Development facilities to establish the link between applied science and innovations for the market. Plaksha University has teamed up with IISc Bangalore and the partnership involves faculty and student transfers, curriculum development, cooperative research, conferences, publications, and professional development for academics. Robotics and cyber-physical systems, sensor technology and digital health initiative are the initial areas of concentration in this collaboration. Additionally, they have formed alliances with IIT Kanpur and Purdue University for curriculum planning, exchange programs, and collaborative research.